Amazing Space
Amazing Space
The Space Telescope Science Institute – the organization responsible for the scientific operation of the Hubble Space Telescope – hired teachers to develop a collection of K-12 web-based interactive astronomy lessons complete with student activities and teacher guides. There are several different units with topics on: Black Holes, Galaxies, Stars, the Solar System, Telescopes, Hubble Space Telescope. http://amazing-space.stsci.edu/
Ask an Expert: Astronomy
CLN’s “Ask an Expert” page has about 100 links to specialists in the field who can serve as a valuable source of curricular expertise for both students and teachers. Questions/answers on Astronomy may be found in our “All Subjects” section at the top of the page, the “Science” section, as well as the general “Reference” section. http://www.cln.org/int_expert.html
Astronomy Education Resources
Here’s a meta-list of links to educational astronomy sites with descriptions. http://www.stsci.edu/astroweb/cat-education.html
Athena Curriculum: Space and Astronomy
Athena has used geophysical and other data sets acquired via the Internet to prepare curricular units on space and astronomy. http://cassfos02.ucsd.edu/public/astroed2.html
BC’s Pacific Space Centre
The on-line location of BC’s H.R. Macmillan Planetarium and Gordon Macmillan Southam Observatory. Increase your awareness about the space center’s different program offerings, and find out about the forecast for the night skies for the upcoming month. http://www.hrmacmillanspacecentre.com/
Bradford Robotic Telescope
At this site you can control a remote and fully automated 46 cm telescope connected to the Web. Just register (it’s free) with this telescope, located high on the moors in West Yorkshire, England and ask it to look at absolutely anything in the Northern night sky. It decides when the conditions are good enough to make observations, then posts the documentation, results, and photo of your job. http://www.telescope.org/
Comets and Meteor Showers
The “Comet” segment of this site contains accurate positions of each currently visible comet, on-line star charts, photographs and information on interesting historical comets. In the “Meteor” segment, information on meteor showers is divided by month with information provided on each shower. http://comets.amsmeteors.org/
Eric’s Treasure Troves of Science
Extensive on-line encyclopedias of math and science. Included are encyclopedias on Astronomy, Scientific Biography, Scientific Books, and Rocketry. Each section is browsable alphabetically or searchable by keyword. Entries have a concise explanation as well as cross links which can be quite extensive. http://www.treasure-troves.com/
Expanding Universe: A Classified Search Tool for Amateur Astronomy
Here’s a meta-list of links to astronomy www sites, but with a difference. It uses a modified Dewey Decimal System to organize the links. http://mathforum.org/library/view/5181.html
Mission to Mars
The content of this ThinkQuest 1997 award winning site covers the history of Mars, man’s fascination with it, and our exploratory missions. There’s lots of information in the pages in the ‘Mars Academy’ or students can learn about the planet through an interactive mission simulation in which they design and execute a mission probe. http://library.thinkquest.org/11147/
NASA Education Internet Links
Links to the multitude of NASA educational resources. http://www.nas.nasa.gov/About/Education/education.html
National Air and Space Museum (Smithsonian Institution)
Take a ‘Virtual Tour’ of this museum. http://www.nasm.si.edu/
Outer Orbit
This site has a number of curricular resources for students and teachers, including: Space Chat (talk with professionals); Ask an Astronomer (question and answer service); Today in Space (look through a telescope or link to an online magazine/newspaper); Mission Mars (information about this project); International Space Station (keep up to date with what’s happening); and links to other space related sites. http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/?ss_outer
Rader’s Interactive Space Exploration Center
Instructional units on a range of topics within five major astronomical sections: Universe, Galaxies, Stars, Solar System, and Explore. Generally, each topic is presented within one or two screen pages. http://www.kapili.com/risec/index.html
Science for the Millennium
This virtual exposition from the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) has a number of very extensive exhibits for astronomy students and teachers. Movies and sound enhance the site but are not absolutely necessary. http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Cyberia/Expo/main.html
Learn more about cosmology – the study of the universe as a whole. Topics include: How did the universe begin? How did it come to be in its present state? What can the universe’s present structure tell us about its evolution and ultimate fate? Why are computers essential to understanding the universe? What does it take to compute the cosmos? There are also lots of scientific animations. http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Cyberia/Cosmos/CosmosCompHome.html
Spacetime Wrinkles
Questions addressed in this exhibit are: Who was Einstein? What is gravity? What are black holes and gravitational waves? Where might black holes lurk? How can we “see” them? What does it take to study black holes? What happens if you disturb a black hole? What happens when two black holes collide? Will Einstein’s theory of gravitation continue to prevail in decades to come? http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Cyberia/NumRel/NumRelHome.html
Whispers for the Cosmos
Learn more about how radio astronomers use computers to analyze huge amounts of data in an attempt to answer questions such as: Is space really empty? What lies between the stars? Can molecules, including those we’re made out of, form in space? How are stars born? What determines the shapes of galaxies? http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Cyberia/Bima/BimaHome.html
SEGway
The Science Education Gateway provides Earth and Space Science curricula produced by teachers in collaboration with SEGway partners (e.g., NASA, Science Museums). Lessons, activities and self-guided tutorials are categorized under “Space Science”, “Sun/Earth”, and “Solar System.” (Note: you may find some of the same lessons in the web sites of its partners.) http://cse.ssl.berkeley.edu/segway/
StarChild
Designed for children, this site has two difficulty levels of content on the Solar System, the Universe, and Space Stuff. Within each area, there is a set of student activities that children can perform online. http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/StarChild.html
Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS)
This site contains information about SEDS and about space science in general for students at the high school or university level interested in forwarding the cause of space exploration and development. http://www.seds.org/
Views of the Solar System
Views of the Solar System contains images and information about the Sun, planets, moons, comets, asteroids, and meteoroids. There are over 220 pages of information and 950 images. http://www.iki.rssi.ru/solar/eng/homepage.htm
[The] Whole Mars Catalog
Information about Mars as well as Mars Missions. http://www.spaceref.com/mars/index.html
Funded by NASA, this site contains Earth and Space Science documents, including images, movies, animations, and data sets, targeted for elementary, middle school and high school students. Documents provide not only scientific content, but also information about the artistic, historical, and cultural connections between science and our lives. Teacher resources include classroom activities and educational links. http://www.windows.ucar.edu/
