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K–12 teaching and learning · from the UNC School of Education

Athena: Earth and Space Science for K-12

http://www.k12.wa.us/EdTech/Athena/index.html

Provider: NASA's Public Use of Remote Sensing Data

About this resource

Appropriate grades
3–12
Subjects
mathematics (applied mathematics, measurement, statistics), science (astronomy, environmental science, meteorology, oceanography), education technology (integrating technology), teaching methods (discovery learning, experiential learning)
Provider
NASA's Public Use of Remote Sensing Data

Legal

Creative Commons License

This catalog record is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License. This license applies to the content of this page only and does not apply to the referenced website.

Athena is a website from NASA's Public Use of Remote Sensing and is divided into four categories:

  • Space
  • Weather
  • Oceans
  • Earth

Within these sections track drifter buoys in the world's oceans, forecast today's space weather, investigate tropical storms viewed from space. Athena engages students in observing phenomena using remote-sensed data to construct knowledge about the world. Data sets and instructional pieces are related to oceans, the atmosphere, Earth resources, and space/astronomy. Real-time data is used where possible. The material is intended for direct use by students with appropriate assistance from teachers. The goal of Athena is to enhance the K-12 science curriculum, and facilitate use of the powerful computational tools in classrooms networked to the Web.

Educator's guide

One of the most challenging concepts in mathematics is the collection, organization, display and analysis of data. If only activities could be more student-centered, offering real-world data instead of boring textbook examples! Try Athena, an access point to NASA's remote-sensed data gathering tools, to provide students with relevant scientific data to work with in their science and math classes. Subject areas include Space, Weather, Earth and Oceans. Piloted by Washington State educators, the activities and strategies provide the data collection method (real-time whenever possible), implementation ideas and integration strategies.