Geography: Space Centers

Teacher's Lesson Plan:

Geography: Space Centers

A geography lesson about places all around the globe from where space flights begin, with an included worksheet

Group size:

One or many students

Objectives:

• To become aware generally of the descriptive science dealing with the surface of Earth, its division into continents and countries, and the climate, natural resources, inhabitants and industries of the various divisions
  
  
• To become aware generally of the studies of earth science, topography, physical geography, economic geography, political geography and cartography.
  
  
• To become familiar with the general physical features of Earth, especially the surface features of particular regions, areas and places
  
  
• To identify some of the geological, topographical, cartographic and geophysical elements of specific places on Earth
  
  
• To identify those sites from where space rockets are launched
  
  
• To comprehend the political geography of the Space Age
  
  
• To appreciate the degree of difficulty in launching from certain geographic areas

Activities:

Reading about launches of animate and inanimate payloads to space

Referring to maps or globes for points of interest

Class or group discussion about:


• The geography of Earth, including continents, countries, climates, natural resources, inhabitants, and industries
• The cosmodromes and space centers from where rockets are launched into space
• The political geography of the Space Age
• The difficulty in launching from certain geographic areas
• The reasons humans make space launches
• The social and political elements of space flight

After discussion and reading, individuals should complete a worksheet

Materials:

For each student:


• Access to the Internet via ISP and web browser
• Access to a world map or globe (see online maps below)
• Access to a geography text (optional or see online resources below)
• Worksheet (print the worksheet at the bottom of this worksheet)
• Pencils, pens or markers

For lesson:


• Information and pictures of space rocket launches at Space Today Online

Procedure:

Have each student:

Visit Space Today Online
www.spacetoday.org

Read "Man-In-Space Firsts"
www.spacetoday.org/History/ManInSpaceFirsts/ManInSpaceFirsts.html

Read "Space Factoids"
www.spacetoday.org/History/SpaceFactoids/SpaceFactoids1.html

Refer to online maps:

University of Texas Library Map Collection www.lib.utexas.edu/Libs/PCL/Map_collection/Map_collection.html

Xerox PARC Map Viewer pubweb.parc.xerox.com/map

"Online Maps" at Map Quest www.mapquest.com

Optionally, refer to geography information online:

National Geographic www.nationalgeographic.org

Optionally, refer to online launch information online:

NASA -- European Space Agency -- other agencies

In class or group discussion:


• Ask why humans make space launches
• Ask how continents and countries differ in their climates, natural resources, inhabitants and industries
• Ask how rockets are launched into space from space centers and cosmodromes
• Ask about the difficulty in launching from certain geographic areas
• Ask students to describe the social and political elements of space flight
• Ask students to discover the latitude and longitude of space launch sites

Have a student or students show:


• Where space centers and cosmodromes are around the world
• The latitude and longitude of space centers and cosmodromes
• Who the most important spacefaring nations are
• How human engineers have overcome the barriers to space travel
• How space flights benefit the ordinary resident of our planet

Explain:


• Why it is so difficult to launch a rocket to space
• How today's space flights compare with launches at the dawn of the Space Age

Have the students identify the names on their worksheets and mark geographic locations on their maps.

Worksheet
Launch Site	Full Name	Lat/Long	Country	Rocket Names	Other Info
Baikonur
Canaveral
Xichang
Plesetsk
Tanegashima
San Marco
Vandenberg
French Guiana
Tyuratam
Wallops Island
Kennedy
Jiuquan
Kagoshima
Peenemuende
White Sands
Taiyuan
Kourou

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