Oct. 1, 2008: NASA Turns 50!

The Mini Page is a syndicated, four-page tabloid written for young children found each Wednesday in the Rocky Mountain News. This issue of The Mini Page is available through the eEdition Archive to registered eEdition subscribers. Click here to learn about subscribing to the eEdition at no cost to you (for Colorado teachers).

Activities:

1. Make a Happy Birthday card for NASA. Decorate your card with words and pictures from the newspaper.

2. Create a "Thank You, NASA" poster. Find newspaper words and pictures that show items we have now that are the result of the space program. Look for electronic devices, weather information and food. Paste your words and pictures on your poster.

3. Select three newspaper stories about events in other countries. Paste the stories on a piece of paper. Next to each story, list the different kinds of NASA-related technology that might have been used to gather the information in the story.

4. Which of NASA's projects (a) sent men to the moon, (b) is exploring the surface of Mars, (c) is sending back data from the edges of our solar system, and (d) works with other countries to establish a space station?

5. Visit the NASA Web site at www.nasa.gov and read about current or upcoming NASA missions. Select one mission that interests you. Write a paragraph describing the mission and discussing how the information we will learn from the mission will affect our knowledge and lives.

This week's standards:

• Students develop an understanding of objects in the sky. (Science: Earth and Space Science)
• Students understand science and technology. (Science: Science and Technology)
  
  (standards by Dr. Sherrye D. Garrett, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi)