Space Exploration
On this page is all the information you might need to support your learning in this unit. At the top of the page will be helpful links to things like Google Presentations, e-textbooks, vocabulary, YouTube videos and screencasts. Below are pictures of our Interactive Notebook for Space Exploration. If there is something you would like to see here, let me know!
Life in Space:
Clickable Space Suit: use this to complete your Life in Space page.
How does space exploration benefit us on Earth?
Interactive Space Activity Tracker:
Assignments & Other Tasks:
Sustaining Energy on Mars Project
Construct a Simple Telescope Activity
Tomatosphere Germination Analysis Spreadsheet Template
Tomatosphere Germination Spreadsheet Instructions
Tomatosphere Germination Written Analysis
Doodle Notes Templates:
Interactive Notebook/Doodle Notes:
We will be using a hybrid of an Interactive Notebook model with Doodle Notes. All templates can be found above.
Introduction:
Here we introduce the solar system as we know it now, and discuss earlier models and the evidence that supported them.
Finding Our Way to Mars:
One of the fun ways we have introduced this topic in the past is to have students create an "Explore Mars" travel brochure! They have to learn some facts about Mars and the rest of the solar system to ensure their brochure is comprehensive. This also gives students experience reading for correct information and evaluating sources of information for validity and reliability.
Heliocentric vs Geocentric Models:
The specific people and dates are not the crucial information. Instead, we should focus on how and why the models of the universe evolved as we gained more information through observations and improved technological advances.
Videos used to help visualize concepts:
Read Alouds used to contextualize information:
Mista Muskwa from Tipiskawi Kisik: Night Sky Star Stories by Wilfred Buck
Chelyabinsk Meteor : A Wake-Up Call for Earth on Space.com
Eratosthenes discovers the Earth is round from Cosmos by Carl Sagan
Observing Mars (and the rest of space)
Now that we know how early observations with the naked eye were used to form models of our Solar System, we can take the next step and examine how assisted observations have changed our perceptions. We start with the simple optical telescope! We will sketch some brief notes about the parts of a telescope and then you will construct and use a simple optical telescope yourself.
Comparing Telescopes
Now that you have had some practice constructing and using a simple telescope, we will learn about how telescope design has changed over time and how we have managed to use different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum to see farther into our universe!
Spectral Analysis
Thanks to work by Kirchoff and Bunsen, we have the spectra that are emitted by all elements on the periodic table. By comparing the lines of individual elements to the lines found in a star's spectrum, we can determine which elements that star is made of.
Videos to help visualize concepts:
Doppler Effect
The Doppler Effect is the apparent shift in frequency of wavelengths due to movement between an object and the observer.
Videos to help visualize concepts:
Locating Objects In Space - Sky Coordinates
Here we learn how to locate objects in space using the Azimuth and Altitude coordinates.
SKY Chart Activity:
Practice locating objects in space using a local Sky Chart
Videos to help visualize concepts:
Estimating Distance - Parallax & Triangulation
The disadvantage we found in trying to locate objects around the classroom (different viewpoints gave different measurements) can be taken advantage of to estimate distance of objects using the parallax technique!
Videos to help visualize concepts:
Getting Airborne - Newton's Third Law
Students combine theory and observation to understand how Newton's Third Law works to propel rockets. They will build balloon staged rockets to watch the effect staging has on rocket propulsion.
Watch this compilation of different rockets we've launched in class:
Exploring Space - Satellites & Space Probes & Rovers
Rockets are often used to launch things into space that will help our understanding. Satellites are one type of payload for rockets.
Here we discuss the difference between Geosynchronous, Low Earth Orbit and GPS Satellites and give examples of each.
Space Probes & Rovers are briefly touched on.
Gravity Assist helps spacecraft gain momentum while conserving fuel.
Life in Space
Putting humans in space has been a challenge for many reasons. On this page we look at inventions that have come out of the space program that benefit us, what happens to the human body in space, how we try to protect ourselves and Canadian contributions to space exploration.