Game Descriptions and National Education Standards
NASA Kids' Club has educational games, engaging multimedia and visuals, and educational activities to cover K-4 students' developmental and learning abilities as addressed in national education standards in mathematics, science and technology. The skills levels provide a natural progression through the site that allows users to find games that are best suited to their varying abilities. Developmentally appropriate content is based on national education standards and benchmarks per grade level. Content is written within the K-4 reading levels as determined by the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level Score, a tool available in Microsoft Word.
National Education Standards
› 1996 National Science Education Standards (NSES) →
› American Association for the Advancement of Science Project 2061: Benchmarks for Science Literacy (AAAS) →
› International Technology Education Association (ITEEA) →
› International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) →
› National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) →
› Common Core State Standards Initiative -- English Language Arts and Mathematics Standards (CCSS) →
› 2011 -- A Framework for K-12 Science Education (National Research Council) Organization (NRC) →
› Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning Compendium Standards and Benchmarks (McREL) →
Level One
Level Two
Level Three
Level Four
Level Five
Clubhouse
|
Level One -- Grade K Standards/Skills
What Comes Next?
Students view a row of space-related objects and must choose the one that comes next in the sequence.
NCTM Standard: Recognize, describe and extend patterns, such as sequences of sounds and shapes or simple numeric patterns, and translate from one representation to another.
CCSS Mathematics Standard: Describe and compare measurable attributes.
› Flash
› Text
|
Grab It
Students use the space shuttle's robotic arm to grab three items from a group of four that begin with the same sound as a given letter.
CCSS Reading Standard: Demonstrate understanding of spoken words, syllables and sounds.
› Flash
› Text
|
It's Not the Same
Students compare two space-themed drawings and are challenged to find five things that are not the same.
NCTM Standard: Sort and classify objects according to their attributes and organize data about the objects.
CCSS Mathematics Standard: Analyze, compare, create and compose shapes.
› Flash
› Text
› Top of page
|
Level Two -- Grade 1 Standards/Skills
Rocket Builder
Students are provided with a variety of shapes that they use to build a rocket.
NCTM Standard: Recognize, name, build, draw, compare, and sort two- and three-dimensional shapes.
ITEEA Standard: Students will develop an understanding of engineering design.
CCSS Mathematics Standard: Reason with shapes and their attributes.
› Flash
› Text
|
Airplane High Low
Students use clues provided by a cartoon airplane character to find a secret number.
NCTM Standard: Develop an understanding of the relative position and magnitude of whole numbers and of ordinal and cardinal numbers and their connections.
CCSS Mathematics Standard: Represent and solve problems involving addition and subtraction.
› Flash
› Text
› Top of page
|
Level Three -- Grade 2 Standards/Skills
Addition Blastoff
Students group numbers to answer addition problems, which result in the successful launch of a rocket.
NCTM Standard: Compute fluently and make reasonable estimates.
Develop and use strategies for whole-number computations, with a focus on addition and subtraction.
Develop fluency with basic number combinations for addition and subtraction.
CCSS Mathematics Standard: Add and subtract within 20.
› Flash
› Text
|
Star Fall
Students are challenged to capture groups of stars that are the same color. When captured, the stars disappear and points are accumulated.
AAAS Benchmark: More stars are in the sky than anyone can easily count, but they are not scattered evenly, and they are not all the same in brightness or color.
NSES Standard: Objects in the sky.
NCTM Standard: Understand patterns, relations and functions.
› Flash
› Text
|
Roving on Mars
Students use their fine motor skills and eye-hand coordination to navigate a rover through a maze on the surface of Mars.
ITEEA Standard: Students are proficient in the use of technology. Use input devices (e.g., mouse, keyboard, remote control) and output devices (e.g., monitor, printer) to successfully operate computers, VCRs, audiotapes and other technologies.
› Flash
› Text
› Top of page
|
Level Four -- Grade 3 Standards/Skills
Flip Time
Students are challenged to match analog times to the corresponding readings on digital clocks.
