NASA Kids Webpage for Space Explorers
NASA has expanded its website to include an interactive kid friendly space exploration area. Read on to learn more about all the fun and exciting things kids can do in the NASA At Home page.
Lots of exciting things are happening in space. From new Rovers arriving on Mars in early 2021 to space telescopes sending back amazing pictures, space has a lot happening. NASA has created a highly interactive kid-friendly area on its website for your space explorers. The area includes everything from coloring pages to coding a video game to explore Mars. Kids interested in exploring space will love the new NASA kids page.
Younger Children Ideas
NASA at Home has activities available for kids ranging in school-age from kindergarten thru high school. For example, for younger children, coloring pages offer a good introduction to the Sun and Moon. Children in early grades can move through coloring pages featuring the Milky Way galaxy and Jupiter. It is never too early to learn about airplanes and how they travel. Therefore, the aeronautics coloring book’s adventures share information on jets, supersonic planes, and a Mars plane.
Our universe information has expanded to include exoplanets. These planets orbit stars and not our own Sun. NASA has created a coloring book for younger children to learn about exoplanets. In addition, they introduce them to TESS, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite. TESS searches for exoplanets using the transit method. Exoplanets include unique worlds like water planets, hot Jupiter’s, and rocky planets.
credit: NASA
credit: NASANASA Kids
Young people in middle school grades have the opportunity to participate in at-home STEM activities. For example, they can build homemade rockets, an anemometer, a Mars helicopter, and a pocket spacecraft, among other things. Some great videos include black holes, how to train to be an astronaut, and exploration of near light space travel.
This age group can also learn about the commercial crew program. That program allows NASA to contract with private companies like Space-X to provide special services. For example, Space-X has developed its Dragon capsule to shuttle American astronauts to the International Space Station. Why is this important for NASA to contract with private companies? NASA gets its money from taxes paid by United States citizens. Therefore, it is limited to where it can spend that money. With private companies working to provide space exploration services, NASA can use them to meet specific needs.
Life At the Lab
High school students have a unique opportunity to see NASA projects and ideas as they unfold in their Life At the Lab page. This page takes them over to Youtube to watch short video clips on different NASA articles. For example, they can watch a video on robots, greenhouse gases, and severe storms.
Under the NASA Science At Home section, high school students can navigate to a page called Infiniscope. They can use their iPhones and tablets to download an interactive app to experience the Moon’s phases up close and personal. “See how the orientation of the Earth-Moon-Sun system leads to Moon phases. You’ll feel like you have a front-row seat to the solar system. We’ve even added accessibility features for the visually-impaired.” (NASA,2020)
The NASA kids page has countless activities for young people interested in space. Hopefully, it will inspire the next generation of scientists, astronauts, and explorers.