Comet Activities
The lessons below are teacher-favorite lessons focused on comets. For more search options or to search by other science target, missions and other criteria, visit our Fast Lesson Finder. You can also search by curriculum standards on our popular Curriculum Standards Quilts.
Comets Lessons:
Aerogello
Topic: Solar System Exploration
Grade Level: 5-8
Body: Comets
Mission: Stardust (Comets)
Short Description: Participants simulate and observe the collection of particles substituting gelatin for the aerogel. Aerogel is a silica dioxide gel with the lowest density solid known used on STARDUST to collect comet and interstellar dust particles.
Alka-Seltzer Rockets
Topic: Modeling Solar System Objects
Grade Level: 5-8
Body: Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Asteroids, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Comets, Kuiper Belt & Oort Cloud, Earth's Moon
Short Description: Using baking soda and vinegar, propel an object across the floor to introduce the idea of how things move through space.
Analyzing Elemental Abundances
Grade Level: 9-12
Body: Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Asteroids, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Comets, Kuiper Belt & Oort Cloud
Mission: Genesis (Our Solar System)
Short Description: Participants will practice and understand the use of ratios in describing the abundances of isotopes.
Build Your Own Comet
Topic: Modeling Solar System Objects
Grade Level: 5-8
Body: Comets
Mission: Deep Impact (Comets)
Short Description: Participants may assist leaders in constructing a comet of dry ice and dirt. The model can then be used to demonstrate why comets have tails and why the tail always points away from the sun, sublimation, orbits of comets, and concepts of radiation, pressure, and solar wind.
Comet Lingo Bingo (G9-12)
Grade Level: 9-12
Body: Comets
Mission: Stardust (Comets)
Short Description: These activities are designed to engage students in gathering a thorough and flexible knowledge of comet science, and to introduce the NASA missions of Discovery that are helping scientists and engineers expand that knowledge.
Student Comet Chronicle
Comet Lingo Bingo Boards
Comet Lingo Bingo Clues/Card
Comet on a Stick (Educator Guide)
Topic: Modeling Solar System Objects
Grade Level: 5-8
Body: Comets
Mission: Deep Impact (Comets)
Short Description: Students develop a model of a comet and use the same thought processes as a science and engineering team do to design and build missions. Students will use their model to test their theories about comets and then evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of their comet model.
Comet on a Stick (Student Guide)
Topic: Modeling Solar System Objects
Grade Level: 5-8
Body: Comets
Mission: Deep Impact (Comets)
Short Description: Students develop a model of a comet and use the same thought processes as a science and engineering team do to design and build missions. Students will use their model to test their theories about comets and then evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of their comet model.
Comet Origins and Travels
Topic: Solar System Formation
Grade Level: 5-8
Body: Comets
Mission: Stardust (Comets)
Short Description: Examine comet constitution and their origin.
Comet Sisters
Body: Comets
Short Description: In this story about comets some of what is told is true and some of what is told is what we think might be true. Also, some of it -- is just made up. See if your students can tell which is which.
Comparing Comets (Educator Guide)
Grade Level: 5-8, 9-12
Body: Comets
Mission: Deep Impact (Comets)
Short Description: This exercise allows students to compare and contrast the nucleus of two comets and listen to audio files of NASA scientists and middle-school students conducting the activity.
Scientists Audio Track
Student Audio Track 1
Student Audio Track 2
Comparing Comets (Student Activity Sheet)
Grade Level: 5-8, 9-12
Body: Comets
Mission: Deep Impact (Comets)
Short Description: This exercise allows students to compare and contrast the nucleus of two comets and listen to audio files of NASA scientists and middle-school students conducting the activity.
Scientists Audio Track
Student Audio Track 1
Student Audio Track 2
Cooking Up a Comet
Topic: Modeling Solar System Objects
Grade Level: 5-8
Body: Comets
Mission: Stardust (Comets)
Short Description: Students will learn the basic components of a comet and demonstrate how the comet's head and tail form by observing a comet model -- this activity is a classroom demonstration.
Designing Craters: Creating a Deep Impact
Grade Level: 5-8, 9-12
Body: Comets
Mission: Deep Impact (Comets)
Short Description: A two-to-three week student inquiry into the question: "How do you make a 7-15 stories deep, football stadium-sized crater in a comet?" The lessons are designed to provide students with experience in conducting scientific inquiries, gain a greater understanding of scientific modeling, and get the students involved with the excitement of a NASA mission in development.
