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Subtopic: Satellites and Space Research Technology

Change grade range

Resource	Grade Level	Media Type
Above the Clouds: Telescopes on Mauna Kea This video segment adapted from First Light explains why the highest peak in the Pacific, Mauna Kea, is an ideal site for astronomical observations. Featured are new telescope technologies that allow astronomers to explore the universe in more depth.	6-12	QuickTime Video
Accidental Discoveries This segment from Swift: Eyes through Time traces the history military officers and engineers discovering a strange phenomenon in the sky that astronomers now know are gamma-ray bursts.	5-8	QuickTime Video
Accidental Discoveries This lesson will help the students understand that science theories change in the face of new evidence, but those changes can be slow in coming.	5-8	Lesson Plan
Anatomy of a Rover In this interactive activity from NOVA, learn about the sophisticated scientific instruments on two identical robotic rovers that have explored Mars — Spirit and Opportunity.	3-12	Flash Interactive
Antarctica: Sea Ice This video segment adapted from NOVA uses microwave images to reveal how sea ice doubles the size of Antarctica each winter. Rare footage shows how sea ice crushed the famous ship Endurance in 1914.	K-12	QuickTime Video
Arctic Sea Ice Satellite Observations In this interactive activity produced for Teachers' Domain, learn how Arctic sea ice has changed over the past 25 years in terms of maximum winter extent, concentration, and the timing of breakup each spring.	6-12	Flash Interactive
Are We Alone? This video segment adapted from NOVA features a variety of scientific perspectives on the age old question, "Are we alone in the universe?" Animations make vivid the improbability that we could intercept a radio wave signaling extra terrestrial intelligence.	6-12	QuickTime Video
Astronomical Images in Different Wavelengths Visible light is just one portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that a telescope may detect. This collection of images produced for Teachers' Domain features radio wave, infrared, visible light, and X-ray images of distant stars and galaxies as well as images of the telescopes designed to detect the various wavelengths of radiation.	6-12	Flash Interactive
Astronomy Theories This video segment from Swift: Eyes through Time deals with the advancement of science through changing existing ideas, refuting outdated theories, and incorporating new findings.	5-8	QuickTime Video
Choosing a STEM Career Students will view video clips about graduate and middle school students with interests in STEM careers and compare technologies from yesterday with today. They will explore careers on-line before writing about their futures as STEM professionals.	6-12	Lesson Plan
Creativity in Science This lesson will take a look at the different roles scientists play in discoveries.	5-8	Lesson Plan
Earth System: Satellites This video segment adapted from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center shows how integral satellites are to everyday life and describes the different types, including orbital and geostationary.	6-12	QuickTime Video
Engineering for the Red Planet In this video segment from NASA, robotics researcher Ayanna Howard uses engineering to improve the intelligence of robots in space exploration.	6-12	QuickTime Video
Explore Alaska's Volcanoes In this interactive activity adapted from the University of Alaska, explore four of Alaska's many volcanoes using photographs, computer simulations, and three kinds of satellite images.	6-12	Flash Interactive
Galileo: Discovering Jupiter's Moons This video segment adapted from NOVA shows how Galileo, using his newly developed refracting telescope, observed four of Jupiter's moons, the first astronomical bodies to be discovered since ancient times.	3-12	QuickTime Video
Gamma-ray Burst Theories This video segment from Swift: Eyes through Time introduces and explains theories of the origin of gamma-ray bursts.	5-8	QuickTime Video
Global View of the Seasons This interactive activity produced for Teachers' Domain features satellite data of Earth's seasonal cycles. Visualizations and comparative still images reveal how successfully plants are photosynthesizing at different times of the year.	6-12	Flash Interactive
How Big Is Our Universe? This interactive resource from Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics uses images and activities to understand the scope and scale of our universe. Featured are technologies used by generations of explorers.	3-12	HTML Interactive
Hubble's Expanding Universe This adapted video segment, using footage from NOVA and NASA, examines Edwin Hubble's work and how his findings laid the foundation for the Big Bang theory.	6-12	QuickTime Video
Hubble Telescope: Looking Deep This video segment adapted from the Space Telescope Science Institute shows what the Hubble telescope found when it stared at a single, nearly empty spot in the sky for 10 days in 1995. The unexpected result was a picture of a multitude of galaxies stretching into the distance.	6-12	QuickTime Video
Hurricanes: New Tools for Predicting This video segment adapted from NOVA scienceNOW features new advances in predicting the intensity of hurricanes.	6-12	QuickTime Video
Infrared Search for Origins This interactive resource from NASA illustrates how infrared technology has advanced space exploration and can offer insight into questions about star formation, planetary systems, brown dwarfs, and the origins of the universe.	6-12	Flash Interactive
