The NASA Goddard Space Flight Visitor Center offers programs related to Goddard's missions in Science and Technology.
Programs are specifically geared toward Primary, Middle School, or High School grade levels. Each covers a wide range of topics, allowing you to plan your visit to reflect your curriculum focus. Visits commonly include talks from scientists, engineers and education specialists; on-site visits of related facilities and video presentations.
To request a reservation for your visit please
request a program by clicking here.
Programs are offered to groups of ten or higher and children must be over ten years of age to participate in visits to the main center sites. Programs can last from two to four hours. Time slots fill up fast, so make sure to schedule your event a month in advance.
Current Programs Being Offered:
Aura Ozone Monitoring Garden Education Program
Description: Most people know somebody who has asthma or some kind of sensitivity to polluted air. Air quality is an issue that concerns everyone from lawmakers, to farmers, to families. One of the primary components of air quality is the amount of ozone found in the air we breathe (troposphere). While ozone in the upper atmosphere (stratosphere) protects life from harmful ultraviolet radiation, ozone in the lower atmosphere (troposphere) is a pollutant that damages plants and human lung tissue. NASA scientists study the health of our atmosphere through the use of the Earth Observing Satellite Aura. This program will describe and explain ozone chemistry, NASA’s Aura satellite, and plant biological response to ozone. Students will learn how to recognize ozone damage symptoms on plant leaves, how to estimate the amount of damage, and which plants are susceptible to ozone.
Standards:
NSES Content Standard D
Earth and Space Science: Structure of the Earth system
Grades 5-8, page 160
The atmosphere is a mixture of nitrogen, oxygen, and trace gases that include water vapor. The atmosphere has different properties at different elevations.
Global patterns of atmospheric movement influence local weather.
NSES Content Standard F
Science in Personal and Social Perspectives: Changes in environments
Grades 5-8, page 168
Human activities also can induce hazards through resource acquisition, urban growth, land-use decisions, and waste disposal. Such activities can accelerate many natural changes.
Causes of environmental degradation and resource depletion vary from region to region and from country to country.
Benchmark 4C The Physical Setting: Processes that Shape the Earth
Grades 6-8, page 73
Human activities, such as reducing the amount of forest cover, increasing the amount and variety of chemicals released into the atmosphere, and intensive farming, have changed the earth's land, oceans, and atmosphere.
Duration: 1 ½ or 2 hours (please specify on comments section of request form)
Availability: Grades 6 -8; Tuesdays and Thursdays only
Brief description: During program, students will get the opportunity to learn about atmospheric chemistry, the relationship between ozone and human health, how plants serve as indicators of air quality, and NASA’s role in monitoring the health of the atmosphere. In order to ensure a quality visit, educators requesting the Aura education program must complete two of the five pre-visit activities before arriving to the Visitor Center
