Activity 12:  From Telescopes to Space Probes (GLEs:  2, 69)

CC: Students will research the advances made in space exploration and space observation technology. Students should try to gather drawings and photographs of various planets, their moons, and Earth's Moon. If available provide the students with Galileo's drawings of the Moon as he observed it through the first telescope he made. (The drawings are often found in biographical information of Galileo.) Compare those drawings to present day photographs of the Moon. Using older encyclopedias found in most libraries or older books on space and more modern books and online NASA images, the students will compare the older images to those taken recently to observe the advancements in imagery made possible by new technology. The National Weather Service, NOAA, and NASA all have websites that can be used to gather satellite images of weather, ocean temperatures, and other remote sensing images. The students may be assigned a short report on the Space Station, Hubble Telescope, Voyager, Pathfinder and the Sojourner probe, Galileo, Apollo 11, or other space missions.

Unitedstreaming video

http://unitedstreaming.com

Elementary Video Adventures: Space

Suggested websites for research:

http://www.nasa.gov

A website is attached to Galileo's drawings of the planets & moon.

A suggestion to this activity is to build a timeline in the classroom for students to display their research findings. Websites for timelines are:

http://www.historychannel.com/exhibits/moonshots/timeline.html

FOXNews.com - Timeline: US Space Program History - US & World

Timeline: US Space Program History

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,77277,00.html