Students use Venn diagrams to highlight the similarities and differences between comets, meteors, and asteroids.

Students investigate the celestial sphere and the paths it takes in the solar system.

Middle schoolers define and identify planetary orbit, ellipse, parabola, and hyperbola, and simulate Kepler's Second Law. They explore interactive websites demonstrating orbital motion and complete modeling activities.

Eighth graders explore the area of astronomy. They explore Earth's neighboring planets. Students research a planet's characteristics. They develop a scale model of the solar system and a narrative about the planets.

Students work together to develop a classification system for planets. They take a class vote and read an article about an astronomer's classification system. They write an essay on how scientists make decisions for the general public.

Students develop and test their ideas about air pressure and vacuums by conducting several investigations into the movement of fluids in tubes.

Learners investigate the life cycle of a star through research. Once research is complete, students prepare posters and present findings to class. Flash animation is included to help learners visualize life cycle of star researching.

Students recognize the relationship between Earth's tilt and the Winter season. In this Winter lesson, students work in pairs to complete make frost and design snow goggles. Students experiment a hand lens to study the frost created....

Students create a model of the solar system out of candy. They write a book about their travels through the Solar System, beginning at age ten and reaching Pluto at age seventy.

Students identify and describe the steps in the water cycle. They discover the sun as the source of the cycle. They work together to create their own water cycle model.

Use the Internet, write an expository text, and have students share their knowledge of the planets in our solar system. They compose an expository writing piece and publish it to a web page.

Students explain how our knowledge of the sky has been enhanced by telescopes. They make their own night-sky observations, diagram and describe what they see, and examine pictures taken by telescopes.

Does the angle of a solar panel change the output? Emerging engineers find out! Demonstrate for your class how they can angle a straw to match the angle of light rays coming from a source. Then turn them loose to experiment with the...

The Mars Global Surveyor spent two years creating a mineral map of the planet Mars using thermal emission spectrometry. To help young astronomers understand this remote sensing instrument, have them simulate how data is collected and...

Open learners' eyes to the challenge of finding safe drinking water – something we often take for granted in our country. The PowerPoint presentation includes images, graphs, diagrams, and even a video to stimulate discussion on how we...

Pupils demonstrate the revolution of the moon around the earth and the effect of its direct alignment in between the earth and the sun.

Students identify the planets by making two models of the Solar System. They create a model that shows the order of the planets and a model that shows the planets sizes as compared to one another. They may write about the planet they...

Young scholars identify cardinal and intermediate directions, recognize that models changes due to new or improved observations and technology, identify the major characteristics of the planets including their positions in the solar...

Students construct a spacecraft out of Lego blocks and other materials. They work on their models in small groups while building. They become familar with the planets while working cooperatively.

Students consider the impacts of global warming and brainstorm ways to help decrease their contribution to the problem.  In this climate change lesson, students are exposed to facts concerning global warming and think of ways to...

Students examine how water changes state, from a liquid to a solid.  In this water instructional activity students study the water cycle and how temperature and pressure effect it. 

Students download NASA Hubble Space Telescope images of the Martian polar ice caps in summer and winter, and measure and compare various images of the changing Martian and Earth polar ice caps.

Students explore the scientific revolution. In this scientific revolution instructional activity, students complete activities regarding Ptolemy, Copernicus, and the Church.

Learners actively look and listen as their teacher provides transparencies to show how the atmosphere is made up of layers. In this atmosphere lesson plan, students discuss the atmosphere in terms of layers and how gravity pulls...