Discovery Lands, But Space Education Does Not
Posted on March 9, 2011 by Suzan Woodard in Reading Lists.
Tags: Astronauts, Current Events, NASA, Outer Space, Planets, Science Books for Kids, Shuttle Discovery, Solar System
The Shuttle Discovery
The wheels of space shuttle Discovery touched down around noon today at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, having successfully completed 39 missions and traveled millions of miles over its 27-year service. While the ship will be retired from its forays into outer space, the scientific contributions will continue “to infinity and beyond.”
The space ship will “offer scientific insight to future engineers,” said mission management team chairman Mike Moses in a statement on the NASA website. “‘The vehicle itself is a science platform,’ he said, adding that parts of Discovery will be pulled from the spacecraft and evaluated.”
Two other shuttle missions are in the planning stages for the Endeavour and Atlantis spacecrafts. These current events offer the perfect opportunity to improve literacy by incorporating everyday news into classroom lessons. (For more ideas, read “10 Ways to Use Current Events in the Classroom” or “Add Life to Your Teaching with Current Events.”)
Children can learn more about the shuttle program at Big Universe.com, an educational website with an extensive online library of children’s picture books. Books on the shuttle, astronomy, space, astronauts, planets, technology and other facets of science are only a click away. It’s a great resource for kids who need to write a report about outer space or astronomy, or who need background information for a science project.
Space and Astronomy Books on Big Universe
- Space Shuttles
- NASA
- Space Stations
- Astronauts
- Living in Space
- Rourke’s World of Science Encyclopedia, Volume 7: Astronomy and Space
- The Wonder of Outer Space
- The Wonder of Our Solar System
- Planets
- The Hubble Telescope
- From Hubble to Hubble: Astronomers and Outer Space
- Meet the Planets
- Going Around the Sun: Some Planetary Fun
- The Solar System (Bellwether)
- The Solar System (Teacher Created Materials)
- Space
- The Sun
- Sun
- Neptune
- Venus
- Uranus
- Saturn
- Mars
- Mercury
- Jupiter
- Earth (Bellwether)
- Earth (Rourke)
- The Moon
- Moon
- Asteroids
- Stars
NOTE: To view additional NASA teaching resource materials for educators, go to the following links: K-4 and Grades 5-8.
