Space for Schools: Ontario matches free live space tools to Ontario's Science and Technology curriculum (2022), with a card for every specific expectation in Grade 6 Space. Each card names its expectation and has a 10-minute activity.
Curriculum links last reviewed November 2026.
From Strand E, Daily and Seasonal Changes, and Strand C, Energy in Our Lives: why we have day and night, and the Sun as our main source of energy.
Where the ISS is right now, and how fast it is going.
explain that day and night happen because the Earth turns, and find places where it is night right now.
Put the tracker on the board and find Ontario. Is it on the bright side or the dark side? Point to a country where children are asleep right now. Look again at the end of the day: which way has the dark side moved?
A live 3D globe of our nearest star.
describe the Sun as the Earth's main source of energy: it gives us light, warms the land, air and water, and helps plants grow.
Spin the Sun globe on the board. What would happen to a plant on the windowsill if the Sun went out? Put one cup of water in a sunny spot and one in the shade, then feel them both after lunch.
From Strand C, Light and Sound: things that give off light and things that reflect it, light pollution, and light travelling in straight lines.
How to tell a plane, a planet, a satellite and a star apart.
sort the lights in the night sky into things that give off their own light, like the Sun and other stars, and things that reflect it, like the Moon, planets and satellites.
Make two columns on the board: "makes its own light" and "reflects light". Go through the guide together and sort a star, the Moon, Venus, the ISS and a plane. Which one belongs in both columns? (A plane reflects sunlight and has its own lights.)
When the space station passes over your town, to the minute, and where to look.
explain how light from towns and cities hides the night sky, and weigh up who gains and who loses from bright outdoor lighting.
Find the next ISS pass for your town. The station is bright enough to see from a city, but most stars are not: why? List who needs outdoor lights at night (drivers, shops) and who is harmed by them (migrating birds, stargazers). What change would help both?
Why you must never look straight at the Sun, and the safe ways to watch an eclipse.
use a pinhole viewer to show that light travels in straight lines, and explain why it is a safe way to watch the Sun.
Make pinhole viewers from two pieces of card. On a sunny day, stand with your back to the Sun and let its image fall on the lower card. Move the cards apart: what happens to the image? Draw the straight path the light takes through the hole.
A card for every specific expectation in Strand E, Space: living in space, satellites that watch the Earth, the costs of exploring, the parts of the solar system, mass and weight, light, the Earth, Moon and Sun, and space technology.
Where the ISS is right now, and how fast it is going.
describe how conditions on the space station affect astronauts, and how crews meet their needs for sleep, food, exercise and keeping in touch with home.
Watch the station cross from day into night on the tracker. It goes round the Earth every 90 minutes or so, so the crew see about 16 sunrises a day. How would that affect your sleep? Plan a crew member's day: when do they sleep, eat, exercise and call home?
Canada's satellites in orbit, and what each one does.
explain how Canadian satellites help us watch changes on the Earth, such as sea ice, floods and oil spills, as well as climate change.
Open the list and find the RADARSAT satellites. Their radar can see through cloud and darkness. In small groups, pick one job: tracking sea ice in the Arctic, mapping a flood, or watching for oil spills at sea. Why is a satellite better for that job than a plane?
Where the tracked junk in orbit is, and how crowded each height has become.
weigh up the benefits and costs of space exploration, including the junk it leaves in orbit, from more than one point of view.
Show the map and point out how crowded low orbit is. Split the class into satellite companies, astronomers, and people who use GPS and satellite TV. Each group answers: should companies have to clear up their old satellites? Then vote.
A real-time 3D globe of Mars.
describe Mars's main features, such as its size, surface, day and year, and compare them with the Earth's.
Spin the Mars globe and find Olympus Mons, the tallest volcano in the solar system. Make a two-column table, Earth and Mars: size, colour, day length (about 24 hours 40 minutes on Mars) and year (687 Earth days). Which planet would you rather live on, and why?
Asteroids and comets passing close to the Earth.
describe what asteroids and comets are, and explain how they differ from planets.
Open the list of close approaches and pick the next asteroid to pass the Earth. How close will it come? Is that nearer or farther than the Moon (about 384,000 km)? Draw an asteroid and a comet side by side, and label what makes each one different.
The meteor showers coming up, and the best nights to watch them.
explain the difference between a meteoroid, a meteor and a meteorite, and find when the next meteor shower peaks.
