Curricular Concept: This is a study of the manned space program for the United States noting the significant events of the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and Shuttle missions. Also included is an overview of the international space station. The unit opens with an introduction to the cold war and the space race so the students will have an historical perspective of the era.
 
Grade level: 9th grade physical science
 
Tools needed:
 
Web Resources:
Sputnik movie (10 Min)
 
Cold war and space race Part 1
 
Kennedy moon speech (Rice University)
 
Kennedy moon speech (Congress)
 
Strategy: The cold war introduction sets the scene to answer the question of why the United States took the challenge to go to the moon. With a background of the building up of sides in the cold war and the “anything you can do we can do better” attitude, the students watch the first video which shows the Russian side of the launch of the Sputnik.
 
Major events in manned space flight include the flight of Alan Shepard into space and the earth orbiting flight of John Glenn. Information on the Gemini flights and the practice rendezvous with another object in space as well as the first space walks (EVA) are also included. Apollo mission highlights include the first picture of the earth taken from Apollo 8 as well as lunar pictures from Christmas eve, the moon landing of Apollo 11, and the dune buggies used on subsequent Apollo flights.

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