NCTM Standard: Recognize the attributes of length, volume, weight, area and time.
CCSS Mathematics Standard: Solve problems involving measurement and estimation of intervals of time, liquid volumes, and masses of objects.
› Flash
› Text
|
Search for Spinoffs
For more than 40 years, NASA has shared its technological discoveries with private industry, resulting in new products and services in medicine, transportation, public safety, computer technology and caring for Earth’s environment. In this game, students use clues to find hidden NASA spinoff items.
ITEEA Standard: Students will develop an understanding of the relationships among technologies and the connections between technology and other fields of study.
NSES Standard: Abilities of technological design.
› Flash
› Text
› Top of page
|
Level Five -- Grade 4 Standards/Skills
Go to the Head of the Solar System
Students are challenged to answer questions about celestial objects as they travel through the solar system.
NSES Standard: Objects in the sky.
AAAS Benchmark: Earth is one of several planets that orbit the sun, and the moon orbits around Earth.
› Flash
› Text
|
Jumbled Jets
Students must use logic and reasoning skills to determine the correct arrangement of airplanes on a runway.
NCTM Standard: Understand patterns, relations and functions.
NCTM Standard: Develop and evaluate inferences and predictions that are based on data.
NCTM Standard: Problem-solving.
NCTM Standard: Reasoning.
CCSS Mathematics Standard: Generate and analyze patterns.
› Flash
› Text
› Top of page
|
Clubhouse
Put It Together
Can you solve the puzzle? Students can choose a NASA image and the level of difficulty.
NCTM Standard: Understand patterns, relations and functions.
CCSS Mathematics Standard: Analyze, compare, create and compose shapes.
CCSS Mathematics Standard: Reason with shapes and their attributes.
› Flash
› Text
|
Let's Fly Away
See pictures of cool NASA aircraft in this multifaceted slideshow.
CCSS Mathematics Standard: Identify and define shapes.
CCSS Mathematics Standard: Analyze, compare, create and compose shapes.
CCSS Mathematics Standard: Reason with shapes and their attributes.
NCTM Standard: Identify, compare and analyze attributes of two- and three-dimensional shapes and develop vocabulary to describe the attributes.
NCTM Standard: Describe attributes and parts of two- and three-dimensional shapes.
NSES Standard: Science as a human endeavor.
› Flash
› Text
|
Astro-Matic 3000
Discover what your age and weight would be on another planet or a moon.
NSES Standard: Objects in the sky.
NSES Standard: Earth in the solar system.
NCTM Standard: Recognize the attributes of length, volume, weight, area and time.
CCSS Mathematics Standard: Describe and compare measurable attributes.
› Flash
› Text
|
Color NASA
See and color pictures of wildlife living on different NASA centers.
NSES Standard: Organisms and environments.
› Flash
› Text
|
Space Lunch Game
How well do you know the food groups? Match tiles of Earth food and space food to complete the game.
NSES Standard: Personal health.
NCTM Standard: Understand various types of patterns and functional relationships.
CCSS Mathematics Standard: Represent and interpret data.
CCSS Mathematics Standard: Reason with shapes and attributes.
CCSS Language Standard: Sort common objects into categories (e.g., shapes, foods) to gain a sense of the concepts the categories represent.
› Flash
› Text
|
Why Do We Explore? Storybook
An animated storybook explains why people have explored since the beginning of time.
CCSS Literature Standard: Integration of Knowledge and Ideas -- Explain how specific aspects of a text's illustrations contribute to what is conveyed by the words in a story.
CCSS Reading Standard: Fluency -- Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.
NSES Standard: Science as a human endeavor.
› Flash
› Text
|
Window to Earth
Take a peek and see how Earth looks from space. Can you see the difference between a volcano and a lake?
NSES Standard: Changes in earth and sky.
National Geography Standard: The physical processes that shape the patterns of Earth's surface.
National Geography Standard: The physical and human characteristics of places.
National Geography Standard: How human actions modify the physical environment.
› Flash
› Text
› Top of page
|
|
|
