9617857 Croft The three-year project will design, develop, test, and publish a CD-ROM based supplemental module for middle school grades on astronomy that focuses on learning about the solar system. The project will adapt the software tools developed for an earlier high school project - "Astronomy Village: Investigating the Universe" - for use with the new topic and grade level. NASA supported the development of the high school materials and is supporting a second phase of the high school project to develop assessment procedures and evaluate the impact of the high school materials. The middle school project will develop 10 new investigations focusing on planetary science and the solar system. With the materials, students will conduct background research, undertake related hands-on activities, simulate collecting data, analyze data making use of image processing technology, interpret the results of their analysis, and report their results to their peers. The project will publish and disseminate 5,000 copies of the software and teacher guide through the NASA Classroom of the Future.
