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Space exploration STEM teaching pack

Journey into space with this  Space exploration STEM teaching pack for KS2. Visit the International Space Station, find out if pupils have what it takes to become an astronaut and design a space vehicle for space travel.

This fully resourced , no-prep pack contains everything needed for a fun approach to STEM learning .

Who’s the pack for? This pack has been designed for a primary school science unit on space exploration aimed at KS2 . It can be used in conjunction with existing curriculum materials or as a standalone space science unit.

Suitable for both new and more experienced teachers, you'll find a variety of fun STEM activities that can be differentiated  to suit different types of learners , with engaging extension activities to ensure pupils are challenged.

What’s included?

This comprehensive pack has detailed lesson plans with step-by-step instructions, ideas for enhancing and extending learning and a handy teacher assessment sheet.  Lesson plans are linked to  ready-to-use printable teaching resources , handouts and worksheets in the teacher pack and pupil pack.

For the teacher

• Lesson plans,  formative and summative assessment opportunities,  extension activities and homework tasks.
• A Teacher pack with accompanying learning resources and printable worksheets with answers.

For the pupil

• A Pupil pack with colourful learning worksheets and clear guidance for all tasks. 
• Fun activities to learn all about space exploration, including virtual tours, research tasks and design tasks. 

How is the pack structured? The pack consists of five milestones , which if completed in sequence will build pupils' knowledge to enable them to complete a summative assessment activity in the final milestone. 

Lesson activities are organised as follows:

• Prepare (Bell-ringer/starter activity)
• Present (Teach/model)
• Produce (Pupil project work)
• Participate (Pupil/group share)
• Practise (Homework/assessment/independent activities)

What's inside?

Milestone 1 : Building background knowledge of space exploration

• Explore different NASA astronaut training activities and then explain the steps in the astronaut selection process.
• Explain why it is so hard to become an astronaut.

  Milestone 2 : Famous astronauts

• Answer questions about a famous astronaut by conducting research.
• Explain the characteristics of successful astronauts.

Milestone 3 : Spacecraft and space travel

• Explore the changes in spacecraft over time.
• Identify the parts of a spacecraft and explain what they do.
• Design a vehicle to travel in space.

Milestone 4 : Building a new space vehicle

• Explain the changes in spacecraft over time. 
• Design their own spacecraft.

Milestone 5 : Describing a trip to space

• Write a story about a journey into outer space.
• Explain if they would like to be an astronaut.

How to use this teaching pack This pack should be used for teaching and reinforcing concepts in a primary school science unit for KS2 . It is designed to be flexible and can be used as a standalone space science unit or in conjunction with other curriculum materials, STEM resources or STEM lessons. The teaching pack is designed to be delivered over five lessons but can be dipped into to supplement other learning plans.

Explore more resources like this Try our Solar system STEM teaching pack , browse our  STEM teaching packs  or explore Teachit Primary’s complete collection of teaching packs . 

We’d like to thank colleagues at  TeacherVision.com  for allowing us to re-use their original content.

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Year 5: Earth and Space

This list consists of lesson plans, activities and video clips to support the teaching of Earth and Space in Year Five. It contains tips on using the resources, suggestions for further use and background subject knowledge. Possible misconceptions are highlighted so that teachers may plan lessons to facilitate correct conceptual understanding. Designed to support the new curriculum programme of study it aims to cover many of the requirements for knowledge and understanding and working scientifically. The statutory requirements are that children are taught to:

• describe the movement of the Earth, and other planets, relative to the Sun in the solar system

•  describe the movement of the Moon relative to the Earth

•  describe the Sun, Earth and Moon as approximately spherical bodies

•  use the idea of the Earth’s rotation to explain day and night and the apparent movement of the sun across the sky.

Visit the primary science  webpage to access all lists.

