Space Exploration Lesson

In this week-long distance learning lesson, students will learn how the technologies that NASA has developed for space exploration have led to important discoveries about the universe and advances in virtually every field of science as well as in products used in everyday life. Students will work through 8 self-paced steps on a Google Doc. They will also work on supporting documents that are linked to the main Google Doc. As students finish the work for each Step, they type "Done" in the right-hand column of their table. This assignment can be completely facilitated using Google Classroom. It's easy to modify for differentiation and it's easy to grade!

This lesson incorporates different learning modes and activities. The variety of activities that make up this lesson include:

• a brainstorming and modeling the universe activity
• an activity sorting things in the universe by size, age, and distance
• a reading with questions and a video clip to learn about NASA and its current projects
• an exploration of ‘NASA Spinoffs’ (commercial products and services derived from NASA technologies)
• an EdPuzzle video about the Hubble Space Telescope
• a scavenger hunt of the images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope
• a space missions class gallery activity
• a reflection and question-generating activity

This download includes links to make copies of all parts of this lesson into your Google Drive. Answer keys are included. Detailed teacher notes explain how to facilitate this lesson using Google Classroom, how to edit and modify any of the documents, and how to efficiently grade this assignment.

My students have responded so well to this distance learning lesson format because they like that they can work at their own pace. I love that I can set a due date and then pop into their document when I want to get a sense of their progress. Students will attach supporting documents to the assignment in Google Classroom, which makes grading super easy and accessible. For a distance learning scenario, I suggest for students to complete one or two Steps per day, so I give them about 6-7 days to complete this entire lesson. In the meantime, I check in on everyone's progress a couple of times to make comments, answer questions, and interact with the students.

This lesson supports the NGSS crosscutting concept Interdependence of Science, Engineering, and Technology: Engineering advances have led to important discoveries in virtually every field of science and scientific discoveries have led to the development of entire industries and engineered systems.

Please view the Preview to get a better idea of what is included!

✨ You may be interested in my 3-week The Universe and Its Stars Digital Unit, too! -- this unit includes some of the activities in this lesson, but it dives much deeper into the contents and workings of universe including gravity, light-years, stars, black holes, the electromagnetic spectrum, space telescopes, and more!

You may also be interested in these resources:

Plastics in the Oceans Distance Learning Lesson

Intro to Climate Change Distance Learning Lesson

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