This is an activity about the correlation between annual precipitation and plant productivity in different Earth biomes. Learners consider water evaporation, solubility and abundance relative to life on Earth and relative to finding evidence for... (View More) life on Mars. An extension activity investigates the connection between liquid water, biomes and plant productivity on Earth. This is the 1st of 5 activities in Buried Water Ice on Mars. (View Less)

This is a set of lessons about the Moon. Learners will focus on answering the essential question: What are the challenges engineers and scientists are working to solve as NASA prepares to send humans to live and work on the Moon for extended periods... (View More) of time? In order to understand the challenges NASA faces in returning humans to the Moon, and how these challenges can be overcome, learner groups will brainstorm the challenges of going back to the Moon. They will read what the experts have to say about these challenges, discuss their value and relevancy, debate the importance of the challenges, debrief as a class, and identify the most difficult challenges for returning humans to the Moon to live and work for extended periods of time. They will use skills in reading, interpretation, communication, and processing to interpret information, make inferences, and draw conclusions. (View Less)

This is a activity about applying the scientific method to a design challenge. Learners will design and build a platform that will be placed on a heat source. The platform is expected to serve as an insulator for a cube of gelatin. The goal is to... (View More) keep the inside temperature of the gelatin cube as cool as possible. Materials cost will vary, depending on materials chosen by group (within budget set by the teacher). Ties are made to the Mercury MESSENGER mission. Note: the student guide starts on p. 17 of the PDF. (View Less)

This is an activity about gravity. Learners will design their own experiments to explore the fundamental force of gravity and then extend their thinking to how gravity acts to keep objects like moons and ring particles in orbit. They use the... (View More) contexts of the solar system and the Saturn system to explore the nature of orbits. The lesson enables students to correct common misconceptions about gravity and orbits and to learn how orbital speed decreases as the distance from the object being orbited increases. This is lesson 3 of 6 in the Saturn Educators Guide. (View Less)

This is a lesson about planet formation. Learners will observe and describe differentiated samples in the Meteorite Sample Disk (or photographs), conduct experiments to model the separation of light and heavy materials within a planetary body,... (View More) relate meteorites to the core, mantle and crust of asteroids, and model the break-up of differentiated planetary bodies to expose the interior layers. Materials lists, and advanced preparation and procedural tips are included. This is lesson 11 of 19 in Exploring Meteorite Mysteries. (View Less)