Getting Ready to Teach PLANETS

Welcome!

Whether you’re just getting started with PLANETS or looking to dig deeper into the instructional philosophy around PLANETS, this site is dedicated to helping you discover how the educator resources are designed to support your successful use of the PLANETS curriculum.

This page will provide:

  • A high-level overview of the PLANETS curriculum and its resources
  • Unit-based landing pages where you can access more unit-specific information and teaching supports.
  • Educator statements about the impact of PLANETS curriculum with learners

Where do I start?

Step 1: Watch the video below to learn more about the curriculum design and how this site will help you get ready to teach PLANETS. 

Step 2: Review the Features and Teaching Supports in the PLANETS Educator Guides

Step 3: Scroll down to start digging into a specific PLANETS unit!

people engaging iconWhen you see this icon on other PLANETS pages, you can click it to return to this page.

PLANETS Units

Planning to teach reminders:

  • Each PLANETS unit focuses on an aspect of planetary science and includes two pathways
    for learning: science and engineering.
  • The learning pathways can be completed together or independently, but activities build on one another within a pathway, so they need to be taught sequentially.
  • Each unit follows the same format and includes consistent features, which you can view again here Features and Teaching Supports in the PLANETS Educator Guides (coming soon)

When you are ready to explore a specific unit, click on the appropriate unit launch button below!

Grades 3–5

Photo of two astronauts working on the outside of their spacecraft

Space Hazards

Develop a plan to mitigate hazards on a NASA mission and engineer space gloves to protect astronauts from cold, impact, and dust!

Grades 6–8

Photo of a rover on the extreme landscape of a planetary body

Remote Sensing

Design technologies to learn about the surface of a mystery moon and use NASA Mars data to choose a landing site for a rover!

Grades 6–8

Water in Extreme Environments showing Saturn beyond a landscape that suggests a water source

Water in Extreme Environments

Discover where water is in our solar system and engineer a process to reuse it in an extreme environment!

What Educators are Saying About PLANETS

“There is meaningful planning that has gone into this curriculum to purposefully be inclusive to all learners.”

“I have never been very good at science and as a result, I have not had a huge interest in STEM. However, teaching this curriculum and showing real-life examples of what NASA has been definitely piqued my interest.”