This Web site, created to complement the Hall of Meteorites, looks at these fallen rocks and what they tell scientists about the formation of stars and planets.

In this lesson, students learn some basic facts about asteroids in our solar system. The main focus is on the size of asteroids and how that relates to the potential danger of an asteroid colliding with the Earth. Students are briefly introduced to the destruction that would ensue should a large asteroid hit, as it did 65 million years ago.

In Aster's Hoity Toity Belt, children can listen to a fictitious story about a celestial family of asteroids and their adventures in the skyborhood. As students listen, they will learn about the smaller bodies of our solar system and the Dawn mission by identifying some aspects of the story that are true, some that might be true and some that are false. Educators can choose from three versions, including storyteller, learning notations, or illustrators. The storyteller version can be used to tell the story without comment. The learning version is annotated to provide further explanation to assist in identifying different, truthful and fictional, aspects of the story. The illustrator's version contains space for the children to make their own illustrations to accompany the text.

Theories that might just work when it comes to asteroids hurling towards the Earth.

Leonard Nimoy narrates this animated 13-minute glimpse of NASA's Dawn mission that was launched in October 2007. The movie features a look into the planning, instrumentation and technological challenges of this mission into the heart of the asteroid belt.

This activity develops the real-world connections and relationships between the rock properties found in Lesson 5 and the important engineering properties for designing and building caverns (or tunnels, mines, building foundations, etc.). The student teams will use importance factors called "desirability points" to mathematically determine the overall best rocks to build caverns within.

This lesson gives students hands-on experience making a presentation, and allows them to present and defend their final decision to the class. Students commit to a final decision early in the lesson, then justify that decision. After making their decision they prepare their final presentations.

This activity poses the question: What would happen if a meteor or comet impacted Earth? Students simulate an impact in a container of sand using various-sized rocks, all while measuring, recording and graphing their results and conclusions. Then students brainstorm ways to prevent an object like this from hitting the Earth.

This educator guide provides information and activities related to meteorites and their origins. Topics include sources and collection of meteorites, meteorite mineralogy and classification, famous meteorite falls, and others.

The Find a Meteorite Webbased activity introduces the importance of meteorites to understanding the Solar System’s origins and provides training in identifying characteristics of meteorites. “Finding meteorites is quite difficult because most meteorites look like Earth rocks to the casual or untrained eye. Even to the trained eye, recognizing meteorites can be difficult”
(NASA, 1997).

While the Find a Meteorite Web activity offers several learning experiences suitable for classroom and informal settings, this leader guide focuses on a two-part activity that can engage learners (ages 10 to 16) in museums, science centers, and other informal learning environments. The “Engage” part, Meteorite or Asteroid?, features a slide show that provides learners with a brief introduction to asteroids, meteorites, and the connection between the two. The “Experiment” part, Meteorite or Meteor-Wrong?, is a virtual experiment in which learners become familiar with the techniques scientists use in meteorite identification. The optional “Extend” is a hands-on extension that contains its own guide, while the “Explore Asteroids” and “Explore Meteorites” contain additional background information.

Explore astrophysics through science visualization and animation. The Astrophysics Visualization Archive is a resource for visualizations (movies) that demonstrate astronomical or astrophysical phenomena. Choose from one of these categories: Solar System, Stars, Galaxies, and Universe.

The objective of Lesson 2, Activity 1 is for student teams to determine the size of the caverns. Lesson two has student teams measure their classroom to determine area and volume; determine how many people could comfortably sleep in their classroom; scale this number up to find the required area for all Alabraskans. The lesson provides a good application of area and volume concepts. Students also perform math conversions between feet, meters, miles and kilometers.

The objective of Lesson 2 is for student teams to determine the size of the caverns. Lesson two has student teams measure their classroom to determine area and volume; determine how many people could comfortably sleep in their classroom; scale this number up to find the required area for all Alabraskans. The lesson provides a good application of area and volume concepts. Students also perform math conversions between feet, meters, miles and kilometers.

Students explore Mars and Jupiter, the fourth and fifth planets from the Sun. They learn some of the unique characteristics of these planets. They also learn how engineers help us learn about these planets with the design and development of telescopes, deep space antennas, spacecraft and planetary rovers.

This video segment adapted from NASA uses animation to illustrate the properties of meteor showers and comets. Included is are visualizations of a comet's tail and of Earth passing through a debris stream left behind by meteoroids.

This humorous OLogy article introduces kids to the Sun. The big star answers 15 questions, including: Your agent told me that you're the biggest star in the universe. Is that true? I know you star types tend to be touchy about age, but how old are you? Actually, I'm curious to know how stars begin. What's your story? Let's turn to a delicate subject. How do stars die? In Hollywood, I meet a lot of people filled with hot air. What gases are inside you?

This web site contains a large collection of animations illustrating basic concepts in Physics and Astronomy. It covers topics in Astronomy, Mechanics, Vectors, Electricity and Magnetism, Optics, Waves, and Modern Physics at both introductory and an advanced undergraduate level. Users can browse by topic or search for relevant animations. Animations can be viewed in a number of different formats, either embedded in a web page or through the downloaded media file.

Students will use their knowledge of scales and areas to cut out rectangular paper pieces to represent caverns to scale with the maps. These paper cutouts can then be placed on the maps to help students decide where the best locations

Students will use their knowledge of scales and areas to cut out rectangular paper pieces to represent caverns to scale with the maps. These paper cutouts can then be placed on the maps to help students decide where the best locations.