Text Size
| Activity | Description | Time Required | STEM Field(s) | Recommended for 1 Day Event |
| Touchdown | Design and build a shock-absorbing system that will protect two "astronauts" when they land. | 1-1.5 hrs | SEM | √ |
| Earth vs. Mars → | Compare and contrast Earth and Mars using data about each. | 1 hr | SM | |
| Investigating Ice Worlds → | Use various light sources to examine ice with different components to understand how NASA studies planets and moons from space. | 1-1.5 hrs | ST | √ |
| Universe Trail Mix | Use food items such as rice and dried peas to represent elements; students determine of what the universe is made. [download full pdf] | 1 hr | √ | |
| What's Out There? | Calculate the abundance of elements in different celestial bodies. | 1 hr | SM | √ |
| Make a Comet and Eat It | Build a model satellite probe p. 13. | 1 hr | SM | √ |
| Tracking a Solar Storm - Soda Bottle Magnetometer | Build a magnetometer using a soda bottle and a bar magnet. Monitor and study magnetic fields and storms. | 1 hr | STM | |
| Field Trip to the Moon | Inquiry activity requiring students to work in teams to design a navigation to the moon and a lunar outpost. | 2-3 hrs | SEM | |
| Moon Math: Craters! | Explore activities for connecting standards-based geometry concepts (area, volume, and proportion of two- and three-dimensional objects) to an actual NASA lunar mission. | 3 hrs | SM | |
| Paint by Numbers → | A pencil and paper activity demonstrates how astronomical spacecraft and computers create images of objects in space. [Space-Based Astronomy, Unit 4, p. 84] | 0.5-1 hr | STM | √ |
| Simple Spectroscope → | A basic hand-held spectroscope to split light into its component colors is made from a diffraction grating and a cardboard tube. [Space-based Astronomy, Unit 2, p. 27] | 1 hr | ST | |
| Kinesthetic Astronomy | Model the movement of Earth around the sun by acting out the movement and determining where students' birthdays are in the orbit. | 1 hr | S | √ |
| Deep Impact: Comet on a Stick! | Students build a simple model of a comet and evaluate it to explore the properties of comets. | 1 hr | S | |
| Cooking Up a Comet → | Model the chemical composition of a comet with dramatic effects. | 1 hr | SM | |
| Walking Planet Distances | Model the size of the solar system and distances between planets. | 1 hr | SM | |
| Exploring Planet Sizes | Use models to compare sizes of planets. | 1 hr | SM | |
| Aerogello | Using gelatin and metal pellets, simulate the technique used by STARDUST for collecting comet and interstellar dust particles with aerogel. | 1 hr | STE | |
| Detecting Planet Transits | Demonstrate how planets are found around other stars as they pass in front of the star. | 1 hr | ST | |
| Vegetable Light Curves → | Observe the surface of rotating potatoes to understand how astronomers can determine the shape of asteroids from variations in reflective brightness. | 1 hr | ST | |
| Lava Layering | Simulate repeated volcanic eruptions and how they build a terrain. | 1.5-2 hrs | SM | √ |
| Getting There | Map a navigation plan to get from Earth to Mars and back. | 1 hr | SM | |
| Mars Bound! → | Investigate what to explore on Mars and design a mission to carry out Martian science. | 2-3 hrs | SM | |
| Can We Take it With Us | Plan a human mission to the moon using pennies to determine what payload can be carried along [Lunar Nautics Educator Guide p. 27] | 1 hr | STM | |
| Follow the Falling Meteorite | Apply geometric properties and triangulation to determine the location where a meteorite fell. | 1 hr | S | |
| Reaping Rocks | Collect and organize and classify rock samples as a lunar geologist. | 1 hr | S | |
| Earth, Moon, and Mars Balloons | Construct a scale model of the Earth-Moon-Mars system in terms of planetary size to discover how far one might have to travel to get to the moon or Mars. | 1.5-2 hrs | SM | |
| Regolith Formation | Model the formation of lunar soil through impacts. | S | ||
| Hubble Deep Field → | Image of galaxies in Hubble Deep Field image with activities including classifying and identifying. | 0.5-1 hr | SM | |
| Other Resources | ||||
| Perseids Meteor Shower | Active: Perseids begin to rise in early August. Peak Activity: Night of Aug. 12-13. | |||
| Stellarium → | Free software that works on Mac or PC to identify celestial objects and to look up current locations of planets and constellations. | ST | computer | |
| Solar Storms and Satellites | Students analyze data to determine safety of satellites. | ST | computer | |
| Zooniverse → | Moon Zoo, Galaxy Zoo, Solar Storm Watch. Students sign up to help NASA study phenomena. | STM | computer | |
| Solar System Missions | Searchable database of past, current and planned NASA solar system missions. | ST | computer | |
| Shoot a Cannonball Into Space | Interactive tool to demonstrate how objects achieve orbit. | ST | computer | |
| Drive the Mars Rover | Virtually operate a Mars rover to explore the geology of the Red Planet. | ST | computer | |
| Solar System Simulator | Computer models of location of objects in the solar system at any chosen day or time. | STM | computer |