NASA Educational Materials Available for Download
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. Calculator-Controlled Robots: Hands-on Mathematics and Science Discovery Educator Guide — Grades 6-9
This guide provides activities for using calculator-controlled robots over the course of one semester. Students create programs in TI-BASIC to run Norland Research calculator robots. Missions are built sequentially on the knowledge of previous activities. The first missions have step-by-step programming instructions that gradually lead students to create their own programs in later missions. Students use and apply math and science concepts to direct their robots through a variety of challenges.
Additional Video Learning Clips Added
The educational video clips listed below have been added to the Videos section of the NASA Educational Materials site. Click on the link below each list of video clips to access the videos online.
Designed for students in grades 5-8, these video clips from the NASA CONNECT(TM): Functions and Statistics: Dressed for Space DVD show viewers how NASA engineers and researchers build on past spacesuit technologies and use functions and statistics to create the next generation of spacesuits for the International Space Station and beyond.
Titles in this series:
- — What Is Atmospheric Pressure?
- — The Construction and Design Elements of Spacesuit Technology.
- — The Importance of Spacesuit Fitting and Sizing: One Size Does Not Fit All.
- — Hands-on Activity in Spacesuit Design.
Targeting students in grades 5-8, these video clips from the NASA CONNECT(TM):
Geometry and Algebra: The Future Flight Equation DVD show students how NASA engineers develop experimental aircraft. Viewers learn about the Hyper-X Research Vehicle, an experimental plane that uses scramjet engine technology to propel itself to 10 times the speed of sound. Students will understand how the Hyper-X is part of the Future Flight Equation and observe NASA engineers using geometry and algebra when they measure and design models to be tested in wind tunnels.
Titles in this series:
- — NASA’s Experimental Plane: What It Is and What It Does.
- — The Process Involved in Aircraft Design.
- — Hands-on Aircraft Design Activity.
- — Preparing for Flight: Testing the Hyper-X.
- — NASA’s Plane Math Online Activity.
http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/topnav/materials/listbytype/NASAs_Experimental_Plane.html
The video clips in the Liftoff to Learning: Microgravity DVD series are designed for students in grades 5-12. These clips focus on four scientific disciplines in microgravity studies: fluid physics, materials science, biotechnology and combustion. Experiments within these disciplines explore how the effects of buoyancy-driven convection and sedimentation, seen in ground-based laboratories, are diminished in space, allowing scientists to expand their knowledge in these areas. “Microgravity” describes the restrictions that gravity imposes on scientific experimentation and how they can be greatly reduced in the exciting research environment of the space shuttle and later on in the International Space Station.
Titles in this series:
- — The Constant Pull of Gravity: How Does It Work?
- — What Is Microgravity?
- — Simulating the Low-Gravity Conditions of Space in the Lab.
- — The Role of Microgravity in Scientific Research.
- — Fluid Physics Experiments in Space.
- — Biotechnology Experiments in Space.
- — Materials Science Experiments in Space.
- — Combustion Experiments in Space.
Designed for students in grades 5-12, these video clips from the Liftoff to Learning: Mathematics of Space — Rendezvous DVD address the basic mathematical operations of spacecraft rendezvous in Earth orbit. Middle school mathematics students solve problems that occur when the space shuttle docks with the Russian space station MIR.
Titles in this series:
- — Importance of Mathematics in Space Exploration: Calculating a Rendezvous.
- — Calculating Time in Space: Mir’s Rendezvous Over Moscow.
- — Setting Up the Mir Rendezvous Positioning Problem.
- — Solution to the Mir Rendezvous Positioning Problem.
- — How an Increase in Velocity Can Change the Altitude of an Object in Space.
- — Determining the Velocity Increase Needed for a Successful Rendezvous in Space.
Targeting students in grades 5-12, these video clips from the Underground Railroad: Connections to Freedom and Science DVD raise student awareness of the Underground Railroad and the role celestial navigation played in the Railroad’s success. The series also highlights the importance of modern Global Information System technology in reconstructing historical topographies and finding the exact route of the Railroad. By combining amazing historical facts-such as the use of mathematics for communication with handmade quilts, remote-sensing technology, Earth system science and astronomy, the series presents an educational experience that is dynamic, moving and broadly cross-curricular.
Titles in this series:
- — Follow the Drinking Gourd: Using the Science of Astronomy in History.
- — The Importance of Waterways in the Success of the Underground Railroad.
- — Slaves and the Use of Horticulture Along the Underground Railroad.
- — The Science Behind the Maps of the Underground Railroad.
- — Navigating to Freedom With the North Star.
- — Exploring and Preserving the Underground Railroad With Modern Technology.
- — Archeological Research and the Underground Railroad Today.
http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/topnav/materials/listbytype/Follow_the_Drinking_Gourd.html
