NASA Invites Children and Families to Investigate Space and Earth By Satellite

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Visitor Center in Greenbelt, Md. will host this month’s Sunday Experiment on Sunday, April 15 from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. EDT. It’s a free afternoon for elementary-aged school children and their families with a look at how NASA explores space and studies the Earth from space using satellites and other technology.

This month’s Sunday experiment will touch on three of Goddard’s major areas: Earth, space and the instruments and engineering we use to study them. Visitors will use the Engineering Design Process to design and build an instrument that they will use to make measurements of objects in space to determine where they are on Earth.

The event highlights NASA’s Beginning Engineering, Science and Technology (BEST) Students program. The NASA’s BEST Activities Guides have been designed to bring the principles of engineering alive to younger audiences. The Engineering Design Process is a series of steps that engineers use to guide them as they solve problems. What makes this curriculum different than others is that there is no “recipe” for building the items in each activity and there are no given drawings. The emphasis is for students to understand that engineers must “imagine and plan” before they begin to build and experiment. To successfully complete the NASA’s BEST Activities, students must draw their ideas first before constructing.

As always, the Visitor Center’s Science on a Sphere theater will offer insight to Goddard’s cutting edge science and research.

The Sunday Experiment, held the third Sunday of each month, spotlights Goddard’s world-renowned science and engineering research and technological developments. Families leave inspired by the activities, wowed by the scientists and engineers, and excited about Goddard’s revolutionary research and technology. In addition to celebrating all things science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, the Sunday Experiment celebrates major science missions that are managed by NASA Goddard and set to launch in the near future.

For more information on the Sunday Experiment, visit Goddard’s Visitor Center Web page:
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/visitor/events/index.html

For more information and directions to the NASA Goddard Visitor’s Center, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/visitor/home/faq.html
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/visitor/directions/index.html

For more information on NASA’s BEST Students, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/best/