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A DISAPPEARING ACT Astronomy: Do Stars Always Shine?
Learners observe why stars are not visible during the day with a classroom demonstration using an index card punched with holes.
American Museum of Natural History
Meet the Universe's Main Attraction ... Gravity
Learners read a short description about gravity and what it does and then explore the two ideas about how gravity works. After gaining a better understanding of the concept, individuals participate in a thorough experiment on what would...
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Voyage: A Journey Through Our Solar System
Thoroughly written, this plan walks you through every detail of having your high school astronomers design scale models of the solar system. Complete instructions on building to scale, lesson plan procedures, and associated worksheets...
National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science
A Rose By Any Other Name
In part one, your astronomers read an interview dialogue between a reporter and Dr. Maria Ocasio, the chair of the group that assigns names to celestial objects. The topic in question is Pluto's status. Learners research Plutinos and...
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Science: Space Quiz
In this science: space quiz worksheet, students answer twenty questions, not interactively, about outer space, then scroll down to find the answers.
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Kepler And His Laws
Pupils engage in an overview of the story of Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler, and of Kepler's laws. Each of Kepler's laws be studied separately in more detail in later lessons. They examine Kepler's 3rd law.
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Glowing Glimpses of Our Universe
Students will complete hands-on space activities. In this space science lesson, students will create a glow-in-the-dark model of the solar system, visit a planetarium, make star pictures, and paint constellations. Activities are meant to...
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Sky Quest
Students identify constellations in the evening sky. In this Sky Quest lesson, students create their own star patterns using a star map worksheet. Students explain how different celestial bodies in space are viewed through a telescope.
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Momentum
Students learn the concepts of momentum and its conservation, using the recoil of a cannon as an example. They examine how momentum is a vector, allowing its conservation to be applied to problems in 2 and 3 dimensions.
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Following in Galileo's Footsteps
Students explore the findings of Galileo and research the moons of Jupiter. They construct simple telescopes, and examine the moons for themselves at a star party. They record their findings in a journal.
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Earth's Revolution and Rotation
Eighth graders investigate the regular motions of the sun, Earth and the moon and explain how these are related to days, years, seasons, eclipses, tides and moon cycles. They participate in an exercise where they explore the...
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Space Shuttle Mission STS-128
In this space science learning exercise, learners read about the space shuttle mission and answer 6 short answer questions about life of astronauts in space stations.
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Beyond The Earth Part I
Students explore the solar system. In this space science lesson, students take notes on the solar system provided by their instructors. Students then collaborate to design a computer-generated drawing of the solar system.
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Please Ex-Planet
Seventh graders create a model of an earth centered solar system and a model of the sun centered solar system. As a class, they discuss why the earlier astronomers believed their model and why it changed when evidence arose that this...
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Our Solar System to Scale
Students calculate the diameter of planets and their relative distances. In this space science lesson, students discover how small or big the planets are in comparison to each other. Students use cross multiplying fractions to find...
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Probes to Other Planets
Sixth graders use a list of robot components and common household items to design and construct a robot spacecraft model suitable for exploring the Saturn System. They present the robots to the class.
Space Awareness
Oceans as a Heat Reservoir
Oceans absorb half of the carbon dioxide and 80 percent of the greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere. Scholars learn how and why the oceans store heat more effectively than land and how they help mitigate global warming. Pupils...
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Scale Activities
How do you put something as large as the universe in perspective? Use a series of scale experiments. Classmates collaborate around four experiments to examine the scale of the earth-moon system, our solar system, the Milky Way galaxy,...
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Our Universe: Always Moving, Always Changing
Students explore the main concepts of astronomy through the eleven lessons of this unit. The past, present, and future methods of studying the science are examined in this unit.
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How Did the First Asteroid Come to be Discovered?
Students examine asteroids including how and when they were discovered. In this asteroid lesson plan students view a PowerPoint presentation on asteroids.
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A Model of the Sun's interior
Young scholars create a three-dimensional model of the sun. For this solar system lesson, students design a scale model of the sun using plasticine.
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Life on Earth and Beyond, Our Search for Answers
Students in a special education classroom are introduced to how the universe and solar system was formed. Using the internet, they research the characteristics of Earth that support human life. In groups, they compare and contrast...
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Fractions in Space
In this fractions in space worksheet, students solve 4 problems where they find ratios of orbit periods of satellites, they find the ratio of Neptune's and Pluto's periods, they determine the location of the planets after 5 opposition...
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Moons Of The Solar System
Students investigate the solar system and its moons. They conduct research in groups to find information. Also the teacher uses models of the planets in order to teach different facts about the solar system through the use of...