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SATURN EDUCATOR GUIDE

Successfully launched at 4:43 EDT on the morning of October 15, 1997, NASA's Cassini Mission to Saturn, is the most ambitious deep space mission ever. The Saturn Educator Guide enables this extraordinary mission to become a real-world motivational context for learning standards-based science in grades 5-8.

On this page:

Introduction

The Saturn Educator Guide (originally named the Cassini Teacher Guide) has been funded by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Space Science Institute. Other partners include the Boulder Valley School District, and McREL, the Mid-continent Regional Educational Laboratory. The Guide is the product of a collaborative venture among scientists, engineers, teachers and education researchers. We have attempted to synthesize the cutting edge of science with the cutting edge of educational research and practicality of use in the classroom. The lessons are grounded in the National Science Education Standards and constructivist learning theory, as well as exalted in the excitement of real life space science and engineering.

For more information on the guide, you can read the Letter to Educators from the preface. For more information on the Guide's development team, click here.

Overview of Guide Contents
  • Lessons
    Six standards-based, constructivist lessons.

  • Enrichments
    Relevant connections to art, poetry and mythology.

  • Appendices:

    Questions and Answers: 101 questions posed as students would ask them

    Glossary: Over 90 well-defined technical terms

    Chart of Saturn's position in the sky over the course of the Cassini mission

    Electromagnetic Spectrum

    Educator Resources: References to books, WWW-sites, videos, CD-ROMS

Lesson Descriptions


Lesson 1 The Saturn System
Students learn the basic concept of a system and work with a scale model of the Saturn system. Math skills: using a scale model, measurement, computation, estimation, and number sense.
3 hrs

Science Content Standards Addressed
Unifying Concepts & Processes
Systems, Order and Organization
Earth & Space Science
Earth in the Solar System


Lesson 2
Saturn's Moons
Students use data on the 18 moons known to be orbiting in the Saturn system to discover patterns and important relationships between physical quantities in a planet-moon system. Math skills: number sense, controlling variables, recognizing patterns, and measurement.
3 hrs

Science Content Standards Addressed
Unifying Concepts & Processes
Systems, Order and Organization
Science as Inquiry
Abilities Necessary to do Scientific Inquiry
Earth & Space Science
Earth in the Solar System


Lesson 3
Moons, Rings and Relationships
Students explore the fundamental force of gravity and how it acts to keep objects like moons and ring particles in orbit. Math skills: measurement, number relationships, recognizing patterns, creating and interpreting graphs,
3-4 hrs

Science Content Standards Addressed
Science as Inquiry
Abilities Necessary to do Scientific Inquiry
Physical Science
Motions and Forces
Earth & Space Science
Earth in the Solar System


Lesson 4
History of Saturn Discoveries
Students examine how scientists throughout human history have learned about Saturn. They learn how scientific knowledge evolves and how technology has improved our ability to solve Saturn's mysteries. Math skills: number sense, measurement and scaling (creating a timeline).
3 hrs

Science Content Standards Addressed
History & Nature of Science
Science as a Human Endeavor
History of Science

Science & Technology
Understandings about Science and Technology


Lesson 5
The Cassini Robot
Students explore the capabilities of a robot like the Cassini spacecraft. They compare its robotic functions to human functions.
3-4 hrs

Science Content Standards Addressed
Unifying Concepts & Processes
Form and Function
Science & Technology
Abilities of Technological Design


Lesson 6
People of the Cassini Team
Students use a diverse collection of profiles of people who work on the Cassini mission to learn about science as a human endeavor, and to reflect on their own career goals.
1.5-2 hrs

Science Content Standards Addressed
History & Nature of Science
Science as a Human Endeavor
Science in Personal & Social Perspectives
Science and Technology in Society


Downloading the Guide
You will need version 4.0 or better of the free Adobe Acrobat reader to view these files

We've made available here a lower resolution version of the Guide which is somewhat smaller (50% smaller, on average) than the full resolution Guide. The text and diagrams are unaffected by this compression, but photographs and similar images are lower resolution. To download the full-resolution Guide, visit the JPL download site

Front Matter
 
  Title Page, Table of Contents, Preface, Acknowledgments 512 KB
Lessons
Getting to Know Saturn
 
  Lesson 1: The Saturn System 1.2 MB
  Lesson 2: Saturn's Moons 651 KB
 

-- Alternative version of Lesson 2

319 KB
  Lesson 3: Moons, Rings, and Relationships 900 KB
  Lesson 4: History of Saturn Discoveries 605 KB
  Lesson 5: The Cassini Robot 829 KB
  Lesson 6: People of the Cassini Team 1.2 MB
Enrichments
Cultral Connections - Art, Language, Mythology
  Searching for Saturn 925 KB
  Saturn Puzzles 388 KB
  Saturn Poetry 182KB
Appendices
 
  Questions & Answers 2.3 MB
  Glossary 145 KB
  Observing Saturn in the Sky 253 KB
  The Electromagnetic Spectrum 91 KB
  Resources 150 KB
     
The complete Saturn Educator Guide in one ZIP file 9.8 MB

Explore More!

For more information on the Cassini mission, visit the Cassini Web site. For more information and images of Saturn, check out JPL's Cassini Picture Archive. For some ready-to-use classroom demos and activities, see Mary Urquhart's Scale Model Saturn for grades 4-8 and her Titan in a Fish Tank for grades 3-8.

 









 
 
     

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