What is your cosmic connection to the elements? How far and how powerful is that neighbouring star? Supernova chemistry made easy. These are just a few of the highly interesting articles that you can find on “Imagine the Universe”, a website run by NASA and dedicated to helping educators make sense of the world to students.
NASA offers free posters, booklets, lithographs, and an Imagine the Universe! CD to teachers and homeschoolers. The CD captures three websites called Imagine the Universe, Starchild and Astronomy Picture of the Day, all of which are also available online. Each website offers a wealth of information that is presented in a student friendly manner.
Use the Educator’s Corner resources to help students age 14 and up in your homeschool classroom. The Imagine Your Universe site is also good for anyone interested in learning about our universe. The “Ask an Astrophysicist” section is a good place to get space theories and facts related to your own science project queries.
If you are looking for grade specific material please look at the Starchild website. The StarChild site is a service of the High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center (HEASARC), Dr. Alan Smale (Director), within the Astrophysics Science Division (ASD) at NASA/ GSFC. The site describes the Solar System and the Universe in two difficulty levels which can be adjusted to the grade of your homeschool student.
The Astronomy Picture of the Day is anything from a stunning view of stars in outer space to robotic equipment being used by NASA to aid the exploration of our universe. Keeping it bookmarked on your web browser is a great way to never miss a spectacular picture again. These images spark great discussions in the homeschool classroom with your students.
As these are free resources you are likely to use them extensively over the school year. Currently the printable material is not available from the website due to a long number of back orders, however the online websites offer a fair amount of data and resources for you to use as you help your children imagine the universe within the walls of your homeschool classroom.
