Please note – all ppt slides on this website are in “Read Only” format, after you download the ppt, click on “Read Only” to access the ppts. No password is needed to view the slides.

Additional Pages

• Moon Unit: Resources about the Apollo Missions, Moon Phases, Tides, and more (link)
• Star Lab: Resources for constellations, stars, and myths to use as part of our Star Lab experience and constellations unit (link)

Mars

1. Google Mars – explore the surface of Mars! (link)
2. BrainPOP Mars – free video, activity pages, and more (link)
3. Mars Missions – details about current missions (link) and all missions (link)
   • Activity: students will research Missions to Mars using a Google Spreadsheet – (public link) (blog entry)
4. Curiosity Rover – tweets from Mars (link)
5. Follow Your Curiosity – Lesson Plans from NASA that explore topics related to Mars (link)
6. Earth, Mars, and the Moon Venn Diagram – What do we know? This is a whole class activity used as an introductory lesson to kick off our unit on Mars. Students will sort and discuss 16 facts related to the Earth, Mars, and the Moon. (blog entry)
7. Mars & Earth Comparison Chart – Students will sort and categorize facts about the two planets (NASA website link) (blog entry)

Astronomy

1. “The Heavens Playlist” – students will choose songs whose lyrics mention the sun, moon, stars, planets, and other heavenly bodies. They will create a ppt slide with lyrics from the song and images related to the song. Our playlist (blog entry)
2. Sunrise, Sunset, and Moonrise – students will record astronomy data for different cities around the world and look for patterns, how does latitude affect sunrise, sunset, and day length? Is there a pattern for the moonrise times? (blog entry)

Stars & Constellations

1. Night Sky Maps – free monthly sky maps (link)
2. Earth & Sky Tonight – your nightly guide to the sky (link)
3. Tonight’s Sky – Video summaries from Hubble Site that highlight the month’s best views of planets, stars, constellations, deep sky objects, and events. (link)
4. Big Dipper Clock – students will be able to tell the time by the positions of the dippers (pdf)
5. Make Your Own Planisphere (Star Wheel) – An inexpensive and easy way to help you find constellations in the night sky (blog entry)
6. Constellation Haiku – students will create original poetry based on the constellations using the format of a 5-7-5 Haiku Poem (blog entry)
7. Personal Constellation – students will create an original constellation using the letters of their name.  They can write a short story to tell the tale of how their constellation ended up in the sky (pdf)
8. Constellation Viewer – using a Pringles Can, students will make a constellation viewer, templates are included (pdf)
9. Constellation Flash Cards – Printable cards for 28 constellations (link) or 20 constellations with notes (pdf)

Space – General

1. Outside the Spacecraft – @airandspace “To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first two ventures outside the spacecraft, this exhibition presents art, photography, artifacts, and personal accounts that relate the continuing story of EVA.” (link)
2. Current JPL Missions – Did you know that Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 are still on their missions? (link)
3. Exploring the Solar System – Students will research past, current, and future missions of unmanned spacecrafts and create Google Slides (blog entry) using the JPL Missions Website (link), mission assignments (public link), and mission information (public link)
4. NASA Missions Exploring the Planets – Juno is on its way to Jupiter, will get there in 2016 (link)
5. NASA – Solar System – tons of information for each of the planets, great resource! (link)
6. NASA Spinoffs – students will explore how space makes our daily lives better – NASA Spinoffs handout and interactive website (blog entry)
7. Planet Fact or Trading Cards – using Google Slides students will make trading cards for each of the planets (blog entry)