Celebrating Space Exploration
Fifty years ago, on July 29, 1958, President Eisenhower signed into law the National Aeronautics and Space Act, which provided federal funding for research into space flight. Just over two months later, on Oct. 1, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) began operations. They responded quickly to the gauntlet thrown down by the Soviet Union with the 1957 launch of Sputnik and set to work exploring the universe around us. A little more than a decade after being created, NASA successfully sent men to the Moon.
Inspired by every new victory and challenged by each setback, NASA continues to explore the limits of space, sending regular missions out to seek new answers about what lies beyond our ken. These include the ongoing construction of the International Space Station, missions (such as Galileo, Cassini/Huygens, and Messenger) to explore the other planets of our solar system, explorations of comets and asteroids, and mapping the universe using satellites and telescopes from around the world. These Science NetLinks resources provide a variety of rich media learning experiences to help students learn more about NASA and discover the history and future of space travel.
| 50th Anniversary Resources |
NASA's 50th Anniversary NEW!
Resource Type: Website
Grade Band: 6-12
Description: NASA's official site marking the anniversary of its founding. |
NASA: Fifty Years and Beyond NEW!
Resource Type: Website
Grade Band: 6-12
Description: The Smithsonian Folklife Festival's celebration of a half century of space exploration. |
|
When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions NEW!
Resource Type: Website
Grade Band: 6-12
Description: A mulitmedia exploration of space exploration by the Discovery Channel. |
50 Years of the Space Age NEW!
Resource Type: Website
Grade Band: 6-12
Description: The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum commemorates the 50th anniversary of Sputnik and the beginning of the Space Age with special presentations and online exhibits. |
| 50 Years of Space -- Two Pioneers Look Back
Resource Type: Video
Grade Band: 3-12
Description: This video by the European Space Agency looks 50 years of the space program. Sigmund Jähn and Vladimir Remek, former cosmonauts for the Soviet Intercosmos program, talk about their experiences in the beginning of the Space Age. |
50 Years in Space
Resource Type: Video
Grade Band: 3-12
Description: This NASA video celebrates a half century of the Space Age. |
Science NetLinks Resources
Lessons
Audio Features
Interactives
Lessons
Cooler in the Shadows
Resource Type: Lesson
Grade Band: K-2
Description: This lesson encourages students to explore how the amount of sunlight and heat change in areas that are shaded.
Lunar Cycle
Resource Type: Lesson
Grade Band: K-2
Description: This lesson offers activity ideas and discussion questions to facilitate students' learning that the moon looks a little different every day, but looks the same again about every four weeks.
Sky 1: Objects in the Sky
Resource Type: Lesson
Grade Band: K-2
Description: In this lesson, students will investigate objects in the daytime and nighttime sky.
Sky 4: The Moon
Resource Type: Lesson
Grade Band: K-2
Description: This lesson has students drawing the moon's shape for each evening on a calendar and then determining the pattern in the shapes over several weeks.
Star Search
Resource Type: Lesson
Grade Band: K-2
Description: In this lesson, students will observe stars in the night sky and be encouraged to stargaze on their own.
Gravity Launch
Resource Type: Lesson
Grade Band: 3-5
Description: In this lesson, students will explore how the earth’s and moon’s gravity affects the path of a rocket launched into space.
Sensing Energy
Resource Type: Lesson
Grade Band: 3-5
Description: In this lesson, students will identify different forms of energy produced by the sun.
Exploring the Solar System
Resource Type: Lesson
Grade Band: 6-8
Description: In this lesson, students will build on their knowledge of the solar system as they research one of the other planets in order to determine whether a manned mission to that planet would be feasible.
Looking into Space
Resource Type: Lesson
Grade Band: 6-8
Description: In this lesson, students will learn how telescopes work and how they can contribute to our knowledge of the universe.
Make a Mission
Resource Type: Lesson
Grade Band: 6-8
Description: In this lesson, students will explore the purpose and constraints of technology by preparing a spacecraft for a mission to Mercury.
Mercury
Resource Type: Lesson
Grade Band: 6-8
Description: In this lesson, students will have the chance to view the solar system and identify the sun and planets that compose it, which is consistent with recommendations that students begin to pay attention to sizes, distances, and other basic concepts dealing with the universe.
