Curated OER
Sun's Impact On Earth's Temperature
Students view NASA images and movies of Venus, Earth, and Mars to deduce weather patterns and manipulate computer models to test competing hypotheses. They manipulate computer models to investigate the influence of solar distance and...
Curated OER
Learning Planet Sizes
Pupils utilize the concepts of greater than, less than, and equal to, in order to classify student height, object size, and planet size. They build scale models of the planets based on their discoveries of planet size.
Curated OER
The Nine Planets
Sixth graders examine and investigate the solar system. They participate in a Webquest, and create a Powerpoint presentation that is meant to be a research guide to help alien visitors find a suitable habitat in the solar system.
Curated OER
Earth to Saturn, Earth to Saturn!
Students compare and contrast the characteristics of Earth and Saturn. They practice writing analogies using those characteristics. They complete a worksheet to end the lesson.
Curated OER
Earth's Changing Atmosphere
Students examine the constant changing of the Earth's atmosphere. After labeling the layers of the Earth, they identify various processes inside the Earth that can cause gases to be emitted. Using the internet, they research how the...
Curated OER
Our Special Planet Earth
Students explore what is special about our planet. They explore the various climates that are found on the planet Earth. Students create an advertisement to convince people why their favorite environment would be the best place to visit.
Curated OER
Plan a Mission to Recently Discovered Planet
Young scholars plan a mission to a recently discovered planet. In this science lesson plan, students research spacecraft design, distances in space, long-term missions in space, and life-sustaining planets. Young scholars work in groups...
Curated OER
Planet Interiors
Students view cut-away images of the planets' interiors, comparing and contrasting them with the Earth's in written form. Students also classify each planet as "terrestrial" or "Jovian". The Planet Interiors applet on the CSA website...
Curated OER
Crashed on the Moon
Students compare and contrast the environments of the moon and the earth. They discover how the differences might change one's daily activities.
Curated OER
Redesign the Rover: Mars Research Year-Round
Students discuss the solar system, the planets, periods of orbit and revolution. In this space instructional activity students discuss the importance of the study of Mars and brainstorm ideas on how NASA might solve its Rover...
Curated OER
Extraterrestrials Visit Earth
Students compare the unique characteristics of Earth to other planets and then write descriptions of Earth that might attract fictional extraterrestrials to visit the planet. They design an appealing travel brochure that incorporates the...
University of Colorado
Phases of Charon
Pluto, although no longer considered a planet, has five moons. Pluto's moon, Charon, is the focus of a resource that describes how the moon is viewed from the surface of Pluto. Photos help individuals see how Charon would look at...
University of Colorado
The Moons of Jupiter
Can you name the three planets with rings in our solar system? Everyone knows Saturn, many know Uranus, but most people are surprised to learn that Jupiter also has a ring. The third in a series of six teaches pupils what is around...
University of Colorado
The Moons of Jupiter
Middle schoolers analyze given data on density and diameter of objects in space by graphing the data and then discussing their findings. This ninth installment of a 22-part series emphasizes the Galilean moons as compared to other...
Space Awareness
Making A Sundial
Can people really measure time just by using the sun? Scholars venture outside on a nice, sunny day to build sundials and learn how people measured time 600 years ago. The class builds two different sundials while gaining practice with...
Curated OER
The Path to Mars
Students compare the similarities between both Earth and Mars. In this space lesson students use the Internet for research and to obtain geographical pictures of both planets. Students then analyze the pictures of both planets and...
Curated OER
Travelogue of a Planet
Students randomly select a planet, including Earth. They research key features of the planet including mass, volume, density, gravity, temperature, weather, geology, atmosphere, surface features, location from sun, Earth and other...
Curated OER
Planet Structure & Interior
Students compare Jupiter and Earth. In this Earth and space studies lesson, students compare the composition of Earth and Jupiter and analyze how the composition affects the rate at which the planets spin.
Curated OER
Modeling the Solar System
Students build a scaled model of the solar system. For this space science lesson, students arrange them according to their distances from the sun. They analyze each planet's unique features such as density and relative gravity.
NASA
Dark Matter NASA Conference
Young scholars calculate the escape velocity of planets in our solar system and use that knowledge to calculate the escape velocity for NGC 2300 group. They then suggest reasons for the escape velocity to be higher than possible given...
Curated OER
Planet Earth: Almost 6 Billion Served
Students investigate the global population explosion, by comparing India's and China's population control efforts and results. They interpret the UN's Human Development Report, and conduct research on another highly-populated country.
Curated OER
Two Views of the Universe
Students build the two models of the universe created by Aristotle and Copernicus. They compare and contrast the two universes. They create hypothesis on how each model functions.
Curated OER
And a Star to Steer Her By: A Field Trip Guide for the Planetarium Show
In this field trip study guide for the planetarium show lesson, students construct a model of the Earth and describe the relative positions of the continents using latitude and longitude. Students construct a star chart to find...
Curated OER
How Does Flowing Water Shape a Planet's Surface?
Students investigate how flowing water influence landforms. In this earth science lesson, students observe water behavior as it flows from the stream table at various inclinations. They discuss whether water shaped Mars landforms or not.