Relive the Apollo 11 mission at We Choose the Moon
August 10, 2009
BY Understandably, this summer has included a lot of reminiscing about the Apollo 11 Lunar Landing, as this year was its 40th anniversary. Since it’s also the International Year of Astronomy, I thought a review of a really cool website related to the moon landing was in order. A really spectacular resource I’ve found is called We Choose the Moon, a multimedia, interactive site created by the JFK Presidential Library.
Once the site loads, you begin an 11-stage journey that takes you from launch to lunar landing. Each stage is rich with archival photographs, audio, and video. By going through the whole mission, you can really get a sense for what it was like on July 16-20, 1969. And actually, through the multimedia, you get both an audio and visual sense of the mission.
In a classroom, this website could have many uses. You could take a journey as a whole class through the mission and look at some neat photographs and videos. Or, you could direct small groups to research a particular stage of the mission and report back to the class. It could be used as a way to gather and analyze primary source information and to teach about the historical perspectives of science.
If you are like me, you will get absolutely drawn in by this engaging website, and I’m sure your students will too. Let’s all go to the moon!
Related stuff:
Celebrate the 40th anniversary of the moon landing with Google Moon