Our Solar System

Quality Assured Category: Science Publisher: European Space Agency (ESA)

Working in groups, children research the eight planets, comets and asteroids in our Solar System. They find out about moons and rings, which planets have them and the colours of the different planets. Each group researches one object and produces a fact sheet, which they present to the class and combine into a class encyclopedia. This resource has been provided by ESA (European Space Agency).

Sunlight and Space Travel

Quality Assured Category: Science Publisher: Institute of Physics

This presentation looks at many often misunderstood concepts such as: the spin of the Earth and how this explains day and night, the orbit of the Earth around the sun, the phases of the moon and eclipses of both the sun and the moon. Introducing these concepts concepts visually through a presentation and providing ideas for practical activities will help children to gain a correct understanding of the science of the Earth, Sun and Moon.

Slide 22 may help with the misconception that the Moon makes its own light whereas it reflects the light of the Sun, just as the planets do. In fact, the bright part of the Moon is experiencing daytime.

The section on the Earth, Sun and Moon begins on slide 10 of the presentation.

Earth and space: space presenters

Quality Assured Category: Science Publisher: Hamilton Trust

Children may think that day and night is caused by the sun going behind the Earth or hiding behind clouds rather than because the Earth spins on its axis taking 24 hours or one day to do so. Having children model a spinning globe facing a light source is a great way of helping them to understand why we have day and night.

Try putting a little flag or small plastic figure on the UK and ask them at different points in the spin of the globe wether it is daytime or nightime in the UK and why they know this. Another flag could be put on Australia so they can see that whilst some countries have daytime others have night as they are facing away from the sun.

Session B in this lesson pack provides an investigation on sundials which further help children see that the Earth spins on its axis and this results in day and night.

   Other lessons in this resource, produced by the Hamilton Trust, look at: • Earth, Moon and Sun • Eclipses and seasons • Moon phases • Star constellations • Planets

Is There Anyone Out There?

Quality Assured Category: Science Publisher: ESERO-UK

Teachers often find that this topic is difficult to make practical . This resource contains fun experiments that help children learn the skills of practical investigation. Analyse martian soil samples to find evidence of life, investigate craters and volcanoes and find the best site for a Mars rover. An excellent way of working scientifically using space as a context.

Day and Night World Map

A World map which shows the parts of the Earth in daylight and which are in night. have this up all day in your class room so and have children pick a place on the map and check it to see if it is night or day there throughout the course of a school day. If possible children could be encouraged to view this map for homework.

Phases of the Moon

Discuss with children what shape the moon is and shape it appears to us when looking into the sky. Children may have observed the Phases of the Moon but many will be unclear as to why we see them. Some children may think that they are caused by a shadow from the Earth, clouds, or the Earth's or Moon's rotation. This clip shows that we see the Phases of the Moon because our perspective of the Moon's sunlit appearance changes as it orbits Earth.  

Another common misconception about the phases of the moon is that people in different countries see different phases of the Moon on the same day. Remind children that everyone sees the same phases of the Moon on the same day, perhaps by sticking a figure on the map on different countries and having children point to the phase of the moon for today.

Daytime Moon Viewing

Quality Assured Category: Science Publisher: Royal Observatory Greenwich

Is the Moon only seen at night? I have yet to see a children's drawing which shows the moon out in the day so children will believe this to be the case. This resource will ensure that children know we can see the moon both in the day and at night. The only phases of the Moon that cannot be seen in the day are full moon (which is usually only visible at night) and the new moon (which is not visible from Earth at all). 

In viewing six of the eight phases of the Moon during school hours it ensures that children are going out and viewing the moon. If set as a homework task in the evening it may be forgotten or some children may find it difficult without guidance.

Create a Moon Diary and ask children to sketch the shape of the moon visible each day over one month so they can see the pattern over time. Remind them that the shape of the moon will be the same no matter where in the world it is viewed on the same day.

Moonrise and Moonset times may be found here:

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/moonrise.html

Fruit Solar System

Using fruit to model the Solar System sounds like a lot of fun and a great way of looking at the relative sizes of the planets and their distance from the Sun. Try to develop their thinking skills by asking children to take an educated guess as to which planet each fruit represents.

