Satellite web hunt
In this activity, students use Science Learning Hub resources and the internet to answer questions about various satellite missions and orbits and to explore some of the stunning imagery obtained by satellites.
International Space Station (ISS)
The International Space Station (ISS) is a habitable artificial satellite that has been placed in a low Earth orbit. It completes 15.7 orbits per day and is maintained at an orbital altitude of between 330 km and 410 km.
Image courtesy of NASA.
By the end of this activity, students should be able to:
identify the mission (purpose) of some of the satellites featured on the Science Learning Hub
identify the types of orbits some of these satellites occupy
discuss why some of these satellites occupy the orbits they do.
Download the Word file (see link below) for:
introduction/background notes
what you need
what to do
discussion questions
extension ideas
student handout.
Activity idea
The activity Interpreting observations from satellite images introduces student to strategies and skills that scientists use to interpret satellite images. The activity contains a number of ready-to-use images from NASA’s Visible Earth website. To encourage local curriculum learning, use this curation of New Zealand images to find images of interest for your local area.
