Webpage resources for K-12 students and educators

Quick Links:

• Institutes and programs for K-12 students
• Science Career Information
• K-12 Curriculum and Activities
  • NASA related
  • Astronomy
  • Earth and Space Science
  • General Math and Science
  • Robotics and Engineering
• Spanish Language Sites
• Visually Impaired Resources

Science Career Information

These are all websites set up by professional science, math, and engineering societies about career opportunities in their field(s) and how to prepare for them. This is not an exhaustive list of career information, but they should be a good starting place for exploring careers in a variety of science, math, and engineering disciplines. Many of these pages are aimed at high school students and their teachers.

• Astronomy Careers - American Astronomical Association
• Biology Careers - American Institute of Biological Sciences
• Chemical/Chemistry Careers - American Chemical Society
• Electrical, Electronic, and Computer Engineering Careers - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• Engineering Careers - National Society of Professional Engineers
• Geoscience Careers - American Geophysical Union
• Health Care Careers - American Medical Association
• Mathematics Careers - American Mathematical Society (several links about half-way down the page)
• Physics Careers - "Careers Using Physics", The American Institute of Physics
• Careers at NASA - including aerospace, astrobiology, astronaut, civil service, earth science, space flight, terrestrial physics, and other careers; also links to biographies of NASA employees
  • NASA Quest -- meet the people who work at NASA, including opportunities to talk to NASA employees, and download educational materials
  • Women of NASA -- biographies of women who work for NASA

K-12 Curriculum and Activities

NASA related sites

Wyoming's NASA Educator Resource Center - NASA educational resources for teachers

NASA's Global Snowflake Network - NASA Goddard is launching the Global Snowflake Network, a project in which the general public is encouraged to go out and collect and classify falling snowflakes to build up a global database of snowflake data. The goal is to provide an interactive online data resource for the characterization of snowfall and related weather systems. Sites will include homes, schools and other organizations, each of which will have one person dedicated to the identification and Web-based entry of snowflake shapes collected during snowfall events. The serial record will then be archives with serial satellite image records. The public gets to participate in real science while learning more about snow and snowflake formation, as well as helping meteorologists track the weather.

NASAKids -- offers stories written for middle schoolers and younger, with activities to help energize the natural curiosity of our children.

NASA Quest -- meet the people who work at NASA, including opportunities to talk to NASA employees, and download educational materials

The Space Place -- games, animations, projects, and fun facts about Earth, space and technology. (A JPL space science fun and learning center for kids.)

The Space Place Teacher's Corner -- Although the entire Space Place site may be helpful to teachers and students, the resources linked here were developed specifically to help in the classroom.

Thursday's Classroom  -- lesson plans about recent NASA science news.

Weekly Math Problems  -- Unusual Mathematical Problems in Space Science and Astronomy.

Astronomy

The Universe at your Fingertips -- A collection of astronomy teaching material for K-12 from the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. Sample activities on the web site. Materials come in a loose-leaf notebook and include 1) exemplary classroom activities selected by a team of teachers and astronomers; 2) comprehensive resource lists and bibliographies; 3) brief background material on astronomical topics; 4) teaching ideas from experienced astronomy educators.

The Nine Planets for Kids -- a good site for kids with activities.

Imagine Science -- Explore a universe of black holes, dark matter, and quasars... A universe full of extremely high energies, high densities, high pressures, and extremely intense magnetic fields which allow us to test our understanding of the laws of physics.

Amazing Space -- A collection of classroom activities from the Space Telescope Science Institute. Ten science teachers teamed up with scientists and engineers from the institute and staff members from the Office of Public Outreach to develop these interactive lessons for the World Wide Web. All lessons include spectacular photographs taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and many high quality graphics, videos, and animation designed to enhance student understanding and interest. The suggested levels for individual lessons vary from elementary to high school (primarily for age 14 and up).

Starchild -- A Learning Center for Young Astronomers - A companion site to Amazing Space, except designed for Grades 3-5 and 6-8.

Understanding the Universe -- Education site on the structure of the universe (has basic cosmology background) designed by the Chandra X-ray Observatory group. Includes classroom-ready activities, demonstrations, science background, activities, mission descriptions.

Galileo K-12 Educator's Website -- An extensive site with information about Jupiter and Galileo, as well as historical information, lesson plans, activities, and teacher resources.

Online Exploration: Star Light, Star Bright -- explores the nature of the electromagnetic spectrum. In this activity students will identify the different properties of waves and the relationship that exists between energy, wavelength, and frequency. Students will correlate images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and other astronomical instruments to the wavelength, color, and temperature information that can be found in the spectrum. Students will draw conclusions based upon data displayed in graphs. Aimed at grades 6-9 (but can be adapted to other levels).

Stardate Online -- A resource center of the University of Texas McDonald Observatory (producers of the "Stardate" radio program)

Weekly Math Problems  -- Unusual Mathematical Problems in Space Science and Astronomy.

Earth and Space Science

NASA Space Science education resource directory -- The web-based directory provides easy access to high-quality, online space science educational resources for teachers and students from kindergarten through high school.

SpaceWeather.com -- learn about geomagnetic storms, meteor showers, and more.

Online Space Weather Center -- more about living near the sun

Satellite Tracking -- satellite tracking programs.

The Space Place -- games, animations, projects, and fun facts about Earth, space and technology. (A JPL space science fun and learning center for kids.)

The Space Place Teacher's Corner -- Although the entire Space Place site may be helpful to teachers and students, the resources linked here were developed specifically to help in the classroom.

Understanding the Biosphere from the Top Down -- This Web site contains 22 lesson plans for grades (4-12) written by teachers with the supervision of Ames Earth Science personnel. The lessons help students to learn about the Earth's system as NASA scientists do by studying the Earth from the perspective of space, the top down. After using these lessons students will have a preliminary understanding of remote sensing what data and imagery gathered by satellites and aircraft are like.

