This lesson plan is part of the Center for Educational Resources (CERES), a series of web-based astronomy lessons created by a team of master teachers, university faculty, and NASA researchers. In this lesson, students learn about digital images and how Earth-orbiting satellites send information and pictures to the Earth over the Internet. Students divide into teams and learn to design encrypted messages ... Full description.

This resource presents four topics and nine activities related to the Earth's rotation. This chapter looks first at the phenomenon of shadows (how they are made), then uses measurements of shadows to track the motion of the sun across the sky. The activities challenge students to quantify their observations, and in so doing, learn useful measuring and organizational techniques. This is a chapter in ... Full description.

In this activity, students observe and record the appearance of the Moon each night for 29 days (a lunar month). They will cut out the drawings they have made and staple them together to make a flip-book that shows an animation of the Moon as it changes throughout the month. A downloadable, printable log book for recording observations is provided, and the site also features an interactive diagram ... Full description.

In this activity, students construct scale models of the Earth-Moon system using information which they are given on the diameters of the two bodies and the distances between them. One type of model may be used to simulate both solar and lunar eclipses. The activity is written in an inquiry mode and should be presented to students as a set of activities and questions. Full description.

This lesson plan is part of the DiscoverySchool.com lesson plan library for grades K-5. It focuses on three specific landforms: canyons, caves, and concretion. Students research one of these landforms as a team to create a visual display, illustrating how the landform formed and evolved to its present state. Included are objectives, materials, procedures, discussion questions, evaluation ideas, suggested ... Full description.

These activities allow students to explore many different ways to measure and record time. The most important points are that almost any regular, predictable phenomenon can be used to record the passage of time and orderly patterns of these phenomena help to construct useful frames of reference from which calendars evolved and are still evolving. In addition, any proposed calendar must be compatible ... Full description.

This lesson presents volcanoes through the making of volcano models. While students are constructing their physical representations of volcanoes, they will be filled with questions about volcanoes as well as how to build their models. This process will provide students with a tangible reference for learning about volcanoes and give them a chance to problem-solve as they build their models. Students ... Full description.

This feature introduces younger students to our home galaxy, the Milky Way. Topics include its size and shape, where our solar system is located in it, the origin the name, and how many of its stars we can see from our vantage point on Earth. There are additional features that emphasize the vast size of the galaxy and the large numbers (billions) used to describe it, and a question-and-answer feature ... Full description.

In this lesson, students will explore what happens to water as it goes from solid to liquid and back again; in addition, they will use observation, measurement, and communication skills to describe change. This lesson is the first in a three-part series that addresses a concept that is central to the understanding of the water cycle: that water is able to take many forms but is still water. This series ... Full description.

This demonstration illustrates how the water cycle helps to purify water. Students are introduced to the key terms, which are evaporation and condensation. They discover that evaporation is defined as the process through which a liquid becomes a vapor, while condensation is simply the reverse. Students also learn that in the case of water, the main mechanisms for evaporation and condensation are heating ... Full description.