Exploring Comets and Modeling for Mission Success
Topic: Modeling Solar System Objects
Grade Level: K-4, 5-8, 9-12
Body: Comets
Mission: Deep Impact (Comets)
Short Description: This is a complete unit containing many activities to understand comets and their structure. This resource has activities for all age levels. See National Science Education Standards Alignment for alignment of activities to grades and standards.
Make a Comet Model and Eat It
Topic: Modeling Solar System Objects
Grade Level: K-4, 5-8
Body: Comets
Mission: Deep Impact (Comets)
Short Description: Participants create an edible model using what we think we know about comets. One sample is given to another research team to determine its structure and composition.
Making a Comet in the Classroom
Topic: Modeling Solar System Objects
Grade Level: 5-8
Body: Comets
Short Description: This demonstration of the composition of a comet uses dry ice and several common ingredients to make a nucleus that will release jets of gas and sublimate over time.
Mars Pathfinder: Egg Drop and Landing
Topic: Modeling Solar System Objects
Grade Level: 5-8
Body: Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Asteroids, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Comets, Kuiper Belt & Oort Cloud, Earth's Moon, Pluto
Mission: Mars Pathfinder (Mars)
Short Description: Design, build, and test a system for landing on the surface of Mars without breaking the cargo, an egg.
Measuring Solar Activity
Topic: Light and Spectra
Grade Level: 9-12
Body: Our Solar System, Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Asteroids, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Comets, Kuiper Belt & Oort Cloud
Short Description: Measuring Solar Activity is a multi-part exercise in math and physics for high school students and above. Students will learn graphing, pattern recognition by looking at satellite images and 250 years worth of data, making predictions, and recognizing spacial relationships.
Modeling the Solar System
Topic: Modeling Solar System Objects
Grade Level: 5-8
Body: Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Asteroids, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Comets, Kuiper Belt & Oort Cloud, Earth's Moon
Short Description: This PDF contains four lessons:
1) Modeling Orbits in the Solar System. This lesson models the orbital distances between the planets and shows that the solar system is mostly empty space.
2) Modeling Sizes of Planets. This lesson compares the relative sizes of the planets to those of familiar fruits and vegetables. It also uses size to calculate density and planet composition.
3) Looking Inside Planets. This lesson involves modeling the interior structures of the planets and shows that the solid cores of the gas giants are similar in size to the Earth or Venus.
4) Search for A Habitable Planet. This lesson looks at the characteristics of planets that make them livable, their temperature, and compositions of atmosphere and surface instead of size
or orbit.
Mud Splat Craters
Topic: Planetary Surface Processes
Grade Level: 5-8
Body: Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Asteroids, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Comets, Kuiper Belt & Oort Cloud, Earth's Moon, Pluto
Short Description: Observe crater formation in mud to introduce the idea of fluidized craters as seen on the surface of Mars.
Paper Comet Model with a Deep Impact
Topic: Modeling Solar System Objects
Body: Comets
Mission: Deep Impact (Comets)
Short Description: Participants demonstrate how models can be used to establish the properties of comets.
Seeing in 3-D: Stereo Pairs (Educator Guide)
Grade Level: 5-8
Body: Comets
Mission: Deep Impact (Comets), Stardust (Comets)
Short Description: Students will have an understanding of how to use 2-D images to create 3-D images. Students will gain a better understanding of visible images retrieved from distant spacecrafts. Students will be able to use this technique to study images taken by the Deep Impact spacecraft of Comet Tempel 1 in 2005 and compare those pictures to images taken by the STARDUST spacecraft camera in 2011.
Click here to view the "3D Stereoscopic Viewer" instructions.
Seeing in 3-D: Stereo Pairs (Student Guide)
Grade Level: 5-8
Body: Comets
Mission: Deep Impact (Comets), Stardust (Comets)
Short Description: Students will have an understanding of how to use 2-D images to create 3-D images. Students will gain a better understanding of visible images retrieved from distant spacecrafts. Students will be able to use this technique to study images taken by the Deep Impact spacecraft of Comet Tempel 1 in 2005 and compare those pictures to images taken by the STARDUST spacecraft camera in 2011.
Click here to view the "3D Stereoscopic Viewer" instructions.
Size and Shape Imaged
Topic: Life
Body: Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Asteroids, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Comets, Kuiper Belt & Oort Cloud, Earth's Moon
Short Description: This activity contains a series of images of very small things. Students will view the images, hear the information from a script, and make some observations and connections. They will see Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) images and Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) images of small living organisms and rock surfaces. Then, using their new perspective, they will view unidentified samples and speculate about the surfaces and the origins of the features in the images. The goal is to get the students to think about looking at very small objects and to realize
that observations are a great way to start scientific research.