Find the next meteor shower on the tracker and the night it peaks. A meteoroid is a small piece of rock or dust in space, a meteor is the streak of light as it burns up in the air, and a meteorite is a piece that reaches the ground. Write a one-line definition of each, then plan a safe night out to watch.
Real-time 3D globes of the Moon, Mars and the Sun.
explain that mass stays the same everywhere, while weight changes with the strength of gravity.
Open the Moon and Mars globes. A 40 kg student has a mass of 40 kg on the Earth, the Moon and Mars, but weighs much less on the Moon: about a sixth of their weight on the Earth, and on Mars about two fifths. Work out how much the class pet would weigh on each world.
A live 3D Moon, lit the way it is right now.
explain that the Moon reflects the Sun's light, and that its phases come from the changing positions of the Earth, Moon and Sun.
Show today's Moon on the globe. Darken the room, shine a flashlight on a ball and walk it round a student's head: the lit part changes, just like the real Moon. Then start the Moon diary to test the model against the sky for a week.
Every upcoming eclipse, and how much of the Sun will be covered from your town.
explain how solar and lunar eclipses happen when the Sun, Earth and Moon line up.
Find the next eclipse that can be seen from your town. Use a lamp (the Sun), a ball (the Earth) and a small ball (the Moon) to model it. Who is in the shadow? Swap the order to model the other kind of eclipse.
The telescopes working in space, from Hubble to JWST, and what each one is for.
describe what telescopes in space do, and how they have changed what we know about the universe.
Pick two telescopes from the list, such as Hubble and JWST. Why put a telescope in space instead of on a mountain? Canada built the sensor that keeps JWST pointing steadily at its targets. Each group shares one discovery a space telescope made possible.
A live map of the solar system, with every working deep-space spacecraft where it is today.
identify spacecraft exploring the solar system today, and describe what each one is finding out.
Open the map and find a spacecraft at as many planets as you can. Each pair picks one and finds where it is, when it launched and what it is studying. Put them on a class timeline, from the oldest to the newest.
Every upcoming rocket launch, and when it lifts off.
describe the technology behind a rocket launch, and the jobs, including skilled trades, that make it happen.
Find the next launch on the schedule and what it is carrying. List the jobs needed to get it off the ground: welders, electricians, machinists, engineers, weather forecasters and mission controllers. Which of these could you train for in Ontario?
From Strand E, Heat in the Environment: how the Sun's heat reaches us, and how the Earth warms and cools.
A live 3D globe of our nearest star.
explain how the Sun's heat reaches the Earth as radiation, why dark and light surfaces warm differently, and how greenhouse gases trap heat.
Show the Sun globe: its heat crosses about 150 million km of empty space as radiation. Put black and white paper on a sunny windowsill with a thermometer under each and read them after 15 minutes. Which warmed more, and what does that tell you about snow and dark soil?
These are our suggestions for where each tool fits. Always preview a page before using it with a class: some tools show ads, these school pages do not.
Ontario codes are specific expectations, for example E2.5. BC has no item codes, so BC cards name the course and the curriculum element.
Codes and course names from The Ontario Curriculum (© King's Printer for Ontario) and the BC Curriculum (© Province of British Columbia). Outcomes and activities are our own words. Orbital Radar is not affiliated with or endorsed by either ministry.
Know a better fit for your class, or a topic we have missed? Tell us and we will add it.
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Orbital Radar. (2026, November 4). Space for Schools: Ontario, Grades 1 to 8. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://orbitalradar.com/schools/ca/ontario
“Space for Schools: Ontario, Grades 1 to 8.” Orbital Radar, 4 Nov. 2026, orbitalradar.com/schools/ca/ontario. Accessed 5 Nov. 2026.
Orbital Radar (2026) Space for Schools: Ontario, Grades 1 to 8. Available at: https://orbitalradar.com/schools/ca/ontario (Accessed: 5 November 2026).
Orbital Radar. “Space for Schools: Ontario, Grades 1 to 8.” Last modified November 4, 2026. https://orbitalradar.com/schools/ca/ontario.
@misc{orbitalradar_schools_ca_ontario,
author = {{Orbital Radar}},
title = {Space for Schools: Ontario, Grades 1 to 8},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
howpublished = {\url{https://orbitalradar.com/schools/ca/ontario}},
url = {https://orbitalradar.com/schools/ca/ontario},
urldate = {2026-11-05},
note = {Accessed 2026-11-05}
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