NASA Helio Club is a collection of six club sessions, or lessons, that complete a comprehensive module created for a middle-school audience (ages 10-14) to introduce basic heliophysics concepts to learners. Designed for both after school clubs and classroom environments, each session takes approximately two hours, or approximately two class-periods. Each session includes a full collection of educator instructions, learner handouts, and assessment tools. 

Session 3: Includes two engineering challenges inspired by NASA’s Parker Solar Probe mission, with a focus on how the probe achieves its scientific goals under the intense heat of the Solar corona and on how it manages to orbit the Sun at such blistering speeds.

• Session 3 Instructions ↗
• Session 3 Slides ↗
• Session 3 Handout: KWL ↗
• Session 3, Handout: Structure of the Sun ↗
• Session 3, Activity 1 Handout: Engineering Challenge 1 ↗
• Session 3, Activity 2 Handout: Engineering Challenge 2 ↗
• Session 3, Activity 3 Handout: Eclipse Chalk Art ↗
• Session 3, Activity 3 Handout: 2023/2024 Solar Eclipse US Map ↗

If you plan on running the entire club, the NASA Helio Club Youth Guide ↗  includes the handouts for all six sessions, plus additional resources for a capstone project. Other resources include Educator Background Information ↗ and a complete Materials Checklist↗  for all sessions. All content is connected to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Find the full club/curriculum here ↗