New Instructional Video and Education Materials Available at NASA.gov
The Educational Materials section of NASA’s Web site offers classroom activities, educator guides, posters and other types of resources that are available for use in the classroom. Materials are listed by type, grade level and subject. The following items are now available for downloading.
Lunar Nautics Instructional Video Available Online
On Oct. 27, 2008, education curriculum specialist Paula Rodney presented a 30-minute instructional webcast highlighting many of the activities included in the Lunar Nautics Education Guide. This webcast has been archived and is now available on demand.
To view the webcast and to download the Lunar Nautics Education Guide, visit http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/topnav/materials/listbytype/Lunar_Nautics_Designing_a_Mission.html .
The Lunar Nautics Educator Guide has 40 activities geared toward students in grades 6-8 and in informal settings. Students assume roles of workers at Lunar Nautics Space Systems, Inc., a fictional aerospace company specializing in mission management, lunar habitat construction, exploration design, and scientific research. This guide features lessons that address the basics of Newton’s Laws of Motion, rocket design, microgravity and the moon. Students will design, test and analyze a model lunar lander, a robotic model and a soda bottle rocket. Other activities include building edible models of spacecraft and creating a solar oven to cook hot dogs. Students can also build a microgravity sled as part of an underwater activity.
The Lunar Nautics CD now has enhanced accessibility features designed with visually and hearing-impaired students in mind.
Follow the above link to download the free educator and student guides and/or to order a copy of the CD from the Central Operation of Resources for Educators, or CORE.
The Hubble Ultra Deep Field Lithograph — Grades 10-12
At the end of their lives, low-mass stars expand in size and become red giants. Then they shed their outer layers and become planetary nebulae. The Hubble Ultra Deep Field, an image that contains as many as 10,000 galaxies of all shapes, sizes, colors and ages, is on the first page of the lithograph. Background information about the HUDF is on the second page. The lithograph includes a Level One Inquiry activity entitled “In Search of … Galaxy Evolution,” in which students analyze galaxies from different eras to determine how they have evolved and changed over time. http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/topnav/materials/listbytype/Hubble_Ultra_Deep_Field_Lithograph.html
GLAST Exploring the Extreme Universe Lithograph — Grades 8-12
The Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope, or GLAST, is now called the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. The telescope will study known sources of gamma rays in detail but will also discover thousands of new gamma-ray sources in its five-year mission. This lithograph gives the mission’s details and discusses the instruments on board the spacecraft. A pulsar activity calls for students to build a small model to demonstrate how pulsars create the pulses that can be seen.
http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/topnav/materials/listbytype/GLAST_Lithograph.html
Discovery Education “NASA at 50” Series — Grades 6-12
“NASA at 50” highlights key innovations and milestones in the sciences and in space exploration from NASA’s 50-year history. Each clip serves as a gateway for further learning in science and history; each promotes critical thinking and inquiry as essential components of scientific literacy.
Students can enjoy “NASA at 50” in video or audio formats. In addition, teachers guides are provided for each clip to facilitate integration of this content into lesson plans. Downloadable versions of the videos are captioned.
NASA’s African-American Astronauts Fact Sheet — All Grades
NASA selects astronauts from a diverse pool of applicants with a wide variety of backgrounds. From the thousands of applications received, only a few are chosen for the intensive Astronaut Candidate training program. Only 321 astronauts have been selected to date. This fact sheet lists those astronauts of African descent.
Particle Detection Activity — Informal Education
Recruit four to 30 participants to play Particle Detection. They will “launch particles from space” to demonstrate how the Interstellar Boundary Explorer spacecraft works. The IBEX mission is the first NASA spacecraft to image and map the dynamic interactions taking place where the hot solar wind slams into the cold expanse of space.
http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/topnav/materials/listbytype/IBEX_Particle_Detection.html
Using Scrapbooks in Science Educator Guide — Grades 3-12
Employ students’ creativity and artistic talents to build on their knowledge of science and scientific concepts. The guide includes teaching tips and examples of assignment sheets, grading strategies, students’ scrapbook pages and ideas to involve parents.
http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/topnav/materials/listbytype/Scrapbooks_In_Science.html
