Miss Davies' Science Activities

Science Activities

References

Astronomy Picture of the Day: In addition to a picture that changes every day, you can search for astronomy photographs featured in the past, arranged by subject. Text, photos; The main entrance:; http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/; Index arranged by subject area:; http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html; Keyword search:; http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/cossc/apod_search

Regional Planetary Image Facility: Provides images and data obtained from planetary missions. Choose from the any of the nine planets in our solar system, plus the moon and asteroids. Also includes information on the Apollo missions, and boasts a gallery of space shuttle images. Text, photos; http://www.nasm.edu/ceps/rpif.html

Scientific American Search Engine: Fantastic resource: type keywords into this search engine in order to locate articles on a desired topic from the Scientific American database. Text; http://www.sciam.com/cgi-bin/search.cgi

Solar System Glossary: By Bill Arnett. Extensive. Text; http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/billa/tnp/help.html

Space Central: Continuing Coverage from HoustonChronicle.com: An excellent place to go for current events related to space exploration. Text, photos, graphics; The main entrance to the site:; http://www.chron.com/content/interactive/space/astronomy/news/1998/; An up to the minute wire feed on space-related current events:; http://wire.chron.com/dart/articles/Aerospace.html

The StarChild Project: Connecting NASA and the K-12 Classroom: Covers Astronomy, Earth, Galaxies, Moon, Planets, Space, Stars, Sun and the Universe. Some short basic material with some parts written simply, others less so. Rich links to other projects. Text, photos; http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/

Views of the Solar System: In addition to its extensive archives of solar system images, this site also provides textual information on the sun and the objects that orbit it. Text, photos, movies; http://www.hawastsoc.org/solar/eng/homepage.htm

Amazing Space: Designed for elementary students to learn about the solar system. Contains a number of different astonomy activities, including a student astronaut challenge wherein students plan a mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope. Text, photos, graphics; http://amazing-space.stsci.edu/

Auroras: Self-guided lesson on Auroras that explains the science basics behind this phenomenon. Provides activity suggestions for teachers and invites your contributions. By the Exploratorium. Text, photos; http://www.exploratorium.edu/learning_studio/auroras

CERES Project: A fantastic collection of astronomy lesson plans are included here. Text, photos; http://btc.montana.edu/ceres/

Exploring Planets in the Classroom: More than 25 hands-on science activities are provided in classroom-ready pages for both teachers and students for exploring geology, Earth, the planets, and space sciences. Text; Go about halfway down this page to explore lessons by topic area:; http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/SPACEGRANT/class_acts/; To view the course schedule with links to the activities:; http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/SPACEGRANT/class_acts/schedule.html

Eyes on the Sky, Feet on the Ground: This site contains hundreds of fun hands on astronomy activities for kids designed as a classroom tool for learning how to theorize, experiment, and analyze data. Text, graphics, photos; http://hea-www.harvard.edu/ECT/the_book/toc.html

Imagine the Universe: Designed by NASA, this site discusses black holes, neutron stars, gamma rays, and supernovas. Includes lesson plans related to algebra II, high school physics and chemistry, as well as middle school mathematics. Text, graphics; http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/; To go right to some lesson plans, visit "The Teacher's Corner":; http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/teachers/teachers_corner.html; To "Adopt An Astronomer" who can assist you with teaching projects, visit: http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/teachers/adopt_astronomer.html

Life on Other Planets in the Solar System: Explores the possibility of life on orbiting bodies beyond Earth. In addition to its own content on possible life-supporting environments on Mars and Europa, the site presents links to related essays and sites. Created by the Regional Educational Service Agency of Wayne County, Michigan. Text, photos, graphics; Main entrance to the site:; http://www.resa.net/nasa/; To view some student projects and posters:; http://www.resa.net/nasa/lowrey/index.htm

Outer Orbit: A rich educational site addressing space explorations through classroom activities, up to the minute space news, online chat site, and an ask an astronomer section. The site also contains links to a number of other astronomy-related sites. The author is a space and Earth science curriculum writer, and a credentialed teacher. Text, photos; http://www.outerorbit.com/; To go right to some lesson plans:; http://www.outerorbit.com/lplans/index.html; To talk with an astronomer:; http://www.outerorbit.com/ask/index.html

Collision of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 with Jupiter: From Institute for Scientific Computation Texas A&M University. Includes FAQs for Pre- and Post-Impact, Images, Predictions. Many other good sites linked here. Text, photos; http://www.isc.tamu.edu/~astro/sl9.html

Comet Shoemaker-Levy Collision with Jupiter: A rich site that includes Background Info, Latest Conclusions of the Comet Collision, Images (1,100+ Images, 60+ Observatories), Animations, Comet Shoemaker-Levy Impact Times, Spacecraft Observations of the Impacts and Ground Based Observations. Text, photos, animations; http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/sl9/

Earth Viewer: An "interactive server which lets you view the Earth, as illuminated by the Sun at the time of your request, ... by latitude, longitude and altitude, or from a satellite in Earth orbit. Images can be generated based on a topographical map of the Earth, up-to-date weather satellite imagery, or a composite image of cloud cover superimposed on a map of the Earth." Text, graphics; http://www.fourmilab.ch/earthview/vplanet.html

Hubble Space Telescope: View pictures taken from the Hubble Space Telescope. Text, photos http://www.stsci.edu/; http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/pictures.html

Stars - An Introduction: NASA's Observatorium is full of a variety of interesting articles on astronomy and how it impacts culture and history. This particular site explores the physical properties of stars and discusses their importance to us. Text, graphics, photos; http://observe.ivv.nasa.gov/nasa/exhibits/stars/star_0.html; To find out how stars are born, come visit another part of NASA's Observatorium:; http://observe.ivv.nasa.gov/nasa/exhibits/stellarbirth/opening1.html; To explore the sun ("our" star) its properties and its role in history, visit:; http://observe.ivv.nasa.gov/nasa/exhibits/sun/sun_1.html

Total Solar Eclipse: Photographed in Panama on July 11, 1991 by Smithsonian photographer. Photo series with explanatory text told from personal viewpoint. Text, photos; http://photo2.si.edu/eclipse/eclipse.html