Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Destination Outer Space

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students investigate space travel. In this space travel lesson students examine space exploration history, engineers and scientists involved in space exploration, and Newton's third law of motion. Students make rockets.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Space Travel

For Teachers 7th - 9th
Students study the International Space Station and space exploration.  In this space travel lesson plan students describe the different types of engineers that contribute to space travel.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Food for Spaceflight

For Teachers 3rd - 6th Standards
When astronauts get hungry in outer space, they can't just call and have a pizza delivered. In order to gain an appreciation for the challenges associated with space travel, young learners are given the task of selecting,...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Lost in Space

For Teachers 9th - Higher Ed
Here is a case study for high school or college-level learners about space exploration equipment that has failed. The class reads about the Mars Climate Orbiter that was destroyed in 1999 and discusses the costs and benefits of space...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Escape Velocity

For Teachers 6th
Sixth graders create/use spreadsheets to solve real-world problems, explore patterns, make predictions, select/explain most appropriate types of graph to display data, use information to create product, and have basic understanding of...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Get a Leg Up

For Teachers 3rd - 6th Standards
Traveling through space is an amazing experience, but it definitely takes a toll on the body. After reading an article and watching a brief video, learners perform an experiment that simulates the effects of zero gravity on the...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Moon Mining

For Teachers 3rd - 6th Standards
Go on a moon mining expedition from the safety of your classroom with this space exploration simulation. Using simple models of the moon's surface prepared ahead of time by the teacher, young scientists are challenged with locating and...
Lesson Plan
Space Awareness

How To Travel On Earth Without Getting Lost

For Teachers 3rd - 7th Standards
Have you ever wanted to travel the world? Take a virtual trip with a geography lesson that uses longitude and latitude, the position of the sun, an astronomy app, and a classroom globe.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Algebra: Mirror, Mirror on the Universe

For Teachers 6th - 9th
Students assess how algebra, telescopes, space exploration and optics are so important in astronomy. They encounter studies on the Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Deep Field and how algebra helps to determine the effects of contamination...
Lesson Plan
PHET

Radiation Hazards in Space

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Young scientists race from Earth to Mars and back, trying to complete mission objectives while avoiding radiation in this game for 2-4 players. To identify the winner, players must graph their mission points and radiation points at the...
Lesson Plan
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1
Teach Engineering

Manned Mission to Mars

For Teachers 6th - 8th
To go or to not to go — the question for a mission to Mars. This resource provides details for a possible manned mission to Mars. Details include a launch schedule, what life would be like on the surface, and how the astronauts would...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Space Shuttle's Heat Shield Problem

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students participate in a role-play activity to determine how to replace heat shields on the space shuttle using polar coordinates.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Our Solar System - Comparing Planetary Travel Distances

For Teachers 7th - 8th
NASA presents a mini-unit on distances in our solar system. It incorporates scientific concepts of gravity, mass, density, and payload while your aspiring astronauts also employ mathematics skills. They calculate speed, they determine...
Lesson Plan
NASA

Let's Investigate Mars

For Teachers 3rd - 7th Standards
Take your science class on a hypothetical field trip to Mars with an engaging astronomy lesson. After first learning about NASA's Mars rover missions, young scientists plan their own scientific investigations of Earth's...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Get the Picture!

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Astronomers practice downloading data from a high-energy satellite and translate the data into colored or shaded pixels. As a hands-on activity, they use pennies to simulate high-energy satellite data and they convert their penny...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

"Space" Exploration

For Teachers 4th
Fourth graders identify the attribute of volume of an object. Units of measurement are reviewed and utilized in this lesson.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Space: Your Future Frontier?

For Teachers 5th - 6th
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.
Lesson Plan
1
1
Teach Engineering

Six Minutes of Terror

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
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...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Motion, Force, and Gravity

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Young scholars write a research paper about human space travel. In this space travel instructional activity, students watch a video and research issues related to space travel. They use their research to write a paper about whether human...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

3,2,1.....Spinoff

For Teachers 3rd - 6th
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.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

BASE-ic Space Travel

For Teachers 4th - 5th
For this 3-day place-value lesson, upper-elementary kids investigate the base 5 and base 2 systems as an introduction to exponents and powers. They create a pocket chart to help ground their understanding of bases, exponents, and powers,...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Rocketry

For Teachers 6th - 8th
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...
Lesson Plan
NASA

Next Generation Spacecraft - Orion

For Teachers 8th - 12th
Emergine space engineers discover the area of complex geometric shapes. They find that, just as a spacecraft is composed of many smaller parts, so can polygons be broken into smaller shapes.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Worksheet 19: Ship Positions

For Teachers 11th - 12th
In this math worksheet, students read informational paragraphs and then answer 18 questions using data from their readings. Questions are about vectors, positions, distance and orbits.