July 20th is Space Exploration Day, the anniversary of when Neil Armstrong stepped onto the Moon in 1969. He was correct in saying, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” President Ronald Reagan made it an official national day in 1984.
He hoped to inspire young people to pursue careers in space science. More than 50 years later, NASA is still making space exploration accessible to everyone, including your kids.
NASA offers a vast library of FREE educational content. We’re talking lesson plans, videos, hands-on activities, and interactive tools. You will also see some of the most beautiful photos ever taken of our universe.
What NASA Offers
NASA’s educational resources span every grade level from kindergarten through high school. Through NASA JPL Education alone, teachers can access over 200 lesson plans, video tutorials, and more. The Solar System Explorer lets students navigate real imagery of planets and moons. Furthermore, the My NASA Data platform allows them to work with real data from space missions.
In addition to the above, our favorite are their images. NASA’s photo galleries pull from missions like the Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes. These are not stock photos; they are real photos of distant galaxies, nebulae, and planetary surfaces.
Best of all, they are free for public use.
NASA Space Place offers articles, games, and activities for upper elementary students in both English and Spanish. For older students, Space Math links hundreds of problems to real NASA discoveries. It covers topics from basic proportions to algebra.
How We Use NASA Resources at Learn Bright
At Learn Bright, we build our space lessons to connect students with real science. NASA’s resources make that possible. When students learn about Mars, they look at actual rover data and mission imagery. When they study the International Space Station, they see it as a working research lab.
Our space lessons cover a range of topics that pair naturally with NASA’s free content:
Students learn why the ISS serves as a gateway to deeper space exploration and build a model to bring the concept to life. Watch our International Space Station video here.
This lesson follows NASA’s story from its founding to today. It also shows how space technology has shaped daily life on Earth. Afterward, learn more about NASA’s first American female in space here.
Students explore each of the planets. They link reading comprehension to real scientific research. Watch our Planets in the Solar System video here.
Celebrate Space Exploration Day on July 20th
Pull up NASA’s free image galleries and let students pick a photo that interests them. Then use one of our space lessons to explore it further. Start with an image to spark curiosity, move into a lesson for context, and let students take it from there.
Space Exploration Day is a reminder that curiosity drives progress. We hope you and your families have fun exploring together!
