OSGC Educational Resources Blog

The Educational Materials section of NASA’s Web site lists classroom activities, educator guides, posters and other types of resources that are available to be downloaded and used in the classroom. Materials are listed by type, grade level and subject. The following educator guides are now available as complete guides or can be downloaded in easy to use individual lesson plans.

Suited for Spacewalking Educator Guide
This NASA educator guide for grades 5-12 focuses on the technology behind spacesuits. Briefly discussed are the space environment, the history of spacewalking, NASA’s current spacesuits and the work that astronauts do during spacewalks. This guide includes classroom activities, a glossary and a list of other NASA resources.

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

Space Food and Nutrition Educator Guide
Space food research meets the challenge of providing food that tastes good and travels well in space. The activities in this NASA educator guide for grades K-8 emphasize hands-on and cooperative involvement of students as they explore the unique problems of keeping astronauts happy and healthy in space.

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

Visit NASA’s website to find dates and times for sighting the International Space station and the Space Shuttle Discovery.  Lsitings can be searched by location and include date/time, duration of visibility, and angle in the sky.  This could be a great astronomy tool and a nice way to work on math skills.

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/index.html

For help with interpreting the lisitngs, please visit the following link:

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/help.html

Images form NASA’s Terra Satellite clearly show the massive wildfires ravaging California.  Please visit the NASA website for the latest photos of the fires and current news!

http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/lookingatearth/socal_wildfires_oct07.html

Applications are currently being accepted for the 2008 CanSat Competition.

This annual competition is open to university students from the United States, Canada and Mexico. Teams of 2-10 students are required to design and build a space-type system called a CanSat. Each CanSat is the size of a soda can and must be built according to the specifications released by the competition organizing committee. Participants are involved in the end-to-end life cycle of a complex engineering project, from conceptual design, through integration and test, actual operation of the system, and the conclusion with a post-mission summary and debriefing.

All teams entering the CanSat competition are required to have a faculty adviser. The faculty adviser shall oversee and be responsible for the conduct of the team at all times during the competition and is strongly encouraged to accompany the team to the competition.

Applications are due Oct. 31, 2007.  For more information about the competition and to download the application, visit: http://www.cansatcompetition.com/

October 23, 2007
NASA officials and launch managers were pleased Tuesday following a clean countdown and flawless launch of space shuttle Discovery from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Read more at NASA’s shuttle site:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html

Video of the launch is available online. You can also find teacher resources, press kits, links to mission information, and much more at the shuttle website.

Saved by the Sun

Tuesday, October 23 at 8 p.m.
Check your local listings as dates and times may vary.
(Broadcast in High Definition where available.)
http://www.pbs.org/nova/solar

As the Earth heats up at a dangerous rate and fossil fuels become scarcer, ordinary citizens and businesses are bypassing the federal government to lead the way in exploring a clean, renewable source of power: the sun. In this report, NOVA shines a light on how and why people across America and the world are “going solar,” using radiant energy of the sun to power homes, businesses, and even entire communities. But can everyday people really make a difference by using solar power? And can solar technologies, with their high cost and logistical challenges, truly play a bigger role in powering the future of humanity? The grand hopes, latest innovations, roiling controversies, and practical realities of solar power all come to the fore in this program.

New Ways to Catch Rays
  Take a look at six of the hottest new solar technologies.
  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/solar/catch.html

Ask the Expert
  Steven Strong, a “green” architect and engineer, answers questions about solar energy.
  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/solar/expert.html

This Solar House
  See how one couple transformed their 1960s tract house into a zero-energy home.
  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/solar/house.html

Inside a Solar Cell
  How does a photovoltaic cell convert sunlight into electricity?
  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/solar/inside.html

Also, Links and books, a Teacher’s Guide, the program transcript, and more: http://www.pbs.org/nova/solar

Join NASA and NSTA for two free Web seminars featuring scientists and education specialists from NASA. Designed for educators of grades 4-9, the seminars will focus on the biological and physical aspects of humans living and working in space as NASA completes the International Space Station, returns a human presence to the moon and looks forward to Mars and beyond. The presenters will share their scientific expertise, answer questions from the participants and provide information regarding Web sites that students can use in the classroom.

The Web seminars are 90-minute, live professional development sessions that use online learning technologies to allow participants to interact with nationally acclaimed experts, scientists, engineers and education specialists from NASA. Each Web seminar is a unique, stand-alone program. Archives of the Web seminars and the presenters’ PowerPoint presentations will be available online.

The Web seminars in this series are scheduled for Oct. 30 and Nov. 6, 2007. Each seminar will begin at 6:30 p.m. EDT.

Online registration for each is now open. Visit:
http://learningcenter.nsta.org/products/symposia_seminars/fall07/NASA_Detroit/webseminar.aspx

Entries are currently being accepted for the 12th Annual Institute for Global Environmental Strategies Art Contest for students in grades 2-4. This year’s theme is “The Ocean: From Bottom to Top.” Entrants are encouraged to learn more about the ocean and send in a drawing about what they have learned.

The contest is open to all U.S. citizens in grades 2-4. The winning entry will be printed as the IGES greeting card and the first-, second- and third-place artists will receive savings bonds. All entrants will receive a certificate of participation.

Entries are due on Oct. 26, 2007. For more information, visit: http://www.strategies.org/ArtContest

When will humans return to the moon? How will they get there? How will the astronauts live and work in reduced gravity? How does someone grow plants on the moon? Classroom students from across the country will have the chance to ask these questions and more during a series of live Web chats with experts from NASA’s Constellation Program and Biological Sciences Offices.

The Challenger Center for Space Science Education in Alexandria, Va., and NASA Education are partnering to host two one-hour webcasts with Dr. Gary W. Stutte and Dr. Raymond M. Wheeler from Kennedy Spaceflight Center and John Gruener from the Johnson Space Center on October 23 and 30, 2007, at 2:00 p.m.ET. The webcasts are free and open to the public.

Classroom teachers may register at the Challenger Center Web site to chat with NASA’s plant growth experts on how astronauts will use plants to provide food, oxygen, clean water and recycle waste during long-duration space missions on the moon. The conversations are in support of NASA’s Lunar Plant Growth Chamber design challenge for grades K-12.

In the NASA design challenge, elementary, middle and high school students research, design, build and evaluate lunar plant growth chambers using space-flown basil seeds. Students participate in the engineering design process, learn how to conduct a scientific experiment and can receive national recognition for their efforts on the Challenger Center Web site. To register for the webcasts visit: http://www.challenger.org/clc/sts118webcast.cfm

The 10 million basil seeds that flew in space on the STS-118 space shuttle mission have moved one step closer to the classroom. The seeds were returned to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, on Oct. 4, 2007, and were then packaged and sent to Park Seed Company, located in Greenwood, S.C. At Park Seed Company, the seeds will be sorted and placed in small packets, each packet containing approximately 50 seeds. The packets of space-flown seeds and control packets of seeds that have not flown will then be distributed to educators who have registered to take part in the Engineering Design Challenge. The seeds will be packaged in a commemorative envelope with an insert that provides additional information about the seeds.

The seeds are available to the first 100,000 registrants, who must be residents of the United States or U.S. Territories and Outlying Areas. For more information on the challenge and to register to participate, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/education/plantchallenge