Lessons to learn from landing on the moon

Today is the anniversary of the 1969 moon landing, one of mankind's greatest achievements.  It is a little disappointing to think nearly fifty years on we would have done a little more in space but I am hopeful that today's students will take us even further in the future if we share the great accomplishments of the past.

Race to the moon is a good resource for students to gain an understanding of the space race in the sixties and places all of the key events in a simple to follow timeline.  Students can learn about the crew and technology that took us to the moon including the Saturn V rocket which to this day is still the most powerful and fastest 'thing' we have ever created.

Liftoff into Space is a lesson plan that explores the space race and space exploration as a whole.

Finally, what the space race can teach us about collaboration is a useful article for older students to explore the unity and understanding of many required to achieve a common goal.  It could lead into a great activity exploring the collaboration required to send a person to Mars

How big is the known universe? A great Interactive Resource

It's official the universe is freaking massive!!!  But explaining and understanding just how big it is to students can be just as large of a dilemma and could possibly cause headaches for all involved.  Luckily some creative individual out here has created a really cool interactive site that allows you to use a slider through hundreds of relative objects that give you a genuine understanding of just how big space is. 

It both looks amazing and is highly informative at the same time and would be an ideal interactive white board resource.

It has some real links to both maths and science you can enxplore with your students or you can simply look at it and go wow!

Access it here.

Amazing Space: How to use the Hubble Telescope in your Classroom

Amazing Space is a website specifically designed for teachers to use the images from NASA's hubble telescope in the class. If you are doing a unit of work on space then this something that you may really want to take a look at. You can access it here.

Amazing Space: How to use the Hubble Telescope in your Classroom

Amazing Space is a website specifically designed for teachers to use the images from NASA's hubble telescope in the class.  If you are doing a unit of work on space then this something that you may really want to take a look at.  You can access it here.

Some Brilliant Lesson Ideas From NASA

I was recently emailed these great lesson ideas for those looking at space from none other but the good folk at NASA's education themselves. 

Let your students design their own space mission and then let them share their ideas with others.  This would be mostly suitable for younger students.

Your older science minded students might like to take a look at Creating a Comet Out of Dry Ice by following the video tutorial.   And there is a craft version of creating a comet for the younger students that is available here.

If comets are not your thing then you might like to try and make a moon crater.

All in all this is a great resource for teachers and students of all ages that are looking at space and I would highly recommend taking a look at it.

Get your students to find out alomst anything at Factmonster.com

What will I find on the Fact Monster site?  Fact Monster is an ideal reference site for kids ages 8-14 that provides entertainment and educational resources. It combines the contents of an encyclopedia, a dictionary, an atlas, and several almanacs loaded with statistics, facts, and historical records. A single search engine allows you to search all these sources at once.

What sources are featured on Fact Monster?

In addition to an electronic database that is continuously updated and expanded, the Fact Monster site includes information from the following reference works:

• The TIME for Kids Almanac^®, edited by Beth Rowen of Fact Monster and published by Time Inc.
• Selected content from The TIME Almanac, with Information Please^®, edited by Borgna Brunner of Information Please and published by Time Inc.
• The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, published by Columbia University Press.
• Infoplease Dictionary, based on the Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary
• The Infoplease Atlas, which includes several hundred maps from Magellan Geographix.

Factmonster is an ideal resource for general classroom information about people and places around the world.  Access it here.



18 Cool websites that teach you about space

Currently I am studying space with kids at school and I stumbled across this link from CNET that has some great sites I am going to get my kids to use.  Just a very quick addition if you are studying space.  Find it here.

Relive the Moon landing in Real Time 40 Years on

I came across this great website that takes you back 40 years ago and recreates the Apollo 11 mission to the moon in real time much the same way families crowded around black-and-white television sets in 1969 to watch Neil Armstrong take man's first steps on the moon.

Through wechoosethemoon.org you'll be able to watch the Apollo 11 mission recreated in real time on the web, follow Twitter feeds of transmissions between Mission Control and the spacecraft, and even get an eMail alert when the lunar module touches down.

The web site--WeChooseTheMoon.org--goes live at 8:02 a.m. on July 16, 90 minutes before the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 launch from Cape Canaveral, Fla. It will track the capsule's route from the Earth to the Moon, ending with the moon landing and Armstrong's walk--in real time, but 40 years later.

Internet visitors can see animated recreations of key events from the four-day mission, including when Apollo 11 first orbits the moon and when the lunar module separates from the command module, as well as browse video clips and photos and hear the radio transmission between the astronauts and NASA flight controllers.