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Website
Ducksters

Ducksters: The Cold War for Kids: Space Race

For Students 1st - 9th
Kids learn the history of the Space Race during the Cold War. A race between the United States and the Soviet Union to put a man on the Moon.
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Handout
NASA

Nasa: Tests Versus Time in the Race for Space

For Students 9th - 10th
This NASA site offers a good description of the ongoing space race during the Kennedy administration, discussing the "nip and tuck" of the Soviet-U.S. race. Also includes a description of Kennedy's new special assistant for science and...
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Handout
Khan Academy

Khan Academy: The Start of the Space Race

For Students 9th - 10th
Looks at the USSR's launch of Sputnik and the galvanizing effect it had on America's motivation to fund aerospace research. NASA was soon formed and more funding was put in place for public education in the sciences and math.
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Article
Khan Academy

Khan Academy: Us History: 1945 1980: The Start of the Space Race

For Students 9th - 10th
Learn about the launch of Sputnik and the establishment of NASA.
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Article
Library of Congress

Loc: America's Story: Johnson's Task, Unify Space Program

For Students 3rd - 8th
Russia was ahead in the "space race" in 1961. In this article, the Library of Congress discusses how President Kennedy assigned Lyndon Johnson the task of uniting the different parts of the U.S. space program into NASA.
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Website
Other

Historic Wings: "One Small Step" Race to the Moon

For Students 9th - 10th
"One Small Step, The Race To The Moon" is a clear presentation of the story of the Moon landing program that the United States conducted during the 1960's and early 1970's. After launching the presentation click on the phases of the Moon...
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Handout
Flow of History

Flow of History: Nuclear Arms Race

For Students 9th - 10th
The events and countries involved in the nuclear arms race are profiled. Text plus a colored graphic flowchart make the topic visually appealing and of interest to both students and educators.
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Website
Smithsonian Institution

National Air and Space Museum: Apollo to the Moon

For Students 9th - 10th
This resource offers an in-depth exploration of the U.S. space program and the role President John F. Kennedy took in setting the agenda for manned space flight to the moon.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

National Park Service: America's Space Program Exploring a New Frontier

For Teachers 9th - 10th
This site includes a lesson for teachers to use when teaching about America's space program. Also included is the history of the space program, maps, readings, images of the space program, and benefits that resulted from space research.
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Website
Other

Iki: Russian Space Research Institute

For Students 9th - 10th
The official site for the "leading organization of the Russian Academy of Sciences in the field of investigations of Outer Space, Solar System planets and other objects of the Universe"
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Website
NASA

Nasa, Human Space Flight: Apollo 11 Mission

For Students 3rd - 8th
The story of the Apollo 11 lunar landing is told with dramatic details, pictures, and mission highlights.
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PPT
Smithsonian Institution

Smithsonian Education: Walk on the Moon

For Students 9th - 10th
This online lesson helps students explore primary sources, including photographs and audio and video recordings, in order to learn about the Apollo crew and spacecraft, the history of the space race, and the incredible technological...
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Unit Plan
Georgia Department of Education

Ga Virtual Learning: Contemporary Nonfiction: Jfk Speech

For Students 9th - 10th
This lesson focuses on John F. Kennedy's speech, "We Choose to go to the Moon," delivered at Rice University on September 12, 1962. It features links to JFK's biography and Wikipedia entry, the National Geographic: "Moon 101" video, the...
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Handout
NASA

Nasa: Aeronautical/astronautical Events of January March 1961

For Students 9th - 10th
This NASA site offers a timeline of significant events in the space race during this brief frame of time, with some discussion of the prestige involved.
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Interactive
A&E Television

History.com: The Space Race: Interactive Universe

For Students 9th - 10th
A virtual journey through space offers photos and facts about Earth and its neighboring planets, comets, other celestial bodies of the Solar System, and the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies.
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Website
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum

John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum: Space Program

For Students 9th - 10th
In 1957 the Soviet Union launched the satellite Sputnik and had an astronaut orbit the moon a few years later. The U.S. was shocked and vowed to not be left behind. Examine how JFK rallied the country and Congress to get behind the race...
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Website
Other

Yuri Gagaran: Biography

For Students 9th - 10th
Biography of the first man in space at the Russian archives.
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Graphic
Other

3 D Salyut

For Students 9th - 10th
A 3-D VRML rendering of the Salyut space station. Detailed and highly interactive.
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Website
Other

Yuri Gagarin: Comrade Kosmonaut

For Students 9th - 10th
Highly detailed biography of the first man in space. Includes the pamphlet published to celebrate his return to Russia.
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Website
Other

Soyuz Spacecraft Pictures

For Students 9th - 10th
Pictures of the "workhorse" of the Russian space program.
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Article
A&E Television

History.com: The Soviet Response to the Moon Landing? Denial There Was a Moon Race at All

For Students 9th - 10th
Until 1989, Russians claimed they were not trying to reach the Moon first and that the U.S. was in "a one-nation race." Until 1989, a group of American aerospace engineers went to Moscow and finally saw the Soviets' failed lunar-landing...
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Website
NASA

Nasa: Sputnik and the Origins of the Space Age

For Students 9th - 10th
NASA provides a paper providing a background to the Sputnik launch and the U.S. response.
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Website
NASA

Nasa Space Science Data Archive: Russian Lunar Missions

For Students 9th - 10th
Details the Russian lunar missions from Luna 1 to Zond 8.
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Website
PBS

Pbs: Red Files: Secret Soviet Moon Mission

For Students 9th - 10th
PBS offers biographies and stories from the early days of the Soviet Space program, which prompted the Space Race and nuclear arms race between the U.S. and the former Soviet Union.

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