Astronomy

Review the definition and history of astronomy and space science.

Go to the Lunar and Planetary Society to find information for a greater understanding of astronomy topics, written for a general audience.

PBS Learning Media offers the following collections, each full of videos, lessons, interactives, and teaching resources:

• Ready Jet Go!, grades K-2
• Space: Bringing the Universe to America’s Classrooms, grades K-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12
• All About Astronomy, grades 3-12
• Night Sky Observation, grades 3-12
• NASA Planetary Sciences, grades 3-12
• PBS Space Time, grades 6-12
• Finding Life Beyond Earth, grades K-12

Seeing in the Dark is a terrific film about the joy of stargazing. Its website will take you to a variety of astronomy topics and ideas for exploring the night sky. Be sure to check out the accompanying Teachers Page, which is full of classroom activities to inspire young stargazers and bring astronomy alive for your students.

In Amateur Astronomers, middle school students can learn about telescopes, sky observation, and the role of amateur astronomers. The Educator’s Guide includes background material, lesson ideas, and further resources.

Astronomy’s Biggest Stars is a humorous look at the history of astronomy, through a meeting of famous astronomers from Ptolemy to Kepler. This is part of the series Spaced Out: A Cosmic Scene, a series of video modules for middle-school students and teachers that introduces basic principles of physics and astronomy in an entertaining fashion.

Why is Galileo often referred to as the “father of modern astronomy?” He was the first person to study distant objects in the skies through a telescope, forever changing the study of astronomy. Learn about his pioneering discoveries in Galileo’s Telescope and Discovering Jupiter’s Moons.

NASA has some great websites for kids that you can use in your classroom for both instruction and enrichment. These student sites contain content, games, interactives and activities. The accompanying teacher sites contain lesson plans, alignment with standards, and links to further NASA resources.

• NASA Kids Club (for grades K-4)

Information for teachers

Space Place (for upper elementary grades)Educators and Parents

Star Child (two levels, for children 6-12)Teachers' Center

Imagine the Universe (for teens age 13 and up)Educators' Corner

NASA STEM Engagement is a website designed to inspire and engage the next generation of explorers. Explore NASA’s terrific collection of STEM Resources for K-12 Educators. Search STEM materials for educators by grade level and resource type. You may also want to utilize STEM@Home for grades K-4 and grades 5-8.

NASA eClips is a collection of standards-based short videos specifically for educators to use in the classroom. Educator guides and interactive lessons provide suggestions for using the video segments as instructional tools.

NASA’s Universe of Learning is a new integrated space science program with resources and experiences for youth, families, educators, and lifelong learners.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab offers a wealth of high-quality classroom activities that you can filter for grade level and topic.

NASA has a wonderful collection of space images that will fascinate your students. Don’t miss the Hubble Space Telescope Photo Gallery. For outstanding photos of the solar system, go to JPL’s Planetary Photo Journal.

Inspire your students with Tonight’s Sky, which shows young stargazers what they may see in the sky on any given date.

Constellations are fun for younger students to study. Legends in the Sky is a lesson about constellation tales from around the world.

The Lunar and Planetary Institute offers hands-on space-science resources and activities for upper elementary and middle school classrooms.

Check out these complete lesson plans from Elementary School Science:

• What Is Astronomy? A Look at Space, Celestial Objects, and the Universe
• Night Lights: All About the Stars
• How Big Is the Solar System and Its Place in the Universe?

McDonald Observatory at the University of Texas has standards-aligned lessons and engaging classroom activities for students in grades K-5 and 6-8. 

You'll find lots of astronomy lesson plan links for middle school at The Science Spot.

Eyes on the Sky, Feet On the Ground features hands-on astronomy activities that you can use in your classroom.

In History of the Universe: Creating Timelines, students combine astronomy and math knowledge as they scale major events in the history of the universe to a recognizable time scale.

Try some of these hands-on classroom space activities compiled by StemWorks, designed for beginners to advanced students.

Students can create a comet, a spaceship, or a moon colony with these classroom activities from ScienceKids.

The Astronomical Society of the Pacific offers sixteen K-12 Educational Activities for you to use with your students.

Adler Planetarium in Chicago has elementary school resources and middle school resources for classroom teachers.

The American Museum of Natural History has a great website for students and teachers about Astronomy.

Check out this compilation of astronomy websites.

The Smithsonian Institute offers several classroom resources: Sizing Up The Universe interactive.

In addition to the NASA student websites, here are more kids’ astronomy websites to share with your students:

• Astronomy: Our Place in Space (National Museum of Natural History)
• ESA Kids (European Space Agency)
• Our Solar System and the Stars (Easy Science For Kids)
• Astronomy Science Projects
• Stars and Galaxies (DK Find Out)

Introduce your students to the importance of women in astronomy and space sciences with Women in Astronomy or She Is An Astronomer

Find hands-on astronomy experiments from the Center for Science Education at University of California-Berkeley.

If you're near the cities of Caldwell, Twin Falls, or Rexburg, you might want to plan a field trip to one of Idaho's Planetariums:

• BYU-Idaho Planetarium (Rexburg)
• The College of Southern Idaho Faulkner Planetarium (Twin Falls)
• The College of Idaho Whittenberger Planetarium (Caldwell)

You’ll find additional classroom resources on the Teachers page of these Science Trek topics:

• Planets
• Mars
• Galaxies
• Moon
• Asteroids and Comets
• Exoplanets
• Astronauts
• The Sun