My Angle on Cooling: Effects of Distance and Inclination
Resource Type: Lesson
Grade Band: 6-8
Description: In this lesson, students will examine how distance and inclination affect the amount of heat received from a heat source.
Satellite Orbits
Resource Type: Lesson
Grade Band: 6-8
Description: Students will explore satellite orbits and gravitational force.
Sensing the Invisible: The Herschel Experiment
Resource Type: Lesson
Grade Band: 6-8
Description: In this lesson, students will reproduce William Herschel’s original experiment of 1800 that discovered the existence of infrared radiation.
Sizing Up the Solar System
Resource Type: Lesson
Grade Band: 6-8
Description: During this lesson, students will investigate and design various models of size and distance related to the solar system.
Snow Goggles
Resource Type: Lesson
Grade Band: 6-8
Description: This lesson will illustrate to students how the use of the scientific method can solve different kinds of problems, like blocking unwanted sunlight.
The Sun
Resource Type: Lesson
Grade Band: 6-8
Description: By focusing on physical characteristics of the sun, this lesson will give students a general understanding of what a star is, which can be the basis of understanding the general make-up of other stars in far off galaxies.
Team Moon
Resource Type: Lesson
Grade Band: 6-8
Description: In this lesson, students will learn that many people doing many different types of work are involved with space travel.
Behind the Mission to Mercury
Resource Type: Lesson
Grade Band: 9-12
Description: In this lesson, students will assess the goals, benefits, success, and limitations of technology (instruments) on a space mission.
Black Holes
Resource Type: Lesson
Grade Band: 9-12
Description: This lesson introduces students to black holes and demonstrates how space telescopes can provide data to support current hypotheses.
Dangers of Radiation Exposure
Resource Type: Lesson
Grade Band: 9-12
Description: Through this lesson, students will learn about sources of high-energy radiation and calculate student exposure to ionizing radiation over the course of a year.
How Old Are the Stars?
Resource Type: Lesson
Grade Band: 9-12
Description: In this lesson, students examine the Jewelbox cluster, located within the southern constellation Crux, and determine its age using a relationship between temperature, color, and luminosity.
It's Gravity
Resource Type: Lesson
Grade Band: 9-12
Description: This lesson will help develop students’ understanding of gravity and its critical role as the main mover of the universe.
Rocket Launch
Resource Type: Lesson
Grade Band: 9-12
Description: This lesson will encourage students to consider constraints which contribute to the design of a model rocket, as well as begin to analyze a model rocket's design and flight.
Star Power! Discovering the Power of Sunlight
Resource Type: Lesson
Grade Band: 9-12
Description: During this lesson, students will estimate the energy output of the sun and how much power sunlight provides to the earth.
Sunspots 1: A Look at Sunspots
Resource Type: Lesson
Grade Band: 9-12
Description: In this lesson, students are introduced to sunspots and the types of technology and solar imaging that can be used to collect information about the sun's features.
Sunspots 2: Correlating Sunspots to Active Regions
Resource Type: Lesson
Grade Band: 9-12
Description: This lesson allows students to see how sophisticated technology can be used to learn about the sun.
Sunspots 3: Tracking the Movement of Sunspots
Resource Type: Lesson
Grade Band: 9-12
Description: In this activity, students collect one of two types of images gathered by the SOHO satellite currently circling the sun about one million miles from earth.
Audio Features
Astronaut Health Risks NEW!
Resource Type: Science Update
Grade Band: 6-12
Description: In this Science Update, students learn about two of the health risks astronauts on long-term space missions may face health risks that their predecessors didn't have to worry about.
Dinosaur-Killing Asteroid
Resource Type: Science Update
Grade Band: 6-12
Description: In this Science Update, students learn about the event that probably created the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs.
Faces in Space
Resource Type: Science Update
Grade Band: 6-12
Description: In this Science Update, students hear about a proposed system to spot signs of burnout on marathon space flights.
Giant Gas Origins
Resource Type: Science Update
Grade Band: 6-12
Description: In this Science Update, students learn about how huge, gaseous planets like Jupiter and Saturn may have formed.
Mars Hotel
Resource Type: Science Update
Grade Band: 6-12
Description: In this Science Update, students find out about an ambitious project that might make a long journey to Mars more pleasant.
