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Bring NASA Into Your Classroom With Featured Lessons
- Lesson plan to facilitate classroom use.
- An essential question.
- Instructional objectives.
- Digital multimedia resources.
- Extension and supplemental classroom activities.
- National science, mathematics, and technology standards and 21st-century skills addressed by the lesson activities.
- Professional development opportunities, including live Web seminars and a teacher video collection that provide guidance for classroom implementation!
- View Lesson Titles, Topics, and Grade Levels.
Find exciting and interactive lessons to bring space exploration into your classroom! NASA Explorer Schools takes the work out of searching through thousands of materials on the NASA website. NES provides a comprehensive set of teaching materials for dozens of science, technology, engineering and mathematics concepts in our searchable Lesson Library.
What are NES Featured Lessons?
What are teachers saying about the NES Featured Lessons?
What are NES Featured Lessons? NES featured lessons link the subjects you teach to NASA's innovative research and missions. Lessons are easy to implement and are educator-reviewed and tested. Each lesson includes the following:
What are teachers saying about the NES Featured Lessons? “The ‘On the Moon Educator Guide’ is outstanding! One of the highlights for me and my 8th-grade physical science students this year. I used this lesson to kick off our entry in the topics of physics, specifically potential energy, kinetic energy, speed, gravitational potential energy and more. The students were really engaged with this activity.”
– Wendy Dlakic, Sleeping Giant Middle School
“I thought the module was well-conceived and that the Teacher's Guide was informative enough to make the process easy.”
– Dale Anderson, Jamestown High School
“This was a great module that my students were highly engaged in. We loved the simulator and video clips that went with the program. This was a well-designed unit and easy for me to use with my students.”
– Lynne Boucher, Ralph M. Williams Elementary School
– Wendy Dlakic, Sleeping Giant Middle School
“I thought the module was well-conceived and that the Teacher's Guide was informative enough to make the process easy.”
– Dale Anderson, Jamestown High School
“This was a great module that my students were highly engaged in. We loved the simulator and video clips that went with the program. This was a well-designed unit and easy for me to use with my students.”
– Lynne Boucher, Ralph M. Williams Elementary School
Sample Lesson and Professional Development Video
- Physical Science
- Students will develop an understanding of engineering design
- Two long party balloons
- Nylon monofilament fishing line
- Two plastic straws
- Foam coffee cup
- Masking tape
- Scissors
- Two spring clothespins
 |
Rocket Staging: Balloon Staging
Essential Question
How do Newton's Laws of Motion apply to space exploration?
Description
Traveling into outer space takes enormous amounts of energy. This activity is a simple demonstration of rocket staging first proposed by Johann Schmidlap in the 16th century. Students learn how rockets can achieve greater distances through rocket staging.
Grade Level: 5-8
Activity Type: Student investigation
Instructional Objective
Students explain Newton's Laws of Motion and apply them to space exploration.
Time to complete the activity
One to three 45 minute classes
Subject(s) Covered: Topic(s) Covered: -- Newton's Laws of Motion
-- Gravity
-- Friction
-- Centripetal force
-- Gravity
-- Friction
-- Centripetal force
Standards: 21st Century Outcome: Life and Career Skills
21st Century Element: Social and Cross-cultural Skills
21st Century Skill: Interact Effectively with Others
21st Century Outcome: Learning and Innovation Skills
21st Century Element: Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
21st Century Skill: Reason Effectively
21st Century Outcome: Learning and Innovation Skills
21st Century Element: Communication and Collaboration
21st Century Skill: Collaborate with Others
Science Content Area: Physical science
Science Standard: Motions and forces
Technology Content Area: Design
Technology Standards:
21st Century Element: Social and Cross-cultural Skills
21st Century Skill: Interact Effectively with Others
21st Century Outcome: Learning and Innovation Skills
21st Century Element: Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
21st Century Skill: Reason Effectively
21st Century Outcome: Learning and Innovation Skills
21st Century Element: Communication and Collaboration
21st Century Skill: Collaborate with Others
Science Content Area: Physical science
Science Standard: Motions and forces
Technology Content Area: Design
Technology Standards:
Materials: Professional Development
This brief video overview is an introduction to the Lunar Nautics educator guide. Get a glimpse of the resources available in the guide, an overview of the content, and standards and grade level matrices.
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