Earth is trying to sleep but the Satellites keep bothering Earth with noisy signals. They are talking in all different languages and sending all kinds of information.

Our three friends talk about plans to build a spaceport on the Moon. Then they build a habitat for Ruth's new pet hamster, Rocket, that has everything she needs, just like a Moon spaceport would.

During the associated lesson, students have learned about Newton's three laws of motion and free-body diagrams and have identified the forces of thrust, drag and gravity. As students begin to understand the physics behind thrust, drag and gravity and how these relate these to Newton's three laws of motion, groups assemble and launch the rockets that they designed in the associated lesson. The height of the rockets, after constructed and launched, are measured and compared to the theoretical values calculated during the rocket lesson. Effective teamwork and attention to detail is key for successful launches.

In this class, food serves as both the subject and the object of historical analysis. As a subject, food has been transformed over the last 100 years, largely as a result of ever more elaborate scientific and technological innovations. From a need to preserve surplus foods for leaner times grew an elaborate array of techniques – drying, freezing, canning, salting, etc – that changed not only what people ate, but how far they could/had to travel, the space in which they lived, their relations with neighbors and relatives, and most of all, their place in the economic order of things. The role of capitalism in supporting and extending food preservation and development was fundamental. As an object, food offers us a way into cultural, political, economic, and techno-scientific history. Long ignored by historians of science and technology, food offers a rich source for exploring, e.g., the creation and maintenance of mass-production techniques, industrial farming initiatives, the politics of consumption, vertical integration of business firms, globalization, changing race and gender identities, labor movements, and so forth. How is food different in these contexts, from other sorts of industrial goods? What does the trip from farm to table tell us about American culture and history?

Advances in cognitive science have resolved, clarified, and sometimes complicated some of the great questions of Western philosophy: what is the structure of the world and how do we come to know it; does everyone represent the world the same way; what is the best way for us to act in the world. Specific topics include color, objects, number, categories, similarity, inductive inference, space, time, causality, reasoning, decision-making, morality and consciousness. Readings and discussion include a brief philosophical history of each topic and focus on advances in cognitive and developmental psychology, computation, neuroscience, and related fields. At least one subject in cognitive science, psychology, philosophy, linguistics, or artificial intelligence is required. An additional project is required for graduate credit.

In this activity, students investigate the simulated use of solid rocket fuel by using an antacid tablet. Students observe the effect that surface area and temperature has on chemical reactions. Also, students compare the reaction time using two different reactants: water and vinegar. Finally, students report their results using a bar graph.

The purpose of this lesson is to teach the students about how a spacecraft gets from the surface of the Earth to Mars. The lesson first investigates rockets and how they are able to get us into space. Finally, the nature of an orbit is discussed as well as how orbits enable us to get from planet to planet specifically from Earth to Mars.

Why do astronauts appear weightless despite being near the Earth? Created by Sal Khan.

This resource was created by Terresa Greenleaf, in collaboration with Dawn DeTurk, Hannah Blomstedt, and Julie Albrecht, as part of ESU2's Integrating the Arts project. This project is a four year initiative focused on integrating arts into the core curriculum through teacher education, practice, and coaching.

This lesson describes how the circulatory system works, including the heart, blood vessels and blood. Students learn about the chambers and valves of the heart, the difference between veins and arteries, and the different components of blood. This lesson also covers the technology engineers have developed to repair the heart if it is damaged. Students also understand how the circulatory system is affected during spaceflight (e.g., astronauts lose muscle in their heart during space travel).

Students apply their mathematics and team building skills to explore the concept of rocketry. They learn about design issues faced by aerospace engineers when trying to launch rocketships or satellites in order to land them safely in the ocean, for example. Students learn the value of designing within constraints while brainstorming a rocketry system using provided materials and a specified project budget. Throughout the design process, teamwork is emphasized since the most successful launches occur when groups work effectively to generate creative ideas and solutions to the rocket challenge.

Gravity is the main force to be dealt with in space, and thrust is the force that allows a spacecraft to get into space and maneuver.

This lesson presents several images taken from the International Space Station and challenges students to identify the land forms and their locations on Earth.

This presentaton show multiple landforms from the ISS. It supports the Identifying Landforms from the International Space Station Lesson and Learning Lab

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"The first human spaceflight to Mars is expected to take place sometime within the next decade, and its success will be highly dependent on the health of its crew. The human microbiome, or the community of microorganisms inhabiting the body, has critical effects on human health, but how the journey to another planet will affect it has yet to be determined. During a space mission, the crew will experience microgravity, increased cosmic radiation, isolation, food limitations, and other stressors. While data from simulations and the International Space Station suggest that the human microbiome may be resilient to these conditions, frequent monitoring during the spaceflight will still be necessary to safeguard crew health. Microbiome perturbations will need to be actively prevented, and the establishment of a computer-based warning system will allow microbe-related disease to be quickly detected..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

Students use scaling from real-world data to obtain an idea of the immense size of Mars in relation to the Earth and the Moon, as well as the distances between them. Students calculate dimensions of the scaled versions of the planets, and then use balloons to represent their relative sizes and locations.

Students will review the inner planets of our solar system as well as their characteristics.

My students will not have much familiarity with what an actual launch pad looks like or why it is designed the way that it is.  I would like my students to use the primary source analysis tool on the picture of the launch pad start a discussion about what they see, why they think things look the way they do, then have that lead into a lesson on what the different parts of a launch pad are and what their purpose is.  Other photos can also be used to show kids different perspectives of the launch pad as well, not just the one provided here.