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Launch It
Add to list DetailsIn this design challenge activity, learners use a balloon and other simple materials to design an air-powered rocket that can hit a distant target.
Exploring the Universe: Pack a Space Telescope
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Space telescopes can offer us better, clearer views of the universe (and of our own planet) than Earth-based telescopes can, but getting these large, delicate pieces of equipment into orbit is tricky.
Exploring the Universe: Exoplanet Transits
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In "Exploring the Universe: Exoplanet Transits," participants simulate one of the methods scientists use to discover planets orbiting distant stars.
Ripening of Fruits and Vegetables
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In this activity, learners test the rate of ripening fruit and vegetables and use a chemical to inhibit the ripening process.
Exploring the Universe: Filtered Light
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"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.
Finding the Right Crater
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This quick demonstration (on page 11 of PDF) allows learners to understand why scientists think water ice could remain frozen in always-dark craters at the poles of the Moon.
Heavy Lifting
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In this activity, learners work in NASA teams to build balloon-powered rockets using identical parts and compete to launch the greatest number of paper clips to "space" (the ceiling).
Exploring the Universe: Space Guess Quest
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Space Guess Quest is a fun game that encourages participants to identify the many types of objects in space, from human-made spacecraft to nebulas, galaxies, stars, and worlds.
Make a Balloon-powered Nanorover
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In this activity, learners build a nanorover model using styrofoam meat trays and a balloon.
My Angle on Cooling: Effects of Distance and Inclination
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In this activity, learners discover that one way to cool an object in the presence of a heat source is to increase the distance from it or change the angle at which it is faced.
Achieving Orbit
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In this Engineering Design Challenge activity, learners will use balloons to investigate how a multi-stage rocket, like that used in the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) mission, can propel a sat
Build a Rocket - and a Launch Pad!
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In this activity, learners construct a rocket powered by the pressure generated from an effervescing antacid tablet reacting with water, and build a launch pad for their rocket.
Aerogel
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This activity/demo introduces learners to aerogel, a glass nanofoam. Learners discover how aerogel is made and how well it insulates as well as learn about aerogel's other unique properties.
Exploring the Solar System: Stomp Rockets
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In "Exploring the Solar System: Stomp Rockets," participants learn about how some rockets carry science tools—not scientists—into space, and how a special kind of rocket called "sounding rockets" can
Supporting Structures
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In this activity about living things and gravity (page 5 of PDF), learners design and build an exoskeleton or an endoskeleton for an animal of their own invention.
Weighty Questions
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In this activity about humans and space travel (page 1 of PDF), learners compare and contrast the behavior of a water-filled plastic bag, both outside and inside of a container of water.
Cook Up a Comet
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In this activity (on page 5 of PDF), learners use dry ice and household materials to make scientifically accurate models of comets.
Making An Impact!
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In this activity (on page 14 of PDF), learners use a pan full of flour and some rocks to create a moonscape.
Space Origami: Make Your Own Starshade
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In this activity, learners cut out and fold their own collapsible origami starshade, an invention that shields a telescope's camera lens from the light of a distant star so that NASA scientists can ex
Balloon Staging
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In this activity, learners simulate a multistage rocket launch using party balloons, fishing line, straws, and a plastic cup.