All Resources and Lesson Plans: Earth in the Universe

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.

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.

Collection Developed by: WPSU

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.

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.

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.

Birth of a Supernova, Type Ia
In this interactive activity from NOVA Online, learn about a type of exploding star — a Type Ia supernova — that is so bright that astronomers can measure the distance to the galaxy in which it resides, and even learn which elements make up the star.

Caves: Extreme Conditions for Life
This video segment adapted from NOVA raises the provocative idea that if life can exist in the most extreme environments on Earth — such as in dark, toxic caves — then perhaps living things can also survive in harsh environments on other planets.

Creativity in Science
This lesson will take a look at the different roles scientists play in discoveries.

Collection Developed by: WPSU

Earth as a System
This visualization adapted from NASA maps progressive global changes onto a rotating globe. Earth's atmosphere, hydrosphere, geosphere, and biosphere are shown to be dynamic and interconnected.

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.

Eclipse of the Century
This video segment adapted from NOVA features spectacular footage from the 1991 solar eclipse that fortuitously occurred directly over several major astronomical observatories in Hawaiʻi.

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.

Explore the Moon
See what it is like to walk on the Moon by viewing this collection of QuickTime images from NOVA Online. Stunning 360-degree panoramas from each of the six successful Apollo Moon landings are featured.

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.

Galileo: Sun-Centered System
In the early 1600s, most people believed that the Sun revolved around a stationary Earth. This video segment adapted from NOVA tells how Galileo proved that the Sun, not Earth, is at the center of our universe.

Gallery of Auroras
View this stunning collection of auroral displays from NOVA Online to find out why auroras appear in different colors and shapes and whether they occur on other planets.

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.

The Habitable Zone
This illustration is an approximate representation of the planets in our solar system and their relation to what scientists call "The Habitable Zone." The planet distances from the sun are measured in Astronomical Units (AU) and are not to scale.

Collection Developed by: KQED Public Television

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.

Hurricanes: New Tools for Predicting
This video segment adapted from NOVA scienceNOW features new advances in predicting the intensity of hurricanes.

Ingredients for Life: Carbon
This video segment adapted from NOVA illustrates why carbon is at the center of life on Earth. It also asks whether carbon-based life might exist on other planets.

Jupiter: Earth's Shield
Jupiter's immense gravity protects Earth from asteroids. In this video segment adapted from NOVA, scientists searching for signs of life in the universe identify solar systems with Jupiter-like planets that may be shielding smaller nearby Earth-like planets from comets and asteroids.

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.

Collection Developed by: WPSU

The Lunar Cycle
Students learn about the Moon's changing appearance and how orbital motion causes the Moon’s phases.

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.

Mars Dead or Alive: Welcome to Mars
This video segment from NOVA features the dramatic landing of the Spirit and Opportunity rovers on Mars.

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.

Monster Black Hole in Galaxy M84
This animation by Thomas Goertel of the Space Telescope Science Institute is an artist's conception of a spiral galaxy harboring a super-massive black hole. Observe how the material rotates faster the closer it is to the nucleus.

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.

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.

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.

Our Knowledge of the Universe
Students investigate the history of astronomy to see how major conceptual and technological advances have sculpted the current view of the universe.

Phases of the Moon
When we look up at the night sky, why do we see the Moon's appearance changing over time from a full sphere to a crescent to nothing at all? Find the answers in this interactive resource adapted from the National Air and Space Museum.

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.

Collection Developed by: WPSU

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.

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.

Collection Developed by: KQED Public Television

Solar Cooking
Warming Up to the Properties of Solar Radiation and Its Uses in Our Homes

Collection Developed by: WPSU

Solar Magnetism
This video segment adapted from NOVA describes how the Sun's magnetism can have an effect here on Earth, from dramatic auroras to a mini-Ice Age in the 1600s.

Spin a Spiral Galaxy
This interactive activity from NOVA Online lets you spin a spiral galaxy, including our own Milky Way. It demonstrates that what you can learn from visible light observations of a galaxy is largely determined by the angle from which you are observing it.

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.

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.

Collection Developed by: WPSU

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.

The Wall of Time
This illustrated timeline from the Lunar and Planetary Institute provides a journey through four-and-a-half billion years of time from the birth of our solar system to its current existence today.

What's Your Hypothesis?
Students use theories of dinosaur extinction and mammalian survival to examine the relationship between hypothesis and evidence.

WMAP: "Baby Picture" of the Universe
View the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) image from NASA to see the first detailed map of the oldest light in the universe, from 379,000 years after the Big Bang, over 13 billion years ago. A second image offers a visual timeline to put the WMAP image in perspective.