This educators guide blends space exploration with reading and writing. The materials are divided into two units. One unit is designed for students in grades 1 and 2 while the other unit focuses on students in grades 3 and 4. Each includes a series of lessons that take students on a path of exploration of Saturn using reading and writing prompts. Full description.

This 24-page coloring and activity book includes general information on x-ray astronomy, NASA-s Chandra mission and the STS-93 mission. It is intended for parents to use with their children. The Chandra mission investigates black holes, supernovae, and galaxy clusters. Activities include a maze, word search, connect-the-dots and word jumble. Full description.

This CD uses song and drama to tell the story of Spirit and Opportunity, NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers, and their mission to search for signs of ancient water. It includes an inquiry-based lesson. Full description.

Children enter the classroom with already-formed ideas about ice. In the first activity, students share personal ice experience stories through drawing, telling, and writing. This enables the teacher to diagnose personal conceptions. Then students explore a big block of ice. They ask and record their questions and start an ice science notebook. Depending on the nature of the questions, the teacher ... Full description.

This poster uses reading and writing activities to promote science learning. Students start with the lesson Meet Our Solar System and ponder the edge of our understandings in Solar System Mysteries. Teacher tips and resources and student activities are included. It is intended to arouse children-s curiosity about objects in the sky and space exploration and encourage basic awareness of and interest ... Full description.

In Aster's Hoity Toity Belt, children can listen to a fictitious story about a celestial family of asteroids and their adventures in the skyborhood. As students listen, they will learn about the smaller bodies of our solar system and the Dawn mission by identifying some aspects of the story that are true, some that might be true and some that are false. Educators can choose from three versions, including ... Full description.

Leonard Nimoy narrates this animated 13-minute glimpse of NASA's Dawn mission that was launched in October 2007. The movie features a look into the planning, instrumentation and technological challenges of this mission into the heart of the asteroid belt. Full description.

This poster uses reading and writing activities to promote science learning. Students start with the lesson Meet Our Solar System and ponder the edge of our understandings in Solar System Mysteries. Teacher tips and resources and student activities are included. It is intended to arouse children-s curiosity about objects in the sky and space exploration and encourage basic awareness of and interest ... Full description.

This site, from the Miami Museum of Science, provides an overview of the basic scientific concepts behind a hurricane. A collection of projects allows students to build their own weather station. These include making a psychrometer to measure air humidity, wind spirals, chimes, a wind scale tool to measure wind speed, a wind scale streamer to measure wind direction, and a barometer and air pressure ... Full description.

This site offers activities for direct student interaction, for educators to use in the classroom and for experimentation at home. Student and educator activities focus on basic issues of groundwater, the water cycle, global water distribution, conservation and vocabulary. At home activities touch on aquifers, biodegradability and compost. Additional games, teaching tools and information on events ... Full description.