Volunteer experts are a key ingredient to many successful public engagement efforts. Volunteer networks focused on astronomy and space include: 1) Solar System Ambassadors Program, 2) Night Sky Network of astronomy clubs, and 3) AAS Astronomy Ambassadors 1) The Solar...
In "Exploring the Universe: Exoplanet Transits," participants simulate one of the methods scientists use to discover planets orbiting distant stars. Even when a planet is too far away to observe directly, scientists can infer its presence by watching for slight,...
"Exploring Earth: Bear’s Shadow" is a hands-on activity designed primarily for young visitors and their families. Participants move a flashlight around an object to make and experiment with shadows. The activity can be connected to a storybook about a little...
"Exploring the Universe: Orbiting Objects" is a hands-on activity that invites visitors to experiment with different sized and weighted balls on a stretchy fabric gravity well. The activity models gravitational attraction in space. Participants investigate how changing conditions can cause...
In "Exploring the Solar System: Mars Rovers," participants learn about how scientists and engineers use robotic rovers and other vehicles to explore distant worlds, and experience some of the challenges and teamwork required to navigate a rover across the surface...
In collaboration with NASA, the NISE Network has assembled a set of engaging, hands-on Earth and space science experiences with connections to science, technology, and society.
"Exploring Nano & Society - Space Elevator" is a open-ended conversational experience in which visitors imagine and draw what a space elevator might look like, what support systems would surround it, and what other technologies it might enable. Conversation around...
"Exploring the Universe: Imagining Life" is a hands-on activity in which visitors imagine and draw an extreme environment beyond Earth, then invent a living thing that could thrive in it. They learn that NASA scientists study extremophiles on Earth to...
"Exploring the Solar System: Hide and Seek Moon" is an engaging way for early childhood learners to experiment with some of the tools scientists use to study objects that are very, very far away, and to learn about how cultures...
Sun, Earth, Universe exhibition is an engaging and interactive museum exhibition about Earth and space science for family audiences. The Sun, Earth, Universe exhibition is intended for long-term display in museums across the United States, where it will engage millions...
"Exploring the Solar System: Solar Eclipse" is a hands-on activity demonstrating how the particular alignment of the Sun, Earth, and Moon can cause an eclipse. Visitors investigate the positions of these objects to create shadows and learn about the total...
"Exploring the Solar System: Craters" is an active, hands-on activity that demonstrates how craters form, and what they can teach us about the history and composition of planets and moons. By dropping objects of various sizes and shapes into a...
"Exploring the Universe: Objects in Motion" encourages participants to explore the complex but predictable ways objects in the universe interact with each other. Stars, planets, moons, and other objects in space orbit around each other because of gravity, and NASA...
"Exploring the Solar System: Big Sun, Small Moon" is a hands-on activity that explores the concept of apparent size and allows visitors to experience this phenomena using familiar objects—a tennis ball and a beach ball. Participants learn that the Sun...
"Exploring Earth: Paper Mountains" lets participants explore the way the shape of the land and the pull of gravity influence how water moves over Earth. By making unique mountain models from crumpled paper and watching how water moves across them,...
Ideas for incorporating current science, engineering, and technology content into holidays, seasons, annual events, and special events: from STEM-themed events like National Chemistry Week and Astronomy Day to holidays like Halloween and Valentine's Day!
"Exploring the Universe: Filtered Light" demonstrates how scientists can use telescopes and other tools to capture and filter different energies of light to study the universe. Most objects in the universe are so distant from us that we can only...
"Exploring the Solar System: Pocket Solar System" is a hands-on activity in which visitors make a scale model of the distances between objects in our solar system. They learn that there is a lot of space between planets, and that...
These pinhole projector eclipse postcards allow you to safely observe the North American Total Solar Eclipse on August 21, 2017. The two sided postcard features a map of the contiguous US and what percentage of the eclipse you’ll see at...
NASA Wavelength is your pathway into a digital collection of Earth and space science resources for educators of all levels – from elementary to college, to out-of-school programs. These resources, developed through funding from the NASA Science Mission Directorate (SMD),...
For the 2017 Eclipse, NASA and its science education partners have developed numerous products and programs designed to teach the science of eclipses, as well as to share stories and insights into the human experience of a total solar eclipse....