Space.com — can a URL be any simpler?
July 12, 2010
Have you ever found that when you ask your students to research a particular topic (let’s say lions, for example) they want to type in www.lions.com, and see what happens? Unfortunately, if such a site exists, it may or may not be appropriate for school (remember whitehouse.com?). However, every once in a while, there is a site with a simple URL that does work out. Browsing to www.space.com will provide you and your students with quality information about — you guessed it — space.
When you first open the site, you might think, my goodness, why has Instructify sent me here? Admittedly, the front page is rather busy and there are ads that you have to ignore. If you can get past that though, you will find some good stuff. The page opens on the current-events section. Through navigation buttons at the top, you can access sections on, among other things, Science, Technology, and even Entertainment, where you can find this interesting tidbit about some Canadians who favor William Shatner for Governor General.
Besides Space.com as a source for current events for your students, the most relevant sections for teachers seem to be the sections entitled Space Views, Night Sky, and Video. In the Space Views section you’ll find lots of really cool images taken by various expensive NASA instruments. By clicking on Night Sky, you will find a section dedicated to stargazing. It offers tips, sky charts, and techniques applicable to all aspects of amateur astronomy, from the selection of a good telescope to the correct pronunciation of Uranus. Finally, in Videos, you will find, well, videos.
I think Space.com has a lot to offer teachers who have space science in their curriculm. I know I will be keeping it handy for next year when I teach my space unit. And even if I forget to bookmark it, in this case I can use the middle-school-student method for finding it again — just add .com.
Related stuff:
NASA giving away free Journey to the Stars DVDs to educators
