Because space and aviation touches our lives every day, and in so many ways, any subject that is taught can be injected with space and aviation approach. What follows are some of the various subjects, and some ideas on how to enrich them with space and aviation topics.

Physics

• Study Newton's three laws of motion and how they relate to rocketry.
• Study the principles of flight (lift, drag, thrust, controlling aircraft, etc.).
• Demonstrate Bernoulli's principle and how it relates to airplane airfoils.
• Study how lift and drag are produced on a airfoil.
• Study rocket propulsion.
• Study the various types of forces (tension, bending, compression, shear, torsion) and how they relate to the structure of an airplane.
• Study Archimedes' principle and how it relates to lighter-than-air craft.

Chemistry

• Study the gases that make up the atmosphere.
• Discuss various fuels used in airplanes and rocket motors.
• Discuss the light spectrum and how it allows us to determine the chemical composition of stars and planets.

English/Communications

• Vocabulary building lessons which include aviation-oriented words.
• Study literature and poems that have an aviation theme.
• Write your own space related compositions
• Study how to correctly write a research report utilizing a space topic as an example.
• Discuss the importance of communication skills in air traffic control: listening, speaking, viewing.
• Discuss record keeping techniques and how it might be important to someone interviewing a witness to an aviation disaster.
• Research ideas of flying as expressed by early man in mythology and legend.
• Discuss science fiction literature, and how it differs from real fact.

Social Studies

• Study social, political and economic impact of aviation and space.
• Study the laws and treaties that were inacted because of aviation and space progress.
• Discuss the many different types of jobs that are associated with aviation and space travel.
• Write a biographical sketch of a famous aviator or astronaut.

Geography

• Teach basic map reading skills using a real aeronautical chart (scale, symbols, direction, landmarks, etc).
• Teach magnetism and compass reading skill (true north vs. magnetic north).
• Teach topography and why it is important to airline pilots.
• Teach weather and climates and how they are important to pilots.
• Teach other topics related to aviation:
  Time zones
  Great circle routes on the globe
  Longitude and latitude

History

• Why study the history of space and aviation?

1. Man's roots in the past.
2. Study of man's "total environment."
3. Study of man's capability or ability to use the aerospace environment.
4. Man's ambitions and initiative.
5. Man has always wanted to improve environment; to do so he felt he must explore and use the resources of the aerospace environment.

• Study the folklore, legends and mythology about flight;
• Greek, Roman, Chinese, Northern Europe, African, Middle Eastern
• Study how aviation and space has impacted world events (ie., wars, business, tourism, communications, navigation, etc).
• Study the laws and treaties that were inacted because of aviation and space progress.
• Study the differences between space exploration and all other explorations (ie., financing, national goals, generation of new technologies, effect on education, etc.).

Mathematics

• Provide word problems that use a "space" theme for any topic being taught.
• Discuss the importance of subject being taught to safe and successful space travel.
• Teach how to track a rocket using trigonometry.

Biology

• Study the physiological effects of space and aviation on the human body.
• Using a high altitude photo, map the vegetation and try to determine its type.
• Study the influence of plants and animals on aviation

Flying tree seeds

Birds

Flying dinosaurs (pterosaurs)

Flying mammals (bats, squirrels)

Reptiles (flying frogs)

Insects

Fish

Foreign Languages

• Study the influence of a particular language on aeronautical terms.
• Have the students find out what is the official language of all international airline pilots and why.
• Take a field trip to an "international" airport to listen to the different languages being spoken.

Music

• Study the national anthems of various countries a person might visit on a round-the-world trip.
• Study classical music which was inspired by airplanes (Up, Up and Away; Lucky Lindy, etc).
• Study music inspired by the space age (Fly Me to the Moon, 2001 Space Odyssey, Star Wars, etc.).

Art

• Use airport buildings and runways to teach perspective.
• Design your own "Space Port."
• Study the way space art has changed over the last 30 years.
• Create your own space art.
• Paint your model rocket with unique patterns or decorations.

Health & Fitness Education

• Discuss the importance of drug and alcohol abstinence from a pilots' point of view.
• Study the importance of physical fitness to an airline pilot or astronaut.
• Recreate the physical training program of the early astronauts.
• Study vision problems and how they might impact a pilots ability to fly an airplane (night flying too).
• Study the effects of noise pollutions on people who live near airports.
• Study how jet lag effects the human body.

Environmental Sciences

• Study the atmosphere (composition, pressure, density, temperature, humidity, wind currents) and how these relate to aviation and space travel.
• Study the effects of high speed aircraft on the ozone layer.
• Study the effects of different types of rocket propellants on the upper atmosphere.
• Study how thermals affect model rockets.

Technology Education

• Study the principles of flight.
• Study the different types of aerospace vehicles

Lighter-than-air vehicles (balloons, blimps, dirigibles)

Gliders

Propeller driven aircraft

Jet-powered aircraft

Helicopters

Manned rocket ships

• Use a kite to demonstrate aviation principles.
• Study the control systems on an airplane.
• Build your own model rocket or airplane to demonstrate design principles.
• Study the different types of rocket propulsion systems

Solid propellant

Liquid propellant

Nuclear powered rockets

Ion propulsion rocket motors

Solar Sails

• Study the various methods of creating energy on a spacecraft.

Batteries

Fuel Cells

Solar panels

Nuclear reactors

Brayton & Stirling cycle motors

Computer Sciences

• Use your computer to access internet sites to retrieve information on any space or aviation subject being studied.
• Write a simple program to calculate the altitude of a rocket from the angles measured during a launch.
• Use the RockSim program to calculate the trajectory of a model Rocket

Astronomy

• Study the Hubble Space Telescope and how it has changed astronomy.
• Study the sun, and how it effects space travel.
• Discuss how man's knowledge of the moon changed after the Apollo flights.
• Design a space ship to reach another star system.
• Discuss the light spectrum and how it allows us to determine the chemical composition of stars.

http://hometown.aol.com/peterlynnc/topicsmr.html - this link will take you to more topics; which are index by educational course.

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