This lesson is about data collection. Learners will investigate different methods of sampling in a simulated cleanroom environment. Includes a teacher's guide and students handouts. This lesson 7 of 10 from the Dynamic Design: The Cleanroom module.

This 2-page color fact sheet briefly describes NASA's Kepler mission, its instruments, and ground system. Also included are tables listing the instrument parameters and the major institutions involved. Kepler is a spaceborne telescope specifically designed to survey our region of the Milky Way galaxy to detect and characterize hundreds of Earth-size and smaller planets in or near the habitable zone. The habitable zone encompasses the distances from a star where liquid water can exist on a planet's surface. Note: The fact sheets states that the Kepler Telescope was launched in 2007 but did not launch until 2009.

This is a website about asteroids and comets. Learners can play a physics-based asteroid game, learn about how backyard astronomers are contributing to asteroid research, or simulate an asteroid impact using a Google Earth Impact simulation. Includes background information about comets and asteroids and links to multimedia resources.

In this lesson students will learn about six of Earth's land features and create a tour of examples using Google Tour Builder. 

This lesson plan is about the various facets of launching a spacecraft into space. Learners will look at the launch vehicle requirements for the Genesis spacecraft, then decide which rocket should be used from a list of several Delta rockets. Next, they will model the thrusters used for course corrections on the spacecraft, using a milk carton and water. In the third part of this activity, learners investigate how the size of the exit nozzle affects the force of a thruster. Includes a teacher's guide and students handouts. Video and audio clips are provided. This is lesson 4 of 8 from the Dynamic Design: Launch and Propulsion module.

In a column devoted to interactive resoures for the K-5 classroom, this article features Recycle City, an EPA-produced, student-friendly web site designed to teach students about actions that create a sustainable community. Students will learn about recycling, reducing waste, and using less energy. The column regularly appears in the free, online magazine Beyond Weather and the Water Cycle, which focuses on the essential principles of climate literacy.

Students observe and discuss a vacuum cleaner model of a baghouse to better understand how this pollutant recovery method functions in cleaning industrial air pollution.

In this article, a school librarian looks at ways the elementary teacher can find support in the school library for introducing inquiry-based, technology-enriched science concepts to K-Grade 5 students. She describes the national "@ your library" campaign, which stresses collaboration between school librarians and teachers. The article appears in the free, online magazine Beyond Weather and the Water Cycle, which focuses on the seven essential principles of climate science.

This is a game about light curves that will test your ability to figure out things about an asteroid from just a graph of its brightness. Astronomers use telescopes to collect light curves - measurements of the brightness of distant asteroids over time. It is part of the Killer Asteroids Web Site. The site also features a background overview of the differences between asteroids and comets, information on different types of asteroids (rubble piles vs monoliths), a discussion of how at risk Earth really is to an asteroid or comet impact, and background information on light curves.

Did you know that when you look at a star, your eyes are capturing light that traveled all the way from the star to your eye? Learn more about how light carries information from distant objects. This Moveable Museum article, available as a nine-page printable PDF file, offers a kid-friendly look at how information about distant objects comes to us in the form of light. It includes suggested resources for further research.

This classroom activity, which centers on documenting the location of a meteorite in Antarctica, introduces students to the technology of Global Positioning Systems. The printable handout includes a series of inquiry-based questions to get students thinking about the challenges of marking exact positions in an area where the landscape is continually changing, illustrated activity directions and a worksheet that guides students through the way satellites are used in GPS and includes areas for recording their findings.

During this problem-based blended learning module students will be designing their dream bedroom as well as creating a scale drawing of the items they chose to be in their bedroom. The launch activity introduces the students to Scale City, which is a video that explores scale models in the real world. Students are then given dimensions for a fictional bedroom to furnish with items of their choosing. Price is not considered in this module, but a budget could be introduced as an extension of the module. Students will then spend time researching items that they would want to place in their bedroom with the area constraints given. Students will have the opportunity to provide each other peer feedback on their bedroom designs. Once students have a rough idea of their bedroom design, they will spend some time creating a scale drawing of their bedroom on graph paper. This will give students the opportunity to use a scale factor to create a scale drawing. Students will again be provided feedback on their designs and be given time to reflect and redesign as needed. If students need extra time to practice using a scale factor and creating scale models, a station rotation lesson has been included as an optional resource.

This is an activity about spacecraft design. Teams of learners will model how scientists and engineers design and build spacecraft to collect, store, and transmit data to earth. Teams will design a system to store and transmit topographic data of the Moon and then analyze that data and compare it to data collected by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter .

In this classroom activity, students cut apart a plastic soda bottle and create a planar (polar) and a cylindrical (Mercator) projection to understand the challenges of creating maps of the Earth. The printable handout includes a series of inquiry-based questions to get students thinking about the challenges of mapping a spherical object like the Earth, detailed activity directions and a worksheet that helps students use the activity results to understand how polar and Mercator projections are created and how both distort their subjects.

This site features Flash and GIF animations that illustrate magnetic declination and the differences between magnetic, grid, and true North. These resources are suitable for use in lectures, labs, or other teaching activities.

This is an activity about magnetism. Using bar magnets, classroom materials, and a compass, learners will explore how bar magnets interact with one another and with other materials, use a compass to find the direction north, and use various materials to make magnetic field lines visible around a bar magnet. This is an activity in a larger poster resource, entitled The Sun Like It's Never Been Seen Before: In 3D.

This is an activity about bar magnets and their invisible magnetic fields. Learners will experiment with magnets and a compass to detect and draw magnetic fields. This is Activity 1 of a larger resource, entitled Exploring the Sun. The NASA spacecraft missions represented by this material include SOHO, TRACE, STEREO, Hinode, and SDO.

This experiment is about data collection. Learners will map out the actual placement of wafers on the Geneisis array and look at the finished array frames in order to identify patterns of wafer materials. Includes a teacher's guide and students handouts. This lesson 6 of 10 from the Dynamic Design: The Cleanroom module.

This activity focuses on the relationship between science of looking for life and the tools, on vehicles such as the Mars Rover, that make it possible. Learners will create their own models of a Mars rover. They determine what tools would be necessary to help them better understand Mars (and something about life on Mars/its habitability). Then they work in teams to complete a design challenge where they incorporate these elements into their models, which must successfully complete a task. Teams may also work together to create a large-scale, lobby-sized version that may be put on display in the library to engage their community. The activity also includes specific tips for effectively engaging girls in STEM. This is activity 6 in Explore: Life on Mars? that was developed specifically for use in libraries.

This is a lesson about determining planetary composition. Learners will use a reflectometer to determine which minerals are present (from a set of knowns) in a sample of Mars soil simulant. Requires the use of ALTA II spectrometers (which may be borrowed from the Lunar and Planetary Institute or purchased online) and Mars soil simulant. The activity is part of Project Spectra, a science and engineering program for middle-high school students, focusing on how light is used to explore the Solar System.