New Human Spaceflight Educational Materials Available at NASA.gov

The Educational Materials section of NASA's Web site offers classroom activities, educator guides, posters and other types of resources that are available for use in the classroom. Materials are listed by type, grade level and subject. The following space science-related items are now available for downloading.

Build the Station Simulation: Educator Guide -- Grades K-8

Just as five space agencies cooperated to build the International Space Station, students can work together to build a paper model of the world's largest orbiting laboratory. Teams take on the roles of international partners as they learn about and assemble portions of the model. During a mock summit, each team briefs the group about their section of the model. The teams then assemble the entire model to complete the space station. The guide includes student sheets, parts of the model, instructions for holding a summit, and facts about the station.

http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/topnav/materials/listbytype/Build_the_Station_Simulation.html


Play and Learn: Window to Earth -- Grades K-4

Astronauts have a spectacular view of Earth from space. Move through the pages of Window to Earth and see images taken from space of these geographical features: peninsula, glacier, lake, desert, cape, island, upheaval dome, strait, waterfall, reef and volcano.

http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/topnav/materials/listbytype/Window_to_Earth.html


Spaced Out Sports Educator Guide -- Grades 5-8

Students learn the science of sports with the activities in this educator guide. The activities are applications of Newton's Laws of Motion.

Among the guide's six activities students will do the following:
-- Construct a CD hovercraft and apply Newton's Laws of Motion to make hovercraft work.
-- Use gravity to locate the center of mass of irregular-shaped objects.
-- Investigate the principle of conserving angular momentum.
-- Create and play simulated microgravity sports with a balloon.

http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/topnav/materials/listbytype/Spaced_Out_Sports.html


"Food for Thought: Eating in Space" Educator Guide -- Grades 5-8

Among the thousands of questions that need to be answered before astronauts travel to distant planets and asteroids is the question: How much food will they need and what foods can they take? Food for Thought includes five lesson plans that relate to food and nutrition and that are aligned to national education standards.

http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/topnav/materials/listbytype/Food_For_Thought.html


Mass Versus Weight Educator Guide -- Grades 5-8

Students often confuse the terms "mass" and "weight." Each activity in this series demonstrates the difference between mass and weight by comparing students' results with the results of astronauts aboard the space station. Students perform the activities and analyze their data. Then they watch video of astronauts performing similar demonstrations on the station. The activities focus on Newton's second law of motion.

http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/topnav/materials/listbytype/Mass_vs_Weight.html


The Texas School for the Deaf Downlink Videos -- Grades K-12

While aboard the International Space Station in 2010, astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson used American Sign Language, or ASL, to answer a variety of video inquiries submitted by students from the Texas School for the Deaf, or TSD. She recorded almost an hour of video footage showing an inside view of the station in response to the students' questions about life in space. NASA sent the video footage to TSD, and students in Bobbie Guerra's video technology class (Zealous Studio) used this footage to create a series of video clips.

http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/topnav/materials/listbytype/TSD_Introduction_Video.html