This is an article about detecting gravitational waves. Learners can read about how the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) is detecting gravitational waves. An activity is included about how to build a mini-LISA and use it to explore the technology behind the instrument.
This is a journal article and activity/demonstration about navigation in space. Learners will learn about gyroscopes by playing with a spinning bicycle wheel to demonstrate momentum, centripal force and angular momentum. First the spinning wheel is held perpendicular to the ground, then parallel to the ground, then it is hung from a string, and finally the wheel is held in the center by at its axle points while the person is on a swivel stool. The results are explained, specific vocabulary is introduced, and questions are presented. The article was originally published in The Technology Teacher, by the International Technology Education Association.
This is an article about the color of the sky. Learners will read about and discuss the colors of the day- and night-time skies. They may sing the Top-down Black and Blues, a song about the sky; or they may write a poem, essay, or song about the bluest sky or blackest night they have ever experienced.
This article describes an indoor, game-type demonstration, incorporating physics (EM wave modulation), math (binary codes), space technology, and music to show how spacecraft put information into the radio signals they send back to Earth. The article was originally written for and published by the International Technology Education Association in its journal, The Technology Teacher. It is now archived on The Space Place Web site.
This manual provides an overview of how telescopes have changed our understanding of the universe and contains simple demonstrations to use at star parties to get across basic ideas of optics. This manual will also help explain why the images that folks see at the eyepiece of a telescope at an outreach star party is so different from images published in magazines. The manual was produced to accompany an outreach toolkit developed for the NASA Night Sky Network. The toolkit is no longer being manufactured, but the activities are available through the manual, which can be freely downloaded.
Students see how different levels of surface tension affect water's ability to move. Teams "race" water droplets down tracks made of different materials, making measurements, collecting data, making calculations, graphing results and comparing to their predictions and the properties of each surface, determining which surface exhibits the highest (or lowest) level of surface tension with water. They apply their results to make engineering recommendations for real-world applications.
Students measure different types of small-sized beams and calculate their respective moments of inertia. They compare the calculations to how much the beams bend when loads are placed on them, gaining insight into the ideal geometry and material for load-bearing beams.
Students conduct several simple lab activities to learn about the five fundamental load types that can act on structures: tension, compression, shear, bending, and torsion. To learn the telltale marks of failure caused by these load types, they break foam insulation blocks by applying these five load types, carefully examine each type of fracture pattern (break in the material) and make drawings of the fracture patterns.
This activity is designed to help building student understanding of how scientific theories can change over time. Science theories change in the face of new evidence. However, when new explanatory frameworks, or theories, are proposed to explain scientific phenomena, there is often a lengthy period during which groups of scientists use different competing theories to explain the same phenomena. During the activity, students are introduced to the geocentric and heliocentric models, students compare the two models, and then observe the time it took to change the theory underpinning the heliocentric model. This activity is part of the "Swift: Eyes through Time" collection that is available on the Teacher's Domain website.
In this experiment, students create a "lava lamp" - a beaker on a hotplate, and investigate buoyancy, convection and other fluid and thermodynamic properties using ink, water, vegetable oil and Alka-Seltzer tablets. The activity is from PUMAS - Practical Uses of Math and Science - a collection of brief examples created by scientists and engineers showing how math and science topics taught in K-12 classes have real world applications.
It's time to heat things up! LITERALLY! It's time for Hank to talk about the history of Thermodynamics!!! It's messy and there are a lot of people who came up with some ideas that worked and other that didn't and then some ideas that should have come first actually were figured out second.
Learners will read or listen to a story about two sisters, Marisol and Sofia, as they explore the Sun's role in the water cycle. Additionally, numerous extension resources are included in the accompanying educator guide, such as suggestions for no-cost language arts activities, links to further science activities, a book walk cue chart to guide classroom discussion before, during, and after the story, a graphic organizer, and alignments to the National Science Education Standards (NSES) and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).
This week we’re exploring aerospace engineering and its two main fields: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. We’ll explore life & buoyancy, propulsion systems, and the challenges of managing the human body in space.
NASA scientist, Neil Gehrels, serves as your guide to this online lesson on gamma ray tools, which focuses on advances in detector technologies since the 1980s that have enabled us to capture and image high-energy phenomena. Dr. Gehrels explains different methods for detecting and imaging high-energy particles, how they work, and the advantages and disadvantages of each, using examples and imagery from NASA missions.
Investigate how torque causes an object to rotate. Discover the relationships between angular acceleration, moment of inertia, angular momentum and torque.
Vortices of water, called "eddies," form off the northwestern coast of North America in the winter, and are particularly large during El Nino winters. Users can read and view satellite imagery which explains how these eddies carry nutrient-rich water offshore, providing nourishment for phytoplankton, microscopic plants which form the foundation of the marine food chain. This is part of NASA's Earth Observatory, a collection of publications featuring satellite imagery and information about Earth.
Students learn about traffic lights and their importance in maintaining public safety and order. Using a Parallax® Basic Stamp 2 microcontroller, students work in teams on the engineering challenge to build a traffic light with a specific behavior. In the process, they learn about light-emitting diodes (LEDs), and how their use can save energy. Students also design their own requirements based on real-world observations as they learn about traffic safety and work towards an interesting goal within the realm of what is important in practice. Knowledge gained from the activity is directly transferrable to future activities, and skills learned are scalable to more ambitious class projects.
This lesson applies the science and math of the rotation of a sphere to water and wind movements on Earth. Students are introduced to convection, the Trade Winds and the Coriolis Force. Using an online visualizer, students generate trajectories and then analyze course patterns and latitudinal changes in strength. Note that this is lesson two of five on the Ocean Motion website. Each lesson investigates ocean surface circulation using satellite and model data and can be done independently. See Related URL's for links to the Ocean Motion Website that provide science background information, data resources, teacher material, student guides and a lesson matrix.
Students work as engineers to design and test trebuchets (in this case LEGO® MINDSTORMS® robots) that can launch objects. During the testing stage, they change one variable at a time to study its effect on the outcome of their designs. Specifically, they determine how far objects travel depending on their weights. As students learn about the different components of robot design and the specific function controls, they determine what design features are important for launching objects.
Students work within constraints to construct model trusses and then test them to failure as a way to evaluate the relative strength of different truss configurations and construction styles. Each student group uses Popsicle sticks and hot glue to build a different truss configuration from a provided diagram of truss styles. Within each group, each student builds two exact copies of the team's truss configuration using his/her own construction method, one of which is tested under shear conditions and the other tested under compression conditions. Results are compiled and reviewed as a class to analyze the strength of different types of shapes and construction methods under the two types of loads. Students make and review predictions, and normalize strengths. Teams give brief presentations to recap their decisions, results and analysis.