Thursday 15 May 2008

Space Math II Educator Guide

Audience: Educators
Grades: 7-9


These activities comprise a series of 24 practical mathematics applications in space science. This collection of activities is based on a weekly series of space science problems distributed to teachers during the 2005-2006 school year. The problems in this booklet investigate science and mathematics concepts such as solar energy; stars; scientific notation; and distance, rate and time. The problems are authentic glimpses of modern engineering issues that arise in designing satellites to work in space. Each word problem has background information providing insight into the basic phenomena of the sun-Earth system, specifically space weather. One-page teacher sheets with answer keys accompany the one-page assignments.

Space Math II  [12MB PDF file]

Individual sections:
Introductory Pages
Problem 1, Solar Storm Timeline
Problem 2, Solar Energy in Space
Problem 3, Why do stars rise in the East?
Problem 4, Interplanetary Shock Wave
Problem 5, Calculating Star Distances
Problem 6, A Sine of the Times
Problem 7, Counting the Stars in the Sky
Problem 8, Measuring Speed in the Universe
Problem 9, Applications of Scientific Notation
Problem 10, Exploring a Galaxy: NGC-1232
Problem 11, The Speed of Galaxy Q2125-431
Problem 12, Star clusters up close
Problem 13, A Glimpse of the Most Distant Galaxy
Problem 14, Solar Surface Details
Problem 15, A Galaxy Up Close
Problem 16, Asteroids Between Mars and the Sun
Problem 17, Exploring the Dwarf Planet Eris
Problem 18, Searching for Company in the Universe
Problem 19, Counting the Stars in Draco
Problem 20, Astronomy in the round
Problem 21, Star Light ... Star Bright ...
Problem 22, A Bit of Satellite Math
Problem 23, Theories, Hypothesis, Laws, Facts & Beliefs
Problem 24, Solar Storms in the News
Additional Resources
Source: NASA