NASA ALPHABET

A Webquest Activity for Elementary Language Arts Students

by John B. Peoples

Introduction | Task | Process | Evaluation | Conclusion

Introduction

There are many terms associated with NASA and the space program. In fact, you might even say that the astronauts, scientists, and other people involved with NASA have their own special language.

Task

In this activity, you will be given a term related to NASA and the space program for each letter of the alphabet. It is your job to find each term and answer a question about it.

Process

Astronaut—What are the four categories into which career astronauts are divided?
Blue Marble—What does the term “blue marble” refer to?
Cosmonaut—What country do cosmonauts come from?
Image from http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/photo_gallery/photogallery-e arth.html

Dryden Flight Research Center—Where is the Dryden Flight Research Center located?
Enterprise—What popular television program gave the shuttle Enterprise its name?
Food in space—What does food in space takes the form of?		Image from http://www.seds.org/pub/images/skylab/sky_ov/10076043.jpg

Gemini--How many men were on the first Gemini space flight? Human spaceflight—What was the first program involving human spaceflight?
International space station—What year was the international space station launched?
				Image from http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallary/images/s

Jet Propulsion Laboratory—At what institute is the JPL located?
Kennedy Space Center—Where is the Kennedy Space Center located?
	Image from http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallary/search.cgi
Lunar Orbiter—How many Lunar Orbiter missions were launched in 1966 and 1967? Mariner—What were the last two spacecraft of the Mariner series?

Office of Biological and Physical Research—What subject is the main focus of OBPR's resarch?

Payload—What is the job description of a payload specialist astronaut?

Quasar—During what time period were quasars discovered?

Ranger—What was the purpose of the Ranger spacecraft?

TOPEX/Poseidon—Name one of the objectives of the TOPEX/Poseidon satellite.
		Image from http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/search.cgi

Uranus—What spacecraft neared the planet Uranus in January 1986?
		Image of Uranus from http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/photo_gallery/photogallery-uranus.html

Voyager--Around which four planets did Voyager 1 and 2 find new satellites?

Weather satellites--What series of weather satellites were in operation from 1964 to 1978?

X-1—When was work on the X-1 (also called XS-1) experimental research aircraft begun?
Yuri Gagarin—What is the nickname used most often to describe Gagarin?
		Image of Yuri Gagarin from http://www.russianarchives.com/rao/catalogues/gagarin/

Zenith--Name two different types of zenith.

Evaluation

Astronaut—The four categories into which career astronauts are divided are ____________, _____________, _____________, and ______________.

Blue Marble—The term “blue marble” refers to _________________.

Cosmonaut—Cosmonauts come from _______________.

Dryden Flight Research Center—It is located in _____________________.

Enterprise—The television program ________________ gave the shuttle Enterprise its name.

Food in space—Food in space takes the form of ______________________

____________________.

Gemini—There were ___ men on the first Gemini space flight.

Human spaceflight—The first program involving human spaceflight was the

_____________ program.

International space station—The international space station was launched in _____.

Jet Propulsion Laboratory—The JPL is located at the ___________________

_______________________.

Kennedy Space Center—The Kennedy Space Center is located in ________

____________________.

Lunar Orbiter—There were ___ Lunar Orbiter missions launched in 1966 and 1967.

Mariner—The last two spacecraft of the Mariner series were __________ and ___________.

NASA—One of NASA's goals is ____________________________________.

Office of Biological and Physical Research—The OBPR studies the effects of ___________.

Payload—The job description of a payload specialist astronaut is ________

_______________________________________________________________.

Quasar—Quasars were discovered in the __________________.

Ranger—The purpose of the Ranger spacecraft was _________________________________________________________________.

Shuttle— Most of NASA's shuttle orbiters are all named after ____________________.

TOPEX/Poseidon—One of the he objectives of the TOPEX/Poseidon satellite

is ________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________.

Uranus—The spacecraft that neared Uranus in January 1986 was _____________.

Voyager—The four planets were ___________, _____________, ____________, and ____________.

Weather satellites—The series of weather satellite operating from 1964 to 1978 was the __________ series.

X-1—Work on the X-1 was begun in the year _____.

Yuri Gagarin—The nickname used most often to describe Gagarin is _______

_____________________________.

Zenith—Two types of zenith are the ____________ zenith and the __________ zenith.

Conclusion

NASA home page:

http://www.nasa.gov/

Brief history of NASA:

http://history.nasa.gov/brief.html

Astronaut Biographies:

http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/

Information on the space shuttle:

http://www.hq.nasa.gov/osf/shuttle/orbiters.html

Information on the X-1 program:

http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/x1/index.html

Information on the Gemini program:

http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/history/gemini/gemini-goals.htm

About the Dryden Flight Research Center:

http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/Dryden/about.html

Information on the international space station:

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/station/crew/year2/index.html

Information on the Voyager spacecraft:

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/voyager.html

Information on lunar exploration:

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/

Office of Biological and Physical Resarch:

http://spaceresearch.nasa.gov/general_info/what.html

Fact sheet on the TOPEX/Poseidon program:

http://topex-www.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/tp-fact-sheet.html

Home page of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory:

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/

Information on food in space:

http://spacelink.nasa.gov/space.food/

Information on quasars:

http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/EP-177/ch4-8.html

Information on the Kennedy Space Center:

http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/visit/visitor.htm

Information on Yuri Gagarin:

http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/whos_who_level2/gagarin.html

Some word definitions:

http://asd-www.larc.nasa.gov/SCOOL/definition.html