You have been offered a job with NASA as an astronomy assistant. Your first task is to create a digital model and fact sheet about the Earth, moon and sun for future fourth graders at Sealston Elementary. Your audience is current third grade students, and you will be hired to share at a Universe Fair based upon your successful completion of the task.

Students use their knowledge of tornadoes and damage. The students will work in groups to design a structure that will withstand and protect people from tornadoes. Each group will create a poster with the name of their engineering firm and a picture of their structure. Finally, each group will present their posters to the class.

Students analyze international oil consumption and production data. They make several graphs to organize the data and draw conclusions about the overall use of oil in the world.

This 7-minute video lesson looks at apsidal precession (Perihelion Precession) and Milankovitch Cycles. [Cosmology and Astronomy playlist: Lesson 75 of 85]

This 7-minute video lesson addresses the question: Are southern hemisphere seasons more severe because of the eccentricity in Earth's orbit? [Cosmology and Astronomy playlist: Lesson 72 of 85]

This 10-minute video lesson looks at the beginnings of life on Earth. Life and photosynthesis start to thrive in the Archean Eon. [Cosmology and Astronomy playlist: Lesson 39 of 85]

This 12-minute video lesson looks at the structure of the earth. The discussion includes the crust, mantle, core, lithosphere, asthenosphere, mesosphere, outer core, and inner core. [Cosmology and Astronomy playlist: Lesson 50 of 85]

This 10-minute video lesson looks at the formation of the Earth which is a the byproduct of a local supernova. [Cosmology and Astronomy playlist: Lesson 38 of 85]

This 6-minute video lesson explains how we know about the Earth's core. It shows how S-wave shadow and P-wave detection patterns give us information about the core. [Cosmology and Astronomy playlist: Lesson 55 of 85]

This 10-minute video lesson looks at the scale of the Earth and the Sun. [Cosmology and Astronomy playlist: Lesson 1 of 85]

This 2-minute video lesson looks at the causes precession and other orbital changes. [Cosmology and Astronomy playlist: Lesson 74 of 85]

This activity is a teacher-led demonstration of continental drift and includes a math worksheet for students involving the calculation of continental drift over time. Students will understand what continental drift is, why it occurs, and how earthquakes occur because of it.

Photo of the Earth & Moon created from images from the the Galileo spacecraft.

The purpose of this lesson is to introduce students to the basic elements of our Earth's crust: rocks, soils and minerals. They learn how we categorize rocks, soils and minerals and how they are literally the foundation for our civilization. Students also explore how engineers use rocks, soils and minerals to create the buildings, roads, vehicles, electronics, chemicals, and other objects we use to enhance our lives.

Students learn about the structure of the earth and how an earthquake happens. In one activity, students make a model of the earth including all of its layers. In a teacher-led demonstration, students learn about continental drift. In another activity, students create models demonstrating the different types of faults.

Students learn how engineers construct buildings to withstand damage from earthquakes by building their own structures with toothpicks and marshmallows. Students test how earthquake-proof their buildings are by testing them on an earthquake simulated in a pan of Jell-O(TM).

Students learn the two main methods to measure earthquakes, the Richter Scale and the Mercalli Scale. They make a model of a seismograph a measuring device that records an earthquake on a seismogram. Students also investigate which structural designs are most likely to survive an earthquake. And, they illustrate an informational guide to the Mercalli Scale.

Students learn about fossils what they are, how they are formed, and why scientists and engineers care about them.

In this activity, students are introduced to faults. They will learn about different kinds of faults and understand their relationship to earthquakes. The students will build cardboard models of the three different types of faults as they learn about how earthquakes are formed.

Students create their own simple compasses using thread, needle and water in a bowl and learn how it works.