This physical representation may help children see that the Earth is not the largest object in our Solar System. It also offers an opportunity to discuss the Sun as the centre of the Solar System about which the other objects revolve.

It may also a good time to point out that the Sun is the only star in our Solar System. Children often think that there are other stars as they see stars  in the night sky. These stars are in fact very, very far away from our Solar System.

Quality Assured Category: Mathematics Publisher: ESERO-UK

Build a re-entry capsule to allow your eggnaut to safely return to earth. A lovely group activity that develops thinking skills and allows children to consider Newton's Laws of Motion whilst designing their capsules. Whilst discussing gravity it is worth mentioning that the Moon does have gravity, but because it has less mass than the Earth, it has 1/6 of Earth's gravity at its surface. This could be highlighted using a clip of an astronaught walking on the Moon as they don't float away but bounce lightly off its surface.

ESAkids *suitable for home teaching*

The European Space Agency website specially designed for children with all you need to know about space.

It has animations, facts, games, puzzles and quizzes to stimulate and enrich learning about earth and space.

International Space Station (ISS) Education Kit - Primary

A great resource with lots of ideas for planning lessons across the curricuum using space as a stimulus.

Looks at life in space and what is it like to live and work on board the International Space Station.

It includes: background information, worksheets, colour posters and a teachers' guide.

European Universe Awareness (UNAWE)

Quality Assured Collection Category: Science Publisher: UNAWE

This collection contains lots of activity ideas for Earth and Space including:

• Myths which explain the formation of star constellations, phases of the moon, the creation of the Earth and the Sun and Moon.
• “The Earth goes on a Spin”; in which children role-play the Sun and the Earth.
• Solar System activities

Paxi animations

Quality Assured Collection Category: Science Publisher: European Space Agency (ESA)

This collection of short animations introduce us to Paxi, the alien explorer and European Space Agency mascot. Paxi introduces himself, then explores the Solar System, investigates comets and looks at how scientists aim to find out if there is evidence for life on Mars. These animations are a great introduction to learning about space and ESA missions in a way that is accessible to children.

Solar System in a box

Quality Assured Category: Space Publisher: Royal Observatory Greenwich

This video elegantly explains how to create  a small model of the solar system, using very simple and easily sourced equipment.

Mission to Mars

This animated video explores some of the challenges that exist for getting astronauts to Mars, and what it would be like to live there for a while.

Rocks in space

Quality Assured Category: Space Publisher: Geological Society

In this resource, as well as creating a solar system mobile pupils learn that the outer planets are less dense than the inner planets and the planet with the highest density is  Earth. Then will then carry out their own density experiment using classroom or household objects. 

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Planet nine primary resource, all about the moon primary resource, space images primary resource, life as an astronaut primary resource, star facts primary resource, mars facts primary resource, asteroid primary resource, phases of the moon primary resource, solar system primary resource, space week primary resource, all science primary resources.

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Neil armstrong primary resource, mars mission: science primary resource.

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These space-themed Science units of work are packed with detailed information and scientific activities all about the Earth, sun and moon – as well as other objects in our solar system. There's a range of worksheets and other printable resources covering constellations, the rotation of the earth and moon, and even space travel.

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Space exploration

What is space exploration?

Space exploration is sending people or machines into space to visit other planets and objects in space.  Mankind has dreamed of visiting the stars for hundreds of years, but it wasn’t until 1969 that the first person walked on the Moon.

Since the first person walked on the Moon, hundreds of satellites have been launched into orbit around the earth, and hundreds of people have been into space on lots of different types of spacecraft. We have also sent machines to investigate objects that are further away in the Solar System.

