NASA’s Spaced Out Sports Materials

As part of its 2010-2011 Spaced Out Sports Design Challenge, NASA has produced student and educator resources,  include posters, bookmarks, curriculum guides, a career video, and Digital Learning Network Modules.

The downloadable Educators’ Curriculum Guide include several activities linking science, sports, and space, including Hovering on a Cushion of Air,  Center of All Things,  Let’s Do the Twist,  Crazy Balloons, Javelin Rockets, and Space Helmet.

All include NASA astronauts, engineers and celebrity sports figures engaging students in relevant space-sports connections by explaining and demonstrating the “science behind their work and/or game.” Featured are: NASA astronauts Leland Melvin and Nicole Stott; Olympic gymnast Nastia Liukin; NASCAR’s Juan Pablo Montoya; basketball’s Temeka Johnson; football/Super Bowl champions New Orleans Saints; and hockey’s Ryan O’Reilly and the Colorado Avalanche.

Guide activities and DLN modules include talk shows that explain application of Newton’s Laws in sports and space, followed by Science and Sports Challenges, where students design/construct sporting equipment and games and predict the difference between a game played on Earth and in microgravity.

For more information and to register for  the Space Out Sports Design Challenge, visit: http://education.ssc.nasa.gov/spacedoutsports.

Filed under: Web Resources

Tags: NASA, Science Lesson Plans, Sports, Sports Engineering