In this lesson, students become teams of scientists living on a planet orbiting a distant star who are on the threshold of exploring their own planetary system for the first time. With the planets they have created, teams explore the planets using the methods NASA scientists use to explore the solar system.
This presentation and suggested script are about major discoveries made with telescopes and their technologies that changed the way we think about the universe.
These simple demonstration are a great way to illustrate the path of light as it reflects off mirrors and how this is used in telescopes.
In this lesson, students discover how we learn about stars and the atmospheres of exoplanets by examining the light in greater detail. Students will match up the spectra of stars and planets with their atmospheric ingredients. In particular, what ingredients are we looking for in planets that may harbor life?
In this lesson, students are each given one of 14 examples of extremophiles - organisms found in some of the toughest conditions on Earth. They sort themselves into groups according to the various preferences of their organisms. Finally, they discover that all known life on Earth requires liquid water to survive and grow.
This simple and engaging activity explains nuclear fusion and how radiation is generated by stars, using marshmallows as a model.
In this activity, students model the habitable zone around stars and how an atmosphere influences the habitability of a planet.