Top 10 facts

• The first person in space was Yuri Gagarin from the Soviet Union, who travelled into orbit around the Earth in 1961 .
• The first man to walk on the Moon was an American called Neil Armstrong in 1969 .
• The Moon is the only place in space apart from Earth that humans have set foot on.
• People who fly into space are called astronauts. They have to be very careful about what they eat and what exercise they do to stay healthy while they are in space.
• A spacecraft needs to travel at 11,000 miles per hour to get into orbit around the Earth.
• Spacecraft use huge rockets to carry them into space.
• The most famous type of spacecraft was the Space Shuttle. There were five Space Shuttles and one prototype – between them they flew 135 missions into space.
• Out of billions of people who live on Earth, only 535 have been into Orbit, and only 12 have ever walked on the Moon.
• The International Space Station is the biggest space station ever built. It can hold a crew of six people.
• In 2012 a machine made by NASA called ‘Curiosity’ landed on Mars to see if it could find evidence of any creatures or plants having ever lived there.

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Did you know?

• Space starts 100 kilometres (62 miles) above the surface of the Earth.
• The first man to walk on the moon was Neil Armstrong. He was an American who travelled there in 1969 on NASA’s Apollo 11 mission. As he stepped onto the Moon he said, “That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
• A satellite is what we call a machine that is launched into orbit around the Earth. Some satellites do things like taking photographs or broadcasting TV channels, and others are used by scientists.
• The first satellite was called Sputnik I and was launched by the Soviet Union in 1957. It circled the Earth for three months.
• When a space mission includes people, we call it a manned space expedition. When it only includes machines, we call it an unmanned expedition.
• Nobody has ever stepped on any object in space apart from the Moon, but we have sent machines to investigate Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and many other places.
• There is no air in space, so astronauts have to take air with them from Earth so that they can breathe. If they want to go outside their spacecraft, they have to wear special airtight clothes called a space suit.
• A space station is a place built in space so that astronauts can live and work in space.
• There is so little gravity in orbit around the Earth that instead of walking on the ground, astronauts in the space shuttles or on the International Space Station float in the air. This is called weightlessness.
• Astronauts have to exercise every day to keep their muscles strong while they are in space. They also have to eat specially prepared foods that are nutritious, easy to prepare and don’t make a mess when you eat them in space. Ice cream is too messy to eat in space so astronauts have to have it freeze-dried so that they can eat it for dessert!

Space gallery:

• An astronaut
• The Apollo 11 Moon landing
• The Soyuz space shuttle
• Buzz Aldrin walking on the Moon
• The launch of the Atlantis
• Neil Armstrong
• Helen Sharman was the first British astronaut
• Yuri Gargarin
• The Sputnik satellite
• The International Space Station

Construction of the International Space Station by Europe, Japan, Canada, Russia and the USA started in 1998 and is still going on today. The International Space Station is the largest object that humans have ever put into orbit. It will be used by astronauts until at least the year 2020.

Space exploration doesn’t just mean sending people into space. We also send machines. Voyager I and Voyager II, launched in 1977, have almost reached the edge of the Solar System and will soon be exploring deep space. They have travelled further from Earth than any other space craft made by man.

Voyager I and Voyager II visited Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto on their journey through the Solar System .

Apart from the Moon, the most popular place to send unmanned space expeditions is to Mars. Since the year 2000, there have been 10 unmanned expeditions to Mars, including putting spacecraft into orbit around Mars and landing machines called rovers to explore the surface.

Some scientists think that creatures may have lived on Mars millions of years ago, when Mars was warmer and had more air – NASA sent the rover Curiosity to Mars in 2012 to look for evidence of life. They haven’t found it yet, but they are going to keep on looking!

Sending people to investigate Mars might take up to six months just to travel there. Even simple things like making sure that you have enough food to eat are difficult when you have to pack everything into your spacecraft before you leave. You can’t come back if you’ve forgotten something!

During the 1950s and 1960s there was a “Space Race” between the United States of America and the Soviet Union. Both countries thought it was important to be the first to do things in space and were very proud of their achievements. The Soviet Union put the first satellite and the first man into orbit, but the USA was the first to send a man to the Moon.

