Curated OER
Space: Your Future Frontier?
Students explore careers in space and experience how math and science concepts are applied in the space program through an interactive video and cooperative group activities.
Teach Engineering
Six Minutes of Terror
Help your class understand the design challenges when trying to land a remote spacecraft on a planet. Class members examine the provided information to understand how each component of a spacecraft is designed in order to safely land a...
Curated OER
Motion, Force, and Gravity
Students write a research paper about human space travel. For this space travel lesson, students watch a video and research issues related to space travel. They use their research to write a paper about whether human space travel should...
Curated OER
3,2,1.....Spinoff
Students investigate spinoffs of space exploration. In this space exploration lesson, students conduct research regarding technological advancements. Students use the information gained to write a script and produce a podcast.
Curated OER
Rocketry
Students design and construct a paper rocket that can be launched with a drinking straw. They participate in a lecture and read an article about rocketry and how Newton's Third Law applies to rocket launches. Each student constructs...
NASA
Resolving 2-Plane Traffic Conflicts by Changing Speed—Problem Set E
What do you do to change arrival times of airplanes when a different route is not available? The fifth interactive in a series of six presents problems where pupils must find solutions to conflicts of safety rules. They must decide how...
Teach Engineering
Red Rover Robotics
Help your class understand the importance of exploration using robots. with a resource that provides a short history of robotics as a lead into looking at Martian robotic exploration missions. The activity specifically looks at the...
NASA
Spacewalking
Hold your breath. The video and interactive website introduce the class to spacewalking and spacesuits. Using oxygen data from two astronauts, individuals determine a mathematical model to fit the data. Using that mathematical model, the...
Teach Engineering
Alloy the Way to Mars
Future engineers test different alloys to determine the specific strength of each one. Based on the results, they make a recommendation to NASA on which alloy to use on engines for spacecraft.
Curated OER
Working With Scientific Notation
In this scientific notation worksheet, learners read about the discovery of new planets. They use scientific notation to identify the number of miles from one planet to the next. Students determine how long it would take to travel, when...
Curated OER
Making Regolith
You may not be able to take a field trip to the moon, but that doesn't mean your class can't study moon rocks. Using graham crackers as the moon's bedrock and powdered donuts as micrometeorites, young scientists simulate the creation of...
Curated OER
Fermi Observatory Measures the Lumps in Space
In this gamma-ray instructional activity, students read about the Fermi Gamma-ray Observatory and how it measures the invisible lumps in space. Students solve 3 problems using an equation to determine the time that gamma-rays travel in...
Curated OER
Light Travel Times
In this travel time of light worksheet, students read about the NASA satellites and space probes that transmit radio signals at the speed of light across huge distances. Students solve 3 problems about data transmission from space to...
Teach Engineering
The Amazing Red Planet
Introduce your class to Mars with a resource that provides information about its size, location, length of day, length of year, number of moons, and average temperature. Also includes is information about the lans for past and future...
Alabama Learning Exchange
Men and Women of Space Exploration
Fourth graders research famous astronauts. In this space science instructional activity, 4th graders list famous astronauts and use reference materials and the Internet to write a report on them.
NASA
Communications and the Lunar Outpost
Can you hear me now? Groups use given information about communication on the moon to determine the maximum distance an astronaut can travel and stay in communication. Using the calculations, they determine what lunar features they can...
NASA
Weightless Wonder
A video of the weightless wonder provides a setting for the math to follow. Groups analyze the graph of a quadratic function that models the path of the C-9 as it gives astronauts the experience of weightlessness. Using a graphing...
Teach Engineering
Edible Rovers (High School)
Design and build a rover ... then eat it? This activity has groups of two design and build Mars rovers. The teams determine what instruments they want to include with their rover and plan a budget. They calculate the cost of the body of...
Curated OER
Solar System Search
Students research topics related to space and the planets using the Internet. They explore various websites, construct scale models of the solar system, and create a travel brochure using HyperStudio computer software.
Curated OER
XZ Tauri and The Super CME!
In this XZ Tauri and coronal mass ejections activity, students use 3 photographs taken by the Hubble Space Telescope to solve 4 problems. They find the scale of the images, they determine the number of kilometers the XZ Tauri cloud...
Curated OER
Deep Impact-Comet Flyby
In this comet and angles worksheet, students read about the Deep Impact spacecraft that flew by the comet Tempel-1. They use a given formula to find the angular diameter of the comet and solve 4 problems using the equation.
NASA
Rendezvous For Two
Imagine the challenge of getting the space shuttle to rendezvous with the International Space Station. Groups must determine the elliptical transfer orbit needed to get the space shuttle from its orbit to the orbit of the International...
Voyage Solar System
Round and Round We Go — Exploring Orbits in the Solar System
Math and science come together in this cross-curricular astronomy lesson plan on planetary motion. Starting off with a hands-on activity that engages the class in exploring the geometry of circles and ellipses, this lesson plan then...
Curated OER
Action-Reaction! Rocket
Young scholars construct a rocket from a balloon propelled along a guide string. They use this model to learn about Newton's three laws of motion, examining the effect of different forces on the motion of the rocket. They measure the...