Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Calculating Iridium Fallout from an Asteroid Impact
Should we be afraid of a large asteroid impact on Earth today? Young scientists estimate the size and composition of an asteroid similar to the one that caused the K-T mass extinction. They apply algebraic formulas to answer questions...
Teach Engineering
Incoming Asteroid! What's the Problem?
Oh, no! An asteroid is on a collision course with Earth!. Class members must rise to the challenge of designing a shelter that will protect people from the impact and permit them to live in this shelter for one year. In this first lesson...
It's About Time
Impact Events and the Earth System
What would happen to Earth if an asteroid struck it? Assist young scientists as they explore the mechanics of an impact event and effects caused by it; calculate the energy released once an asteroid strikes Earth's surface; and compare...
Teach Engineering
How Big? Necessary Area and Volume for Shelter
Teams must determine the size of cavern needed to house the citizens of Alabraska to protect them from the asteroid impact. Using scaling properties, teams first determining the number of people that could sleep in a classroom and then...
Teach Engineering
Identifying Possible Underground Cavern Locations
Teams continue with the Asteroid Impact challenge and determine possible locations to construct their underground shelters. Participants cut scale area models of their shelters from paper and place them on the map to find locations to...
Curated OER
Asteroids
Students examine a potential asteroid impact site. They describe evidence and theories for extinction events.
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Chemical Signatures of Asteroid Impacts
What killed the dinosaurs and how do scientists know? Your high schoolers can examine these fascinating questions with a geochemical lens using the engaging 33-minute video, the accompanying data interpretation, and some thoughtful...
Curated OER
Target Earth
Space scientists use water displacement to determine the mass of a cubic centimeter mini meteorite, and then use it as a small-scale representative of an asteroid. They figure out the orbital velocity of an asteroid. Then they use a...
Curated OER
Deep Impact's Comet on a Stick!
Students create a model of a comet. In this space science lesson, students compare their model to the characteristics of a real comet. They evaluate and make necessary modifications to their original design.
Curated OER
Asteroids
Students examine the different types of asteroids and how they enter the atmosphere. In this space instructional activity students use mashed potatoes to create an asteroid they can eat.
Curated OER
Impact Craters: Holes in the Ground!
Students simulate crater formation through a lab activity. In this space science lesson, students calculate how much energy is transferred during meteorite impact. They identify different factors affecting the size and depth of craters...
Las Cumbres Observatory
Down2Earth: Making Impact Craters
Is the sky falling? Learners use a simulator to modify the mass and velocity of asteroids and collect data on how they influence the diameter and depth of the impact crater. They use their results to draw conclusions and make predictions...
Curated OER
Dinosaurs, Comets, Asteroids
In this dinosaurs worksheet, students answer multiple choice questions about dinosaurs, comets, and asteroids. Students complete 3 questions.
Curated OER
Asteroids
Students study asteroids and how their size relates to a possible danger of one colliding with Earth. In this asteroids instructional activity students see how big an asteroid has to be to cause destruction to Earth.
Curated OER
TARGET EARTH
Students explore the possibility of an asteroid hitting planet earth. In this planetary activity students complete a lab activity to see the effects of an asteroid hitting earth and compare different craters.
Teach Engineering
Rocks, Rocks, Rocks: Test, Identify Properties and Classify
Time is growing short. Teams work together to identify physical properties of rocks in order to determine the properties that would best suit their cavern shelter design.
Teach Engineering
Building and Testing Model Underground Safety Caverns
Teams take their cavern designs and build a model from clay or paper mache that can be buried in sand. Testing involves dropping a bowling ball on the buried cavern. Teams dig out their cavern, inspect it for damage, and consider...
Curated OER
Spuds in Space
Students explore the effects of velocity on an object when it collides with another object. They design and outfit a potato astronaut in a spacesuit to withstand the hazards of high velocity impacts from space debris and meteoroids.
Curated OER
Testing the Caverns
Students build model caverns using paper mache or clay and bury them in a tray of sand. They test the models by dropping balls onto them to simulate an asteroid hitting the earth. They evaluate the effectiveness of a structure against...
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Finding the Crater
A mass extinction event caused by an impact usually leaves a crater. Scholars use data from 10 different sites around the world trying to determine where to look for the crater. They use data, listing the amount of various minerals to...
Teach Engineering
Making Moon Craters
Create an egg-citing study of energy. Pupils investigate the effect of height and mass on the overall amount of energy of a falling object. The fourth segment in a six-part series on energy uses a weighted egg falling from different...
Curated OER
Creating Craters
Students explore parts of an impact crater and compare and contrast craters found in Earth, the Moon, and Mars. Crater formation is modelled and the relationship of mass, velocity, and size of the projectile to the crater formation is...
Curated OER
Big Extinction
Students discuss evidence of a pre-dinosaur era meteoric collision, and its impact on living creatures. They build buckyball molecule models out of marshmallows, toothpicks, and soccer balls.
Curated OER
TE Activity: Testing the Caverns
Pupils make model caverns out of paper mache or clay. They bury them in a tray of sand, and test the models by dropping balls into them simulating as asteroid hitting the earth. They discuss the results of the activity in a whole class...