Now private companies are starting to fly into space too. Virgin Galactic sells tickets for a short trip into space for £130,000! Passengers won’t go high enough to go into orbit, but they will spend about six minutes in space. The whole trip will take two and a half hours from take-off to landing.

Words to know for space exploration:

Astronaut – a person who has travelled in space Curiosity – a large rover sent to Mars by NASA to look for signs of life ESA – the European Space Agency, which consists of all the countries in Europe working together on missions to explore space NASA – the North American Space Agency, which is the organisation from the USA that explores and investigates space Orbit – When something goes into orbit, it is high enough that it keeps circling the Earth, instead of falling back to the ground. Rocket – Rockets burn a lot of fuel to get to very high speeds very quickly. You have to do this if you want to get from the surface of the Earth into orbit. Rover – a mobile robot sent to land on another planet or moon and explore Satellite – a machine put into orbit around the Earth, and often used for science or communications Spacecraft – a vehicle for travelling in space or into space Space Shuttle – Made by NASA, this is the most famous type of spacecraft to be made. Space station – a permanent structure in space where astronauts can live and work Spacesuit – special airtight clothes that keep an astronaut safe and warm outside their spacecraft Sputnik – the first satellite to be put into orbit around Earth Voyager I and Voyager II – spacecraft that were sent to explore the outer parts of the Solar System

Related Videos

Just for fun...

• Have an adventure on Mars and play games and try activities to find out about Mars exploration
• Answer questions about the scientific advancements that led to Apollo 11's successful mission to the Moon in CBBC's Moon Mayhem quiz
• Explore Mars with Nasa's Mars Rovers Game
• A spaceship craft activity to help you think about constructing a real spacecraft
• Learn some space-themed songs
• Use National Centre for Earth Observation resources to think about what Earth looks like from space
• Launch a virtual spacecraft and send it into orbit
• See the true size of space
• What would your age be on other planets ?
• Make your own paper models of spacecrafts

Books about space exploration for kids

Names to know:

Buzz Aldrin (1930-2012) – He was the second man to walk on the Moon, and was from the USA. Helen Sharman (1963-present) – She was the first person from Britain to travel into space. John F Kennedy (1917-1963) – He was the President of the USA who started the space race and told NASA to send a man to the moon. Neil Armstrong (1930-2012) – He was the first man to walk on the Moon, and was American. Yuri Gagarin (1934-1968) – He was the first man to go into space, and was from the Soviet Union.

Find out more about space exploration:

• An interactive kids' guide to the International Space Station
• Watch an animated video about Neil Armstrong
• NASA: people and technology
• Join historian Greg Jenner for a  BBC Sounds kids' homeschool history lesson on the space race
• Discover more about how NASA is searching for planets beyond our Solar System
• The European Space Agency's kids' zone about life beyond Earth
• The Hubble Space Telescope has changed the way scientists look at the universe
• Look through BBC Bitesize's guide to Neil Armstrong , with an animated video and a quiz
• Marvel at the wonders of space with clips from the BBC series, Little Stargazing (suitable for KS1)
• Discover the secrets and stories of Apollo 11 , the first moon mission
• Watch lots of videos from the ESA , including British astronaut Tim Peake's spacewalk
• Expand your knowledge with some brilliant apps about space to use on a tablet computer or phone
• Read brilliant books for KS1 and KS2 about the moon landings and space exploration

See for yourself

• Visit the amazing gallery on space travel in the Science Museum in London. 
• See more about human exploration of space at the National Space Centre in Leicester.
• Take a complete, 25-minute tour of the International Space Station with the Space Station Captain
• Might you be on one of Virgin Galactic 's first trips to space?  

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Homework grids - 3 differentiated levels

Subject: Creative writing

Age range: 7-11

Resource type: Worksheet/Activity

Last updated

22 February 2018

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Great as a template to adjust to different levels of ESOL.

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