Space exploration is intrinsically interesting to young learners. Children gaze at the stars and marvel at what it might be like to live "out there!" With the July 2020 launch of the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover mission, and its landing in 2021, there is no better time to capitalize on engineering and science in the news. This mission is…

In this article, the authors introduce ways to use disciplinary literacy (DL) instructional strategies to foster civic engagement and reasoning for middle-grade multilingual students. Four phases of DL strategies--"framing," "reading," "discussion," and "writing"--are illustrated with examples from an…

When people were forced to isolate themselves physically during the pandemic, many new connections sprung up through the Internet. In order to promote this newfound global oneness and to facilitate global education, this article examines a STEAM activity that promotes a holistic approach to education and make way for a global citizenry as students…

I report an innovation that provides a compelling demonstration of rocket propulsion, appropriate for students of physics and other physical sciences. An electrical spark is initiated from a distance to cause the deflagration of a combustible vapor mixed with air in a lightweight plastic bottle that is consequently propelled as a rocket by the…

Supporting elementary student understandings of ideas related to Earth's Place in the Universe (ESS1) can be challenging, especially given the large time and distance scales involved with many of the concepts. However, with effective use of crosscutting concepts and science and engineering practices, important concepts within this content domain…

The advancement of modern societies is fueled by mathematics, and mathematics education provides the foundation upon which future scientists and engineers will build. Society dictates how mathematics will be taught through the development and implementation of mathematics standards. When examining the progression of these standards, it is…

Space has fascinated and intrigued humans of all ages since time immemorial, and continues to do so today. The natural curiosity is engaged when looking up into the sky, notice patterns among celestial objects such as the Sun, Moon, and stars, and wonder. Scientific understanding of those patterns has progressed immensely over the span of human…

The development of software for spacecraft represents a particular challenge and is, in many ways, a worst case scenario from a design perspective. Spacecraft software must be "bulletproof" and operate for extended periods of time without user intervention. If the software fails, it cannot be manually serviced. Software failure may…

The stars closest to Earth are not particularly remarkable or exciting. They are average stars typical of the spiral arms of our Milky Way galaxy. In fact, until recently, most astronomy and Earth science textbooks ignored all but the largest of them to focus on distant, more exotic objects like red supergiants or black holes. The recent discovery…

This article looks at how space can provide a context for the teaching of STEM subjects. It explores how space fits with the new curriculum, and outlines what resources are available for teachers from the National STEM Centre eLibrary. In November 2015, the UK sends its first official astronaut into space, Tim Peake. His mission can provide a…

Many students probably know something about space from playing computer games or watching movies and TV shows. Teachers can expose them to the real thing by launching their experiments into near space on a weather balloon. This article describes how to use high-altitude ballooning (HAB) as a culminating project to a chemistry unit on experimental…

In a sophomore-level, interdisciplinary honors class, we introduced students to the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence through assigned readings, student presentations, classroom discussions, and multiple experiential activities. In this paper, we present four of these novel experiential activities. In the first, students suddenly find…

In a remarkably brief period of time, humans have developed technology that allows space travel to become a reality. Rockets have been built, energy systems designed, and planetary forces understood. In the activities described in this article, students investigate space travel by designing their own rockets and manipulating variables to determine…

The recent missions to Mars have produced a mass of data and information in all forms and have forced the minds of many people world-wide to rethink their own perspectives on life itself. This drama unfolding about 35 million miles from Earth, and digitally on our TV screens, is offering a growing reservoir for teachable moments. The curiosity and…

Exploring the Solar System in the elementary school curriculum has traditionally involved activities, such as building scale models, to help students visualize the vastness of space and the relative size of the planets and their orbits. Today, numerous websites provide a wealth of information about the sun and the planets, combining text, photos,…