This classroom activity provides an explanation and kinesthetic activity to demonstrate how Earth's atmosphere distorts starlight and how advanced telescope technology (adaptive optics) is used to compensate for this distortion. Full description.

This playground demonstration (using a merry-go-round) shows angular momentum and why rockets are launched in a certain direction and at a certain time. From a moving merry-go-round, participants attempt to throw small balls into a basket on the ground. It includes an explanation, with animated graphics. Full description.

This activity is related to gravity and the LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna) mission. Like a sixth sense, detecting gravity waves will give us a whole new way to see the universe. Provides an easy explanation of gravitational waves, with a link to an interactive crossword using the new vocabulary words. Full description.

This module involves making a mobile of galaxies. Pattern and instructions are included. It introduces the different shapes of galaxies and their nomenclature. The Space Place is an educational NASA site for children and adults with activities and facts related to the exploration of space. Some activities are computer-interactive and many are real-world-interactive. Full description.

This resource explains the concept of constellations, with an activity to make a Star Finder origami-type toy. It includes 12 Star Finder patterns to print, color, and fold, each with a star chart for that month. Also, this activity explains in simple language the difference between astrology and astronomy. Full description.

This hands-on, food preparation activity is designed to familiarize children with asteroids: what they are, where they orbit, how they formed, what they look like (making mashed potato mixture look like an asteroid), and why we care about them. Introduces NASA's Deep Space 1 mission that flew very close to Asteroid Braille. The Space Place is an educational NASA site for children and adults with activities ... Full description.

This module of the Space Place Web site is an interactive game in which players must decide on appropriateness of items to take on a long trip to Mars. Players must consider effects of zero gravity, limited electrical power, etc. It explains what NASA is doing to explore Mars and why. The Space Place is an educational NASA site for children and adults with activities and facts related to the exploration ... Full description.

In this activity, children see how a 'skyscraper's worth' of information can be shrunk to a tiny handful without losing anything important. An interactive multimedia demonstration shows three different ways to compress data gathered by a spacecraft before sending it back to Earth. Full description.

This interactive crossword puzzle uses words related to astronomy and the Keck Telescopes. It also describes the telescopes and how their images are combined using interferometry to make an even better image, and explains how the telescopes are used to look for planets around other stars. Full description.

This activity describes some simple, yet impressive gyroscopic demonstrations using only a bike wheel with a quick-release hub. Then, itIt explains both the angular momentum principle that tends to keep the wheel in a rigid plane and the effects of the external forces that create precession. And all without a single equation!No equations are used during the activity. Understanding the forces at work ... Full description.