Space Exploration

Color Overheads Included!!The information and activities in this Space Exploration Resource Guide are organized in roughly three sections: the Space Travel Simulation; Our Solar System and Beyond; and Energy, Force, and Motion in Space. Learning opportunities in each section are planned to engage children and teachers in experiences that allow for free exploration, concept development, and application of concepts. A classroom space shuttle simulation provides the focus for child exploration throughout the unit of study. Pretend space exploration stimulates curiosity, motivating children to research information about the solar system and investigate scientific principles at work in the universe. The activities in the resource guide are not organized in a sequential, lock-step way, but rather are structured so teachers can choose from activities as if they were selecting from a menu-planning learning opportunities based on children's interests and levels of understanding. The concepts of time, distance, and space are very abstract and difficult for many young children to comprehend. Therefore, activities outlined in this resource guide vary in general grade-level appropriateness allowing teachers to adapt them to meet their own students' needs. Opportunities to develop the science skills of observing, data gathering, classifying, measuring, recording, listening, and writing are numerous. Children can record observations, experiments, and investigations in their space journals. As children represent their understanding in words and pictures, they revisit a concept or experience to organize their thinking and construct their own meaning and logic.