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PLANETS
Teaching Navigator

Welcome to Mission Control – your PLANETS Teaching Navigator!

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

Here at the Educator Mission Control, you’ll find:

  • A high-level overview of the PLANETS curriculum and its resources
  • Launch links to three unit teaching navigators where you can access more unit-specific teaching supports.

rocket iconThe Teaching Navigator icon indicates pages focused on educator professional learning resources that assist when considering and planning to teach the curriculum.

What is PLANETS?

PLANETS supports indigenous learners, learners with diverse physical abilities, and multilingual learners, and utilizes culturally responsive pedagogies and universal design for learning.

PLANETS activities promote habits of mind and practices that help youth in team-driven problem-solving activities that support the development of 21st Century Skills. The content and examples in the curriculum help to promote development of STEM identities where youth can envision themselves in the future workforce through science and engineering.

PLANETS Units

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. When you are ready to launch into the Teaching Navigator for each unit, click on the Launch button below!

Grades 3–5

two astronauts working on the outside of their spacecraft
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Space Hazards

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

Space Hazards Materials List download button

Grades 6–8

Remote Sensing showing a rover on the extreme landscape of a planetary body
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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!

Remote Sensing Materials List download button

Grades 6–8

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

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

Water in Extreme Environments Materials List download button

What Educators are Saying About PLANETS

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

“What I love about this curriculum is how it builds on each lesson. You introduce a concept and then expand on it in the next lesson, adding more depth. By the end, you’ve put all the pieces together for a comprehensive understanding. That’s what I appreciated.”

“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. I would love to see more videos of behind-the-scenes at NASA.”

“I think units like this really open up careers, jobs that students can see themselves having in the future. When kids think about a scientist, they just imagine someone mixing chemicals. There are so many different careers that they can have in science.”