NASA's Space Jam

Lessons

Grades 4-12 learners with no prior coding experience can learn how to use computers to create and animate solar systems and then to use them as a musical instrument. Participants learn basic coding starting with familiar objects and simple concepts such as size and color. Then more advanced astronomical and musical terms are introduced such as the period of a planet and the names of notes and scales. Following a scaffolded set of activities, participants can experience real world applications of computer science to understand our universe and to create unconventional music. Press the Let's get started! button to start the activity, watch the lesson videos below, or check out our examples of some completed steps.

Please help out by giving us feedback! Answer these short (anonymous) questions on the NASA Space Jams activity: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/sonify

Let's get started!

Note: This activity can take from 45-75 minutes, depending on the total number of learners, the length of time allotted per step, etc.

What will we be making? Check out these 2 example files:

[Download Video ]

Lessons Introduction: Intro to Space Jam

Lesson 1:

Lesson 2:

Lesson 3:

Create a Planet (& Orbit)

[Download Video ]

Lesson 4:

Create a Solar System

Lesson 5:

Lesson 6:

Lesson 7:

Lesson 8:

Create Your Own Space Jam!

[Download Video ]

Bonus Lesson:

Remix a real extrasolar system!

Brief Educator Notes

(Download our educator guide in PDF)

Note on orbits: The planets in this activity orbit clockwise. The star/planet systems your students build in Space Jam can be any possible star/planet system they like, and star/planet systems can orbit clockwise (or counterclockwise like our own solar system does when viewed from the North) depending on the molecular cloud they formed in and how the system developed.

Grades 2-5 notes: Younger audiences will need a little guidance to get started and some encouragement along the way. The step-by-step nature provided in the lessons should help, and you can take advantage of this by dividing the lessons into even smaller chunks for your learners, moving on to the next segments and lessons as attention permits. There will be terms that need some definition or further discussion to relate the lessons to coding concepts and also astronomical phenomena, such as periods of orbits — see our glossary for help with those terms.

Grades 6-9+ notes: For older learners, after completing all 8 lessons direct your learners to press the ‘More!’ button to explore pre-made musical versions of real solar systems. More advanced learners can also complete a bonus activity which lets them choose any real planetary system and perform simple calculations (division with a calculator) to create them on their own within the app. There are also complementary NASA Space Math activities that will pair well with this activity for a math extension:

1) Exploring the Evaporating Exoplanet HD189733b

Students estimate how quickly this planet will lose its atmosphere and evaporate at its present loss rate of 6 million tons/second.

[Grade: 6-8 | Topics: mass= density x volume; rates; volume of a sphere]

(PDF)[Related Science Press Release]

2) Chandra Sees a Distant Planet Evaporating

The planet CoRot2b is losing mass at a rate of 5 million tons per second. Students estimate how long it will take for the planet to lose its atmosphere.

[Grade: 6-8 | Topics: Scientific Notation; Rate = Amount/Time]

(PDF)[Related Science Press Release]

Learn More About Sonification in Research & Communication:

Use code to create a solar system that really rocks!

The Science

What is Sonification?

Lessons

Resources