Navigator Jack Thatcher commanded the two waka hourua that sailed from Aotearoa (New Zealand) to Rapanui (Easter Island) and back. Te Aurere and its supporting vessel Ngahiraka Mai Tawhiti, known ...
The Waka Tapu journey from Aotearoa to Rapanui (Easter Island) and back, which closed the Polynesian triangle, was navigated without instruments. The three main techniques that navigator Jack ...
Knowledge about the apparent movement of the Sun, Moon and planets across the celestial sphere is important for wayfinding. You can estimate position and direction by observing, for example ...
In this activity, students use a scale model of the Earth and identify altitudes of various satellites. They then use a smaller object on a string to model gravity and satellite motion. By the ...
In this activity, students learn about star constellations and that various cultures have their own names and legends about them. They will appreciate that identifying constellations and ...
In this activity, students learn the cardinal points of the compass. They also learn how to use the Sun and star constellations – the Southern Cross and the Pointers – to identify the cardinal ...
Search data from NASA’s Kepler spacecraft for the dips in star light intensity caused by exoplanets – planets that orbit stars other than the Sun. As these exoplanets pass between the star and ...
Globe at Night is an international citizen science campaign to raise public awareness of the impact of light pollution by inviting citizen scientists to measure and submit their night sky ...
Loss of the Night is an international citizen science project aiming to quantify the illumination of the night sky caused by artificial light. By monitoring how bright the night sky is over time ...
The Science Learning Hub has lots of resources for primary teachers related to the night sky in the Planet Earth and Beyond strand of the New Zealand Curriculum. The night sky is fascinating to ...
The Science Learning Hub has a selection of resources that have been translated into te reo Māori and a number of resources that feature both te reo Māori and English. Our webinar Opportunities ...
Science is everywhere, so it’s a great subject to learn from home. You can start by thinking about what science skills you want to develop, knowledge you want to learn or just what you are really ...
Early Māori relied on their detailed astronomical knowledge – tātai arorangi – to navigate the ocean, plant crops, harvest kaimoana and to tell the time. With the arrival of Europeans, a lot of ...
Kelvin Barnsdale explains how his hobby of building electronics that could survive in very strange environments lead to a career involving NASA. He provides ideas on how students can get involved ...
Dr Adrian McDonald tells us about some of the satellites he uses to measure temperature and the chemical composition of the Earth’s atmosphere Jargon alert: A satellite constellation is a group ...
This timeline lets you see the historical developments in technology related to weather monitoring, measuring and forecasting. It also shows how scientific thinking changed over the centuries as ...
The size, orbit and design of a satellite depend on its purpose. In this interactive, scientists discuss the functions of various satellites and orbits. Accompanying fact files provide ...
Elements are formed deep within the cores of certain types of star. Find out more in this interactive.
