At this site, students will learn about the tools used for past, present and future exploration and about the Surveyor spacecraft, five of which landed on the Moon between 1966 and 1968. The Surveyor 3 television camera is on display at the National Air and Space Museum and can be seen in this virtual tour. Also on display are an Apollo 13 rock box used to carry samples back from the moon. This exhibit ... Full description.

SeisMac is a free Mac OS X application that turns MacBook or MacBook Pro laptops into seismographs. It uses the Sudden Motion Sensor (accelerometer) that these machines are equipped with to create and display real-time, three-axis acceleration graphs (seismograms). The resizable, real-time scrolling display lets students see the seismic waves from tapping their toes on the floor, lay the laptop on ... Full description.

This radio broadcast reports on the extent of airplane pollution and an Environmental Protection Agency conclusion that pollution from commercial airplanes is increasing dramatically. The show discusses ways federal regulators are considering to cut emissions, such as by improving air traffic management and using double annular combustor (DAC) engine design. This sound clip lasts 5 minutes and 45 ... Full description.

This educator's guide focuses on parts of the Solar System that do not get much attention: asteroid, meteoroids, and comets. By picking at least one activity from each section, students gain a breadth of understanding about mission planning and execution couched in a real world context of an actual mission, Stardust, which is studying small bodies in the Solar System until 2006. Topics include: comet ... Full description.

In this activity students construct a scale model of the Image for Magnetopause-to-Auroral Global Exploration (IMAGE) satellite. The construction of scale models of spacecraft has, historically, been an important engineering tool in designing spacecraft. Today, powerful computer assisted design and modeling (CAD/CAM) software programs have become popular, but scale model building is still considered ... Full description.

This Amazing Space lesson highlights a 1997 service mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. The activity explains each step of the mission, later asking students to determine the order of the steps, using scientific thinking. Teacher tips outline concepts, skills, time requirements, and followup activities and extensions. Also included is a list of related links, and suggestions for classrooms without ... Full description.

In this activity, students will construct a set of sieves (four sizes) and use them to sort a soil sample. The activity will demonstrate that accuracy does not always have to involve expensive, high technology equipment. The sieves can be kept for use in later activities. A materials list and illustrated instructions are provided. Materials used to construct the sieves must be purchased. Full description.

This teaching unit for energy and energy units allows students to perform their personal and household energy audit. Students can calculate and analyze their energy consumption patterns and ways they can reduce their energy use. Different sources of energy including solar, wind, tidal, hydroelectric, nuclear, geothermal, biomass/biofuels, coal, oil, and natural gas are discussed. Images and videos ... Full description.

In this lesson, students discover the instruments and techniques, both ancient and modern, that are used for marine navigation and position-finding. They will identify and explain at least seven different techniques used for marine navigation and position finding, explain the purpose of a marine sextant, and use an astrolabe to solve practical trigonometric problems. Full description.

Students will investigate the physical description and mapping of seamounts in a Gulf of Alaska chain as they discover how seamounts in the Axial-Cobb-Eikelberg-Patton chain can be mapped to facilitate their exploration with a manned submersible. They will describe major topographic features on the Patton Seamount, interpret two-dimensional topographic data, and create a three-dimensional model of ... Full description.