SETI at Home Upgrade
Resource Type: Science Update
Grade Band: 6-12
Description: In this Science Update, students hear about how SETI, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, is looking for more recruits to hunt for aliens with their home computers.
Solar Power from the Moon
Resource Type: Science Update
Grade Band: 6-12
Description: In this Science Update, students find out more about how building solar power stations on the moon could be a way to fulfill the energy needs of the whole world.
Space Food
Resource Type: Science Update
Grade Band: 6-12
Description: In this Science Update, students learn about developing the space menu of the future.
Space Inflatables
Resource Type: Science Update
Grade Band: 6-12
Description: In this Science Update, students hear how NASA is exploring a cheap way to build structures in space--inflating them like balloons.
Tilted Earth
Resource Type: Science Update
Grade Band: 6-12
Description: In this Science Update, students learn how the Earth’s tilt got knocked into place.
Interactives
Lunar Cycle Calendar
Resource Type: Interactive
Grade Band: K-5
Description: This resource includes printable calendars on which students can record their observations of the moon. In addition, it provides illustrations of the phases of the moon (a full lunar cycle) that can be printed, cut out, and given to students.
Lunar Cycle Challenge
Resource Type: Interactive
Grade Band: K-5
Description: This resource is an online activity in which students "drag" moons to their correct places in lunar cycles.
Gravity Launch
Resource Type: Interactive
Grade Band: 3-8
Description: This interactive allows students to virtually launch a rocket into space to see how the force of gravity can pull an object toward the earth and moon.
Day on Mercury
Resource Type: Interactive
Grade Band: 6-12
Description: A Day on Mercury allows students to experience a typical Mercurian day, which is actually 176 Earth days.
Fact Challenge
Resource Type: Interactive
Grade Band: 6-12
Description: This animation challenges students with questions about Mercury.
GeoHunter
Resource Type: Interactive
Grade Band: 6-12
Description: This interactive provides students with data about the geological structure of the planet Mercury.
Make a Mission
Resource Type: Interactive
Grade Band: 6-12
Description: The purpose of this activity is to help users understand some of the factors involved when NASA designs a real mission to space. In this interactive, users build a spacecraft in order to explore the planet Mercury—just as the NASA team did when they planned and built the real MESSENGER spacecraft!
Orbit and Rotation
Resource Type: Interactive
Grade Band: 6-12
Description: Orbit and Rotation is an animation showing the orbit and rotation of Mercury around the sun.
Places in the Sun
Resource Type: Interactive
Grade Band: 6-12
Description: This animation allows students to see a side-by-side comparison of the sun on both planets.
Planet Size Comparison
Resource Type: Interactive
Grade Band: 6-12
Description: Planet Size Comparison can be used to enhance students’ understanding of our solar system and to help them gain a better appreciation for the sizes of the nine planets, plus the sun and the earth’s moon.
Phoenix Mars Lander NEW!
Resource Type: Tool
Grade Band: 6-12
Description: Using this tool teachers will be able to help students learn more about the Phoenix Mars Lander, the first mission that is actually going to go try and reach out and touch water on the surface of another planet.
Other Resources
50 Years Since Sputnik
Resource Type: Interactive
Grade Band: 6-12
Description: 50 Years Since Sputnik allows students to explore a diagram of the satellite itself as well as a timeline of space exploration.
The Times Looks Back: Sputnik
Resource Type: Articles
Grade Band: 6-12
Description: This special presentation of The New York Times on America Online includes articles and photos from the first week following Sputnik's launch, coverage of the U.S. response and the early days of the space race, and a directory of related websites.
The First 50 Years of Space: Every Single Launch... Ever!
Resource Type: Interactive
Grade Band: 6-12
Description: This interactive features a collection of 6038 liftoffs since Sputnik.
Space Race: The Untold Story
Resource Type: Video/Interactive
Grade Band: 6-12
Description: This is a companion website to National Geographic’s special on the space race.
Mobilizing Minds: Teaching Math and Science in the Age of Sputnik
Resource Type: Exhibition
Grade Band: 6-12
Description: Mobilizing Minds takes a look at how the fear of Soviet domination after the launch of Sputnik galvanized reform in education.
New Moon: Reds Launch First Space Satellite
Resource Type: Video
Grade Band: 6-12
Description: An old newsreel clip featuring an animation on the launch of Sputnik.