Ingredients for Life: Water This video segment adapted from NOVA goes on a whimsical journey in search of life forms thriving in extreme conditions on Earth and in outer space. Animations show ice on Jupiter's moon, Europa, and signs that water once existed on Mars.	3-12	QuickTime Video
Looking Back in Time This video segment of Swift: Eyes through Time provides concrete examples to explain the concept that distance in space equals distance in time.	5-8	QuickTime Video
Looking Back in Time This lesson plan will provide a concrete way for the students to understand the concept of “distance in space equals distance in time.”	5-8	Lesson Plan
Mars Dead or Alive: A Hostile Environment This NOVA video segment describes the challenges presented by the frozen desert environment of Mars to NASA engineers designing two robots that will journey millions of miles to the red planet.	6-12	QuickTime Video
Mars Dead or Alive: Mars Up Close NASA scientist Steve Squyres narrates this visual tour from NOVA Online of the most revealing discoveries made by the Spirit and Opportunity rovers on Mars.	6-12	Flash Interactive
Mars Dead or Alive: Welcome to Mars This video segment from NOVA features the dramatic landing of the Spirit and Opportunity rovers on Mars.	6-12	QuickTime Video
Mars Dead or Alive: Where to Land? In this video segment from NOVA, engineers and scientists designing the Spirit and Opportunity rovers struggle to choose landing spots both safe enough for landing and geologically promising.	6-12	QuickTime Video
Melting Ice In this media-rich lesson, students explore the role that ice plays on Earth, the factors causing it to melt, and the local and global consequences of melting ice.	6-12	Lesson Plan
Observations of Climate Change In this media-rich activity, students learn how data gathered through surveys with local residents and data collected by remote satellites are complementary tools that help deepen our understanding of the effects of climate change in the Arctic and elsewhere.	6-12	Student Activity
Observe One Place at Many Scales These satellite images and the companion animation from McDougal Littell/TERC begin at a scale that covers the whole Earth and zoom in to a view of the Capitol building in downtown Atlanta, Georgia.	6-12	Flash Interactive
Observing Antarctica Take a unique trip through Antarctica in this interactive activity, adapted from NASA, which uses high-resolution satellite images from the Landsat Image Mosaic of Antarctica (LIMA).	6-12	Flash Interactive
The Origin of the Elements This video segment adapted from NOVA explains the origin of the elements and how scientists use unique element profiles to identify supernova types.	6-12	QuickTime Video
The Relationship Between Science and Technology Students will learn how technology can help scientists solve a problem. One of the challenges scientists face with any spacecraft is attitude control. Students will be introduced to the problem of attitude control in space and two different ways scientists address it.	5-8	Lesson Plan
Robotic Exploration of Space Timeline This interactive timeline from NASA journeys through the last century, detailing key discoveries, experiments, missions, and other events that brought robotic space exploration from science fiction to reality.	9-12	Flash Interactive
Satellites Orbiting Earth This animation adapted from NASA shows the orbital paths of spacecraft in NASA's Earth Observing Fleet that are a source of wide-scale, primary research about Earth.	3-12	QuickTime Video
The Search for Another Earth This NASA video provides an overview of technology under development to explore the planets and stars outside our solar system. These will be the most sensitive instruments built to date.	3-12	Flash Video
Seeing Stars This video segment, adapted from QUEST, explores the modern techniques employed by astrophysicists to detect planets in orbit around stars in the universe other than our own.	11-12	QuickTime Video
A Strange New Planet This video segment adapted from NOVA features the first planet to be discovered outside our solar system. Its surprisingly large size and short orbit sent scientists back to their data and led them to discover similar planets.	6-12	QuickTime Video
Swift: Gamma-Ray Bursts In this video segment adapted from Penn State Public Broadcasting's Swift: Eyes Through Time, learn about the Swift satellite — a NASA mission with international participation — and how it is collecting data about gamma-ray bursts that may yield important discoveries about the Universe.	6-12	QuickTime Video
Teamwork in Science This video segment from Swift: Eyes through Time explores the concept of teamwork as scientists around the globe work together to explore deep space.	5-8	QuickTime Video
Theories This lesson will help the students understand that science theories change in the face of new evidence, but those changes can be slow in coming.	5-8	Lesson Plan
Tracking Polar Bears In this interactive activity adapted from the USGS Alaska Science Center, track the movements of a polar bear as it migrates across the changing Arctic sea ice and compare the paths of four different polar bears.	K-8	Flash Interactive
Volcanoes in the Infrared In this video adapted from KUAC-TV and the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, satellite imagery and infrared cameras are used to study and predict eruptions of volcanoes in the Aleutian Islands, Alaska.	6-12	QuickTime Video