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Lesson Plan
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Chicago Botanic Garden

Recent Weather Patterns

For Teachers 7th - 9th Standards
Decide whether weather is changing! A two-part activity first challenges classes to review the differences between weather and climate. Once finished, individuals then analyze historical data to determine if climate change is happening...
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Lesson Plan
NASA

Exploration of a Problem: Making Sense of the Elements

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
When given too much data to simply memorize, it helps to sort it into manageable groups. The second lesson in the six-part series of Cosmic Chemistry challenges groups of pupils to take a large amount of data and figure out how to best...
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Website
American Museum of Natural History

Beyond Planet Earth

For Students 6th - 12th
Scholars take a journey through space with 16 eye-catching images. Along the way, learners read captions starting with the moon, then move onto asteroids, Mars, and Jupiter.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Return to the Moon

For Teachers 2nd - 6th
Students react to statements about space exploration, then read a news article about plans to resume manned flights to the moon. In this space science and current events lesson, the teacher introduces the article with a discussion and...
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Lesson Plan
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PBS

Robo Arm

For Teachers 4th - 8th
Future engineers create robotic arms like those on rovers built by NASA in the second lesson of the series. They test their devices by attempting to pick up and move cups to a specified location.
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Lesson Plan
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BioEd Online

Arm Model

For Teachers 5th - 8th Standards
Arm your young scientists with knowledge about anatomy as they build their own model of the elbow joint. Help them get a firm grasp on how muscles and bones interact to allow movement as they try different positions for the muscles on...
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Lesson Plan
Florida International University

Simulating Microgravity with Buoyancy

For Teachers 6th - 8th
How do astronauts know how to live and work in a weightless environment? It doesn't come naturally! Junior physicists conduct experiments to examine the link between buoyancy and microgravity. Each activity illustrates a different aspect...
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Lesson Plan
Voyage Solar System

Round and Round We Go — Exploring Orbits in the Solar System

For Teachers 5th - 8th Standards
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...
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Lesson Plan
Journey Through the Universe

A Scale Model Solar System

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Between the time scientists discovered Pluto and reclassified it as a dwarf planet, it did not even make one full revolution around the sun. In two activities, scholars investigate scale models and their properties. Pupils find that it...
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Activity
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Teach Engineering

Android App Development

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Building an accelerometer app for your Android device. Groups develop an app that uses the accelerometer on an Android device. The purpose of the activity is to reinforce the programming design. The post activity assessment challenges...
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Interactive
CK-12 Foundation

Journey to Mars

For Students 9th - 12th Standards
Why are there launch windows when traveling to outer space? Scholars explore the trajectory of traveling from one planet to another. By adjusting the departure and destination planets, as well as the launch date, they observe the ideal...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

To Go Where No Student Has Gone Before

For Teachers 8th
Eighth graders participate in interactive video teleconference with employees of NASA Johnson Space Center. Students visit inside of space station module, take video tour of Russian-built Service Module by Astronaut Bill Shepherd, visit...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Lesson: Space Exploration

For Teachers 4th - 8th
Students explore space. In this current events activity, students visit selected websites to learn about NASA, Mars, the Seti Institute, and space exploration terminology. Students make space glossaries and their own telescopes.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Light Sport Aircraft Design Challenge

For Teachers 7th - 10th
Students investigate aircraft design to learn many concepts of physics. In this aircraft design lesson plan, students use balsa wood and styrofoam to build an aircraft based on their study of wing designs, aviation, and through the use...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Water Planet

For Teachers K - 4th
Students use NASA photographs and hands-on activities to compare the amounts of land and water on our planet. They discover that the world has five oceans and that they cover seventy percent of Earth's surface. Students learn how this...
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Worksheet
Curated OER

Solar Dynamics Observatory: Working with Giga, Tera, Peta and Exabytes

For Students 9th - 12th
In this solar observatory worksheet, students read about the solar observation data that NASA will be collecting. Students solve 6 problems related to the collection of data using computers to store the solar data using gigabytes,...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Rover Races

For Teachers 7th - 9th
Learners identify the challenges encountered by astronauts in operating a planetary rover. In this space science lesson, students create a rover using their team members. They follow a command sequence from the driver and navigate...
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Lesson Plan
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NASA

Touchdown

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Individuals design and build a set of shock absorbers to protect their astronauts when they land. Using a limited amount of supplies, pupils build a system that will keep two large marshmallows from flying out of a cup when it lands...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Where We've Been and Where We're Going

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Learners travel with Christa McAuliffe through space demonstrations. In this space instructional activity, students follow through the past to the present air travel. Learners understand the benefits and problems associated with zero...
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Worksheet
Curated OER

Coronal Mass Ejections

For Students 9th - 12th
In this coronal mass ejections worksheet, students observe a time line of events that took place during a solar storm. Students use the time line to answer 3 questions about the solar storm and the time it took to reach Earth. Students...
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Worksheet
Curated OER

Stellar Temperature, Size and Power

For Students 11th - Higher Ed
In this stellar temperature of stars activity, students use a given formula that relates the stellar light output with the surface area and temperature of a star to solve 3 problems. Students find luminosities of different stars and they...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Navigation and Trajectory

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Middle schoolers prepare a creative demonstration of how Earth and Mars revolve around the Sun. In this astronomy lesson plan, students determine the different challenges engineers face when building spacecrafts. They draw possible paths...
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Lesson Plan
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Chicago Botanic Garden

Seasons of a Plant

For Teachers 7th - 9th Standards
The third in a series of six lessons is an engaging three-part activity defines that discusses phenology, focusing on the cyclic seasons of plants. Pupils then observe phenology outside before determining how climate change can...
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Lesson Plan
NASA

The Search for Critical Questions

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
A puzzle isn't about the individual pieces, but how they work together. Scholars assemble a puzzle and discover missing pieces. They write a description of what they expect these pieces to look like, including as many details as...