Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.

Dr. Carl Sagan

Astronomy Compels the Soul to Look Upwards and Leads us from This World to Another

Plato

Equipped with His Five Senses, Man Explores the Universe Around Him and Calls the Adventure Science.

Edwin Hubble

Do not look at stars as bright stars only. Try to take in the vastness of the Universe.

Maria Mitchell

The Purpose of Life is the Investigation of the Sun, the Moon, and the Heavens.

Anaxagoras

Lessons - Grades 6 thru 12

Lessons for Grades 6 thru 8 | Ages 11 to 13

Topics Activity Ideas Lesson Links

  1. Mars: The next frontier
  2. Why teach Astronomy:
    • The history of astronomy
    • What we are learning now
    • Why we should learn about astronomy for the future
  3. Eclipses:
    • Solar
    • Lunar
  4. Navigating by the stars:
    • History of navigation using stars
    • How Astronauts used the stars to navigate to the Moon
  5. Solstice vs Equinox
  6. Black Holes:
    • What are they
    • How are the created
    • What does it affect
  7. Galaxies:
    • What are they
    • How many are there
    • How big are they
  8. Light and Speed of Light:
    • What is it
    • How light can let us 'see' into the past
  9. The International Space Station
  10. Global Climate Change:
    • Venus, Mars, and Earth's climate history
    • How satellites help monitor climate change

  1. Modeling Eclipses with size + distance
  2. Make a model of the Solar System:
    • Model using Play Doh - or objects relative in a scale
    • Model using ballons or paper mache
  3. Make your own sundial

  1. Environmental Change - PBS Content
  2. Astronomy and Culture - PBS Content
  3. Mars - Crash Course Content
  4. Eclipses - Crash Course Content
  5. History and Timeline of the ISS - ISS National Laboratory Content
  6. At the Core of Climate Change - PBS Content
  7. Solar and Lunar Eclipses - Generation Genius Content
  8. Black Holes: Facts, Theory, and Definition - Space.com Content
Vocabulary to Note Historical Figures

  1. Sun Dial
  2. GreenHouse gases
  3. Black Hole
  4. Neutron Stars
  5. SuperNova
  6. Star Cluster
  7. Field of View
  8. Emit
  9. Spectrum

  1. Carl Sagan
  2. Neil Degrasse Tyson
  3. Karl Schwarzschild
  4. Eunice Foote
  5. John Tyndall

"We will always have STEM with us. Some things will drop out of the public eye and will go away, but there will always be science, engineering, and technology. And there will always, always be mathematics." - Katherine Johnson, NASA Research Mathematician

Lessons for Grades 9 thru 10 | Ages 14 to 15

Topics Activity Ideas Lesson Links

  1. Planets in motion: Prograde and retrograde
  2. Hubble Space Telescope
  3. Astronomy through the years:
    • Ancient
    • Greco-Roman astronomy
    • Astronomy in the Dark Ages
    • 17th Century astronomy
    • 19th Century - today astronomy
  4. Astronomy vs. Astrology:
    • The history of Astrology in society
    • Science vs Pseudoscience
    • Zodiac 'signs'
    • Fact vs Fiction
  5. Laws of motion:
    • Laws of motion and gravity
    • Laws of planetary motion
  6. Telescopes:
    • History of the telescope / spyglass
    • Types of telescopes
    • Star Parties
  7. The Celestial Sphere and the constellations
  8. Space Exploration:
    • History - "Space Race"
    • Human Exploration
    • Robotic Exploration
    • First Human on Mars?
  9. Viewing the Visible and Invisible Universe

  1. Build Your own Telescope
  2. Make your own Mars Rover:
    • Make a mars rover and test out how to make a working hand that can pick up samples.
    • Test out how the rover drives on different surfaces
  3. Practice nightime photography of the stars and moon.

  1. Global Warming Effect - PBS Content
  2. Hubble Telescope - PBS Content
  3. Activities and Lessons about Astrology - Astrosociety.org Content
  4. Orbits and Kepler's Laws - NASA Content
  5. A Brief History of Space Exploration - Aerospace.org Content
  6. Light as a Cosmic Time Machine - PBS Content
  7. Who Invented the Telescope - Space.com Content
  8. Basics of Space Flight - NASA Content
  9. The Sky Above - Lumen Learning Content
Vocabulary to Note Historical Figures

  1. Pseudoscience
  2. Prograde
  3. Retrograde
  4. Observable Universe
  5. Photon
  6. Hubble Deep Field Galaxies
  7. Gas Giant
  8. Oort Cloud
  9. Terrestrial Planet

  1. Edwin Hubble
  2. Max Planck
  3. Jan Oort
  4. Alan Leo
  5. Johannes Kepler

"If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe." - Dr Carl Sagan

Lessons for Grades 11 thru 12 | Ages 16 thru 18

Topics Activity Ideas Lesson Links

  1. Hubble space telescope discoveries
  2. James L Webb Space Telescope: What to expect
  3. Our Sun:
    • History of our Sun
    • Solar Energy - Fission vs Fusion
    • Structure of our Sun and other Stars
    • Role of Sun in our Solar System
  4. Star life cycles - birth to death
  5. Stellar remnants - novas, nebulas, and black holes
  6. Spectroscopy - how to investigate distant stars
  7. Matter and Dark Matter in the Universe
  8. Gravity and Magnetic fields
  9. Theories of Cosmology:
    • Big Bang Theory
    • Multiverses
    • Expansion and collapse of Universe

  1. Research one famous Female Astronomer / Astrophysicist
  2. Make up your own planet and come up with ideas on how it could be habitable for a new Earth
  3. Design your own Telescope
  4. Design a new Astronaut Suit:
    • Explain how the suit keeps them safe from the different elements they will face out in space
    • What are the different tools they will have on the suit to help with different experiments and situations

  1. Habitable planets - PBS Content
  2. Hubble Space Telescope Curriculum - Digitals Education Content
  3. The Formation and Life Cycle of Stars - BBC Content
  4. 60 Years and Counting: Human Spaceflight - NASA Content
  5. Space Exploration: Major Milestones - Britannica Content
  6. The Origin of the Universe - Scholastic Content
  7. Stephen Hawking: Putting an end to the Beginning of The Universe - Science.org Content
  8. What if the Universe has no End? - BBC Content
Vocabulary to Note Historical Figures

  1. Nuclear Reactions
  2. Heat Transfers
  3. Black Matter
  4. Theories of Cosmology
  5. Spectroscopy
  6. Stellar Remnants
  7. Multiverses
  8. Magnetic Fields

  1. James L. Webb
  2. Stephen Hawking
  3. Sir Isaac Newton
  4. Georges Lemaître
  5. Hugh Everett
  6. Fritz Zwicky

"If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe." - Dr Carl Sagan