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Learn About PACE and the Ocean With These Back to School Activities

By Sara Blumberg
Posted on Monday, August 30, 2021 at 12:00:00

As students across the country are saying goodbye to the summer and the new school year is kicking off, PACE is gearing up to engage students in exciting activities and thought-provoking challenges. The mission has put together a series of online activities to help your students learn more about how NASA studies the ocean.

Space school bus
The thematic resources listed here include hands-on activities, online interactives, images and movies, e-brochures and StoryMaps. These resources have been compiled to help provide an entry point for anyone curious about the PACE mission.
PACE themes
Learn how NASA studies the ocean through our downloadable coloring pages and online coloring interactives. A 12-month tour around the globe reveals how tiny ocean life – microscopic plants and algae known as "phytoplankton" – sustain our living planet. It also includes an example of aerosols, particles that are suspended in our atmosphere, that will be measured by PACE.

PACE Quizzes

Learn about PACE – and yourself – by taking our quizzes. Two are designed to discover which phytoplankton species is most like you (Which Phytoplankton Are You? and Which Phytoplankton Are You - Quarantine Edition). Another quiz helps you understand What in the World are Aerosols? What's it like to be a NASA scientist studying the ocean? Learn from the experts themselves in our Earth Expeditions blogs. These posts offer a daily insight into how scientists conduct field work during a pandemic. Explore what NASA's Earth-observing satellites see from space with this interactive map featuring a collection of ocean color imagery from around the world. Just click on any dot to preview ocean color images. Like what you see? Click the preview to access a beautiful scene of our home planet.
Ocean color interactive screenshot
Listen to scientists talk about a changing ocean in this six-part science and oceanography podcast designed especially for middle-schoolers. Learn to build your own satellite, PACE style. It usually takes years to build a satellite that can survive the extremes of space. This paper model replica of PACE has five parts plus an optional 'Hinge'. Just like NASA, you will create the final spacecraft model by assembling the parts together...but in a tiny fraction of the time!

Interested in more activities? Learn about them here.

Blog Archive
Screenshots of Phytopia app
Phytoplankton Exploration (a.k.a. Phytopia) has interactive concept maps that feature phytoplankton and the roles they play in our ocean. You can also use the microscope to check out these "tiny titans"!
Seeing Earth the hyper way movie cover
Seeing Earth the "Hyper" Way video offers a "dogs' eye" view of how PACE will look "beyond the rainbow" to reveal new information about microscopic organisms known as phytoplankton.
Screenshot of Wavelength app
PACE By Wavelength Interactive helps you understand the types of scientific discovery that will be made possible thanks to PACE's "hyperspectral" Ocean Color Instrument.