Windows to the Universe -- A user-friendly learning system on the Earth and Space sciences for the use of the general public. The objective of this project, funded by NASA, is to develop an innovative and engaging Web-site that spans the Earth and Space sciences. Our goal is to build a site that includes a rich array of documents, including images, movies, animations, and data sets, that explore the Earth and Space sciences and the historical and cultural ties between science, exploration, and the human experience. Our site is being developed with the goal of being appropriate for use in museums and libraries, and to be a resource for students in their studies of the Earth and Space sciences.

The Earth Science Educator -- A set of links to NASA Earth Science Research and Education resources.

Cornell Center for Materials Research Science Modules -- science activities in chemistry, earth science, engineering, materials science, math, and physics (also a few activities in Spanish)

Weekly Math Problems  -- Unusual Mathematical Problems in Space Science and Astronomy.

General Math and Science

Smart Girls Rock -- an online community for girls who want to make their mark in science, technology, engineering, math and business.

NASA CONNECT -- is a series of interactive, 30-minute, instructional programs for students in grades 5-8. NASA CONNECT establishes the "connection" between the mathematics, science, and technology concepts taught in the classroom and NASA research. Visit CONNECT's website for registration information and how to obtain the teacher materials associated with each broadcast. The Library of Shows area features past broadcasts for grades K-8. Re-broadcasts of the series can be found on the NASA TV education schedule.

NASA Education -- NASA Education is one of NASA's electronic resources specifically developed for use by the educational community.

Practical uses of Math and Science -- An innovative collection of short examples illustrating how math and science topics taught in K-12 classes can be used in interesting settings, including everyday life. Examples may be activities, anecdotes, descriptions of "neat ideas," formal exercises, puzzles, or demonstrations. Written primarily by scientists.

Great Explorations in Math and Science (GEMS) -- A series of inquiry-based curriculum guides for a variety of science topics, including astronomy. Guides for preschool to high school levels. GEMS units can serve as a strong curricular support to the national science and mathematics education reform efforts now underway, represented by the move toward implementation of national standards in science and mathematics.

The NASA SCIence Files -- is a series of instructional programs consisting of broadcast, print, and on-line elements. Emphasizing standards-based instruction, Problem-Based Learning, and science as inquiry, the series seeks to motivate students in grades 3-5 to become critical thinkers and active problem solvers. Each program supports the national mathematics, science, and technology standards and includes a 60-minute video broadcast (broken into 4 51-min segments), a companion educator's guide, web-based activities and materials, and information about NASA programs, projects, facilities, and researchers.

Cornell Center for Materials Research Science Modules -- science activities in chemistry, earth science, engineering, materials science, math, and physics (also a few activities in Spanish)

Practical Physics -- large collection of physics experiments

Harvard University Physics Demonstrations -- collection of demonstrations grouped by physics subject area

FAA Aviation Education

Weekly Math Problems  -- Unusual Mathematical Problems in Space Science and Astronomy.

Robotics and Engineering

ROVer Ranch -- Lessons about robotic engineering.

The Robotics Alliance Project -- Support a series of robotics competition programs that inspire students to become involved with technical fields.

EARLY Robotics -- Engineering and Science for 7-12 year olds. Provides 7-12 year olds a chance to participate in a robotics competition every fall and spring using LEGO® Simple Machines kits.

Spanish-language web resources

Ciencia@NASA -- Spanish-language science news stories. Highly recommended - lots of info and good links.

Universo Online -- A resource center of the University of Texas McDonald Observatory (producers of the radio show Stardate)

El Space Place -- games, animations, projects, and fun facts about Earth, space and technology. (A JPL space science fun and learning center for kids.)

La Exploración de la Magnetosfera Terrestre (Exploration of the Earth's Magnetosphere) -- Background reading on this topic.

Información General de la Administración Nacional de Aeronautica y el Espacio (NASA) -- Includes hispanic astronaut biographies

Introducción al fenómeno de El Niño del Centro de Vuelos Espaciales Goddard de la NASA (Primer on the El Niño Southern Oscillation) -- a slideshow overview with audio.

Bilingual Women of NASA -- This page includes a schedule of chats with bilingual NASA employees, as well as a collection of links to other curriculum and career information sites.

Cornell Center for Materials Research Science Modules -- includes a few science activities in Spanish (all the way at the bottom of the page: "Hacemos Plastelina", "Imanes Marvillosos", "La Polea: Una Maquina Simple")

Resources for the Visually Impaired

You Can Do Astronomy -- accessibility design and consulting company with a focus on making astronomy and space science accessible to people with disabilities.

National Braille Press -- nonprofit Braille printer and publisher offering Braille books, magazines, textbooks, tests, and customized embossing services.

Touch the Universe: A NASA Braille Book of Astronomy -- this Braille/large print book with tactile images from the Hubble Space Telescope takes readers on a voyage of discovery, starting at Earth, proceeding through the solar system, and ending with the one of the most distant images taken by Hubble, the "Hubble Deep Field" photo. (This book is available for loan from the Wyoming Space Grant office, contact us for more information.)

Touch the Sun: A NASA Braille Book -- (Braille/large print) contains embossed color images of our dynamic sun including sunspots, eruptions, magnetic fields and space weather. (This book is available for loan from the Wyoming Space Grant office, contact us for more information.)

Touch the Stars -- Braille/Large print astronomy text with tactile line drawings. This book covers a variety of general astronomy topics including constellations, planets, moon phases, eclipses and galaxies.  (This book is available for loan from the Wyoming Space Grant office, contact us for more information.)

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