National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA): A Pictorial History of Rockets

Details

Activity Description

This Web site from NASA has many lesson plans. The lesson highlighted here is the history of the rocket. It will use the Pictorial History of Rockets handout (PDF file) found on the Example Web Site (above) as a starting point for student research.

Preparation

1. Preview Web site.
2. Download the History of the Rocket handout and make copies for your students.
3. Determine which parts you want to spend extra time highlighting (by assigning to students).
4. Use Google, Yahoo, or other search engines to find Web sites for students to include in their searches.

How-To

1. Discuss rockets.
2. Open the NASA Web site.
3. Go over the history of the rocket.
4. Assign student pairs or groups to research individual topics. Mix the reading levels so all students can participate. Not all students will know how to research a topic. Go over steps to online research.
5. Have the student groups prepare a PowerPoint presentation of what they learned. Go over steps to preparing a PowerPoint presentation if necessary.

Teacher Tips

• The Rockets Educator Guide has many suggestions and background materials you may want to refer to in preparation for this lesson.

More Ways

• This lesson is part of a larger guide which contains new and updated lessons and activities from the original Rockets Educator Guide . There are hands-on experiments and many other activities. See the Introductory Pages to see which other activities might be suitable for your students' grade levels.
• The main Educational Resources search page from NASA (see Web Site above) will help you find appropriate lesson plans, classroom activities, video learning clips, and educator guides on a variety of science topics for use in your class.

Program Areas

• ABE: Adult Basic Education

Levels

• Intermediate
• High

Subjects

• Reading
  • Critical Thinking/Decision Making
• Writing
  • Paragraph Skills
  • Report Writing

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