NASA Current News for the K-12 Classroom
OSIRIS-REx MISSION: One-Week Post Launch
Looking for a current NASA news story, and engaging activities to share with your students?
THE NEWS
Make sure to discuss the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft with your students! OSIRIS-REx succesffully launched just this past week at 7:05pm EDT on September 8th, 2016 from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The spacecraft is chasing Asteroid Bennu in order to take a sample for analysis around July of 2020. Scientists will analyze the properties of Bennu in order to determine its physical and chemical properties and whether it has any potential to impact Earth. This sample could teach us about the earliest history of our universe!
Details about OSIRIS-REx be found on the following site: http://www.asteroidmission.org
ENGAGING YOUR STUDENTS
Engage your students in understanding the OSIRIS-REx by using a fun visual timeline, real world math problems, or design challenges about the mission. Students can start to journal their scientific ideas about OSIRIS-REx and how will capture a sample and bring it back to Earth.
VISUAL TIMELINE (Grades 3-12)
Visual Timeline Website: http://www.asteroidmission.org/mission/
OSIRIS-REx will stay in the Sun’s orbit for one year, then use Earth’s gravity in order to make it out to the Asteroid Bennu. Do you know how much amazing math is required in order to make this work?!
REAL WORLD MATHEMATICS (Grades 6-12)
Engage your high school students in their effort to explain the OSIRIS-REx trajectory using this site: http://www.asteroidmission.org/mission/
More related Space Math @ NASA (Space Travel) real world problems for Students: http://spacemath.gsfc.nasa.gov/spacetravel.html
DESIGN CHALLENGE & MODELING (Grades K-12)
Collect a sample from an asteroid using this fun design challenge! Humans cannot travel to asteroids yet, so NASA sends rovers and spacecraft to collect core samples. By studying these samples, scientists determine what our Solar System was like billions of years ago. Challenge your students to build their own device that can take a core sample from a potato.
Down to the Core Design Challenge: http://pbskids.org/designsquad/build/down-core/
Modeling an Asteroid: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/teach/activity/modeling-an-asteroid/
Kelly A. Kohli (Hartford)
EPD Specialist, NASA STEM EPDC
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center