This is an activity associated with activities during Solar Week, a twice-yearly event in March and October during which classrooms are able to interact with scientists studying the Sun. Outside of Solar Week, information, activities, and resources... (View More) are archived and available online at any time. Learners will use SOHO spacecraft images of a coronal mass ejection and tracing paper to measure and then calculate the speed of the coronal mass ejection. This activity is scheduled to occur during Wednesday of Solar Week. (View Less)

This is an activity about magnetic fields. Learners will use various magnets, magnetic film, and a compass to see and illustrate what magnetic fields look like. This is the fourth activity as part of the iMAGiNETICspace: Where Imagination,... (View More) Magnetism, and Space Collide educator's guide. Instructions for downloading the iBook educator's guide and the associated Transmedia book student guide are available at the resource link. (View Less)

This is an activity about the relation between day length and temperature. In one team, learners will create and analyze a graph of hours of sunlight versus month of the year for a number of latitudes. In another team, learners will graph... (View More) temperature versus month for the same latitudes. The teams then compare data and draw conclusions from their analyses. (View Less)

This is an activity about observing and mapping sunspots by direct solar observation. Learners will use a small telescope, binoculars, or a Sunspotter to create a projected image of the Sun and trace the position of any observed sunspots on a piece... (View More) of paper. Additionally, learners will mark the direction of the Sun image’s motion. This is Activity 2 of the Space Weather Forecast curriculum. (View Less)

This is an activity about bar magnets and their invisible magnetic fields. Learners will experiment with magnets and a compass to detect and draw magnetic fields. This is Activity 1 of a larger resource, entitled Exploring the Sun. The NASA... (View More) spacecraft missions represented by this material include SOHO, TRACE, STEREO, Hinode, and SDO. (View Less)

This is an activity about the Hubble Deep Field image, an observation of one small area of sky that contained no previously-detected objects. The long time exposure of this image allows us to detect some of the most distant objects seen in our... (View More) Universe. Learners will view an image of the Hubble Deep Field and identify how many distant galaxies are visible as well as the types of galaxies they might be. Observations will be taken a step further to infer predominant age of a galaxy and determine if there are any trends in age (color) versus galaxy size or type and, ultimately, if the distant Universe appears relatively uniform. This activity is Astronomy Activity 4 in a larger resource, titled "Space Update." (View Less)

This is an activity about the relative sizes of the Earth and the Moon and the distance between them. Learners will inflate a balloon to the approximate size of the moon in relation to a standard globe. They will then hypothesize as to the correct... (View More) distance between the two and begin to calculate angular size. This is Astronomy Activity 1 in a larger resource, Space Update. (View Less)

This is a lesson about the magnetic field of a bar magnet. The lesson begins with an introductory discussion with learners about magnetism to draw out any misconceptions that may be in their minds. Then, learners freely experiment with bar magnets... (View More) and various materials, such as paper clips, rulers, copper or aluminum wire, and pencils, to discover that magnets attract metals containing iron, nickel, and/or cobalt but not most other materials. Next, learners experiment with using a magnetic compass to discover how it is affected by the magnet and then draw the magnetic field lines of the magnet by putting dots at the location of the compass arrow. This is the first lesson in the first session of the Exploring Magnetism teacher guide. (View Less)