Solar System Exploration Mission Timeline Activity
Topic: Modeling Solar System Objects
Grade Level: 5-8
Body: Our Solar System, Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Asteroids, Meteors & Meteorites, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Dwarf Planets, Comets, Kuiper Belt & Oort Cloud, Earth's Moon, Europa
Mission: ARTEMIS (Earth's Moon), Cassini (Saturn), Dawn (Dwarf Planets), DSN (Our Solar System), GRAIL (Earth's Moon), Hubble (Beyond Our Solar System), Huygens (Saturn), IBEX (Our Solar System), InSight (Mars), Juno (Jupiter), Lunar Recon Orbiter (Earth's Moon), MESSENGER (Mercury), NEAR Shoemaker (Asteroids), New Horizons (Dwarf Planets), Phoenix (Mars), Stardust (Comets), Venus Express (Venus), Viking 01 (Mars), Viking 02 (Mars), Voyager 1 (Our Solar System), Voyager 2 (Our Solar System)
Short Description: Extreme Exploration -- Solar System Exploration Missions Timeline involves students in the wide range of mission events of 2008-2015+. Using the Solar System Exploration Timeline poster as a guide, student teams research assigned missions and record events such as launch and landing, etc. It is expected that students will be drawn into the excitement of mission events as they follow along with NASA's Solar System Exploration -- past, current, and future.
Stardust Mission: #1-1 Think Small in a Big Way - Comet Cratering
Topic: Modeling Solar System Objects
Grade Level: K-4, 5-8
Body: Comets
Mission: Stardust (Comets)
Short Description: Students will discover what happens when impactors hit the surface of a planet using balls of different sizes, flour and cocoa.
Through the Eyes of Scientists: Around and Around - Everything is Moving
Grade Level: K-4
Body: Our Solar System, Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Asteroids, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Comets, Kuiper Belt & Oort Cloud, Earth's Moon
Mission: Voyager 1 (Our Solar System), Voyager 2 (Our Solar System)
Short Description: Learning about the ever-moving objects in our solar system through the eyes of Scientist-Adventurer, Dr. Edward Stone. This lesson is part of the Through the Eyes of Scientists formal education product.
Through the Eyes of Scientists: Space Can Be a Chilly Place - Ice Is Nice!
Grade Level: K-4
Body: Our Solar System, Mercury, Earth, Mars, Asteroids, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Comets, Kuiper Belt & Oort Cloud, Earth's Moon
Mission: Cassini (Saturn)
Short Description: Learning about ice in the solar system through the eyes of Scientist-Arctic Space Explorer, Mr. Ben Holt. This lesson is part of the Through the Eyes of Scientists formal education product.
Through the Eyes of Scientists: What is a Planet?
Grade Level: K-4
Body: Our Solar System, Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Asteroids, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Comets, Kuiper Belt & Oort Cloud, Earth's Moon
Short Description: Learning about the Sun and the planets as a "treasure map" through the eyes of Scientist-Treasure Hunter, Dr. Phil Chamberlin.
Voyage: A Journey Through Our Solar System -- Lesson 8: Comets: Bringers of Life?
Topic: Modeling Solar System Objects
Grade Level: 5-8
Body: Comets
Short Description: Comets are an important class of objects found in the solar system. Created at the time of solar system formation, these "dirty snowballs" -- each the size of a city -- have remained virtually unchanged for billions of years in the cold outer reaches of the solar system. Their composition therefore provides clues as to how the solar system was
born, and comet impacts on the early Earth may have been the source of the molecules needed for the formation of life -- organic molecules. In the first activity, students explore the relative abundance of different atoms in the universe, and the molecules that are created from these atoms. In the second activity, students combine ingredients composed
of these molecules to build a good physical model of a comet. The model provides an understanding of cometary composition and structure, and how comets behave when some make a rare trip into the inner solar system and interact with the sun.
What is a Planet?
Grade Level: 9-12
Body: Our Solar System, Asteroids, Comets, Kuiper Belt & Oort Cloud
Mission: New Horizons (Dwarf Planets)
Short Description: Students learn about the characteristics of planets, comets, asteroids, and trans-Neptunian objects through a classification activity. Students can then apply what they have learned by participating in a formal debate about a solar system object discovered by the New Horizons spacecraft and by defining the term "planet."
