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Lesson Planet
Everything you have ever wanted to know about our solar system, space exploration, and more can be found here. Be prepared to clear your schedule; you will be sucked into the app like a star into a black hole.
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App Overview
The NASA app has so many incredible features, you will need to spend some time exploring it all to get the true scope of it, much like our universe. Here are some of the highlights:
Missions:
- Launch Schedule: Find out when and where NASA is launching upcoming missions
- Sighting Opportunities: Can you see the International Space Station pass overhead? Enable location services to see when to spot the ISS
- Alphabetical list of current missions: mission summary, dates, images, videos, and scientific goals
Images:
- Thousands of photographs from the Hubble Space Telescope, the Curiosity Mars Rover, and more
Videos:
- Over 9,000 videos from missions, interviews with NASA scientists and astronauts, test flights, and more
Tweets:
- The latest from Twitter feeds related to NASA, JPL, missions, and more
TV & Radio:
- NASA TV schedule
- Third Rock Radio
- Other television shows about space and/or featuring NASA personnel
News and Features:
- Latest mission and NASA news
Centers:
- Map of NASA locations throughout the United States
- Click a map pin to discover tour availability and information about each location
Featured:
- Our Solar System and Beyond: Clickable map of the the solar system and its features, including detailed planetary information
- Year of the Solar System: 22 categories describing more information about characteristics of planets and other celestial objects
Programs:
- NASA overview
- Past and future missions
- Launch vehicles and locations
- Updates about current missions
Instructional Ideas
- Space image or story of the day
- Research for planet projects
- Current events in STEM; kids can read an article and summarize it for the class
- Plan a field trip to a local NASA center
- Investigating STEM career fields
Classroom Considerations
- Easy to get distracted from original purpose (lots of clickable links)
Pros
- Free
- Vast wealth of data, images, videos, and more
- Content is geared toward the layperson
- Updated very frequently (daily for many features)
- Easy to use
Cons
- None