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. |