Space Exploration | Astro Science Articles + Research Project Template Set

Make learning about space exploration exciting, meaningful, and easy to implement with a paired set of resources that helps students move from strong reading comprehension to deeper scientific inquiry and independent research. The reading passage provides approximately 15 engaging paragraphs supported by 6 questions, including three regular comprehension questions, a fill in the gaps task, a true or false question, and a prompt designed to inspire critical thinking, giving students a clear foundation in missions, spacecraft, robotic probes, human exploration, and the challenges of working beyond Earth.

Students can then extend their understanding through a research project template that guides a one paragraph summary, a mathematics connection using data such as distance, speed, time, scale, or mission costs, and an engineering or technological connection linked to rockets, life support, robotics, satellites, habitats, and spacecraft design. The template also includes a five term glossary, three core challenging inquiry questions with two optional sets of three extra questions for easy differentiation across age and ability, and a creative item space that encourages ownership while keeping the work focused on accurate science.

A clear 20 point rubric supports self, peer, or teacher assessment, while additional implementation guidance makes classroom use simple and flexible. The new 10 page HTML resource adds even more value with strong primer material on space exploration plus JSON export and upload of answers, making this a practical and modern option for middle and high school science lessons on astronomy, physics, engineering, Earth and space science, and STEM learning.

The research project template provides the perfect grab and go, print and provide resource that can supplement lessons. It is an project template with questions to check comprehension and inspire scientific thinking. It gives a rich and supportive framework that can be tweaked as needed for students to support differentiation.

Each research project template includes:

• Space for a one paragraph summary (that links to the 2 page science article also available on this topic - but does not have to).
• Students should produce a mathematical connection, an engineering / technology connection, 2 interesting facts / stats.
• 5 glossary terms they should fill in with their own words (which also links to the science article also available)
• 3 thought provoking questions (ie: critical thinking questions) they must answer.
• Finally, each template has 3 alternative thought provoking questions for younger students and 3 other alternative harder questions to extend high flying or older students. Giving you a total of 9 possible thought provoking questions that could be used with students to enhance their research and critical thinking.
• Further, I have added a 1 page - 20 point rubric to be used for either self-assessment or teacher assessment as you deem fit. I hope it helps support the learning even further!
• A new and improved HTML format addition to give plentiful initial materials.

The template is some of my best work and I am proud to share it with you.

The science article provides the perfect grab and go, print and provide resource that can supplement lessons. It is an article with questions to check comprehension and inspire scientific thinking. I am very proud of this series of science articles and they are rich with information and wonder at the majesty of science. Each science article includes a fun fact(s) to add to the knowledge gained from this article. Formatted in an easy to read and digest manner, each paragraph is numbered to help with referencing and each question answer has a paragraph reference number to point to the specific information (where applicable).

WHY / WHEN TO USE:

• Useful for substitute (sub) teaching
• To extend students
• To increase scientific literacy and research skills in your class
• Great as a lesson filler when class goes too fast and you need a long running task
• To inspire students on a particular topic
• As a scaffold to support students who need support on research skills and can use a framework
• To enhance critical thinking when doing research and making a relevant and interesting output
• Give a selection of these research project templates for students to choose from
• To enhance students ability to express ideas and synthesis knowledge
• To increase scientific literacy in your class
• A weekly reading / research task

WHAT'S INCLUDED:

Space Exploration Science Research Project Template

• 7 page Google doc teacher version with supporting appendix items
• 3 page Google doc student version with room to fill in answers (text boxes)
• 7 page Word doc teacher version with supporting appendix items
• 3 page Word doc student version with room to fill in answers (text boxes)
• 7 page PDF teacher version with supporting appendix items
• 3 page PDF student version with space to fill in answers
• 1 page 20 point rubric for self or teacher assessment in all three - Google doc, Word doc and PDF form
• 10 page HTML format addition with plenty of materials to initially support students. (UPDATE)

Space Exploration Reading Passage

• 3 page Word doc image - textboxes teacher version with answers
• 2 page Word doc image - textboxes student version with room to fill in answers (text boxes)
• 3 page PDF teacher version with answers
• 2 page PDF student version without answers (but space left to do so)
• 3 page Google doc image - textboxes teacher version with answers
• 2 page Google doc image - textboxes student version with room to fill answers (text boxes)
• New 2 page HTML format that works on any browser allows answers to put in and saved via JSON format and uploaded via JSON format too for ease of use!