Space for Schools: Ontario secondary matches free live space tools to SNC1W Space Exploration, with a card for every specific expectation in Strand E, and to Grade 11 and 12 Physics and Earth and Space Science.
Curriculum links last reviewed November 2026.
A card for every specific expectation in Strand E of the de-streamed Grade 9 course (2022): what space exploration costs and gives us, the Sun, the origin of the universe, distances in space and the sky seen from the Earth.
Every upcoming rocket launch, and when it lifts off.
evaluate the social, environmental and economic impacts of rocket launches and space exploration.
Find the next launch on the schedule and what it carries. In groups, list one social, one environmental and one economic impact of that mission. Is it worth it? Each group defends its view in one minute.
Orbit details for thousands of satellites: height, period and inclination.
explain how satellites help us understand climate change and respond to natural disasters such as wildfires and floods.
Search the directory for RADARSAT and note its height and orbit. Pick a recent wildfire or flood in Canada and explain how satellite images could help firefighters or emergency planners. What can a satellite see that people on the ground cannot?
Where the GPS satellites are right now.
describe how technology built for space, such as satellite navigation, is used on the Earth, including to farm and travel more sustainably.
Watch the GPS satellites on the tracker: a phone needs signals from at least four to work out where it is. List jobs in Canada that use satellite positioning, from farming to shipping. How can a farmer use GPS to spread less fertilizer?
A live 3D globe of our nearest star.
describe the Sun's main features, such as sunspots and flares, and explain why the Sun matters for the solar system and for life on the Earth.
Spin the Sun globe and count the sunspots facing us today: they are cooler, darker patches where magnetic fields are strong. List three ways life on the Earth depends on the Sun. What would change first if the Sun dimmed by a tenth?
Tonight's chance of seeing the northern lights, town by town.
explain how particles from the Sun cause the northern lights, and why they are seen most often in northern Canada.
Check tonight's forecast for your town and for Yellowknife. Why is the chance so much higher in the north? Draw the path of particles from the Sun to the Earth's magnetic field and down into the upper air, where they make it glow.
The telescopes working in space, from Hubble to JWST, and what each one is for.
summarize the evidence telescopes have gathered about how the universe and the solar system began.
Use the list to find the telescopes that look at the most distant galaxies. Light from far away left long ago, so these telescopes look back in time. Each group summarizes one piece of evidence for how the universe began, in two sentences.
Real-time 3D globes of the Moon, Mars and the Sun.
compare the Moon, Mars and the Sun: what kind of body each one is, its size and its gravity.
Open the three globes. Fill a table with each body's type (moon, planet, star), its size compared with the Earth and its surface gravity. Then add one more body from the solar system and compare it with the other three.
How far each spacecraft is, and how long its signal takes to reach us.
measure distances in the solar system in kilometres, astronomical units and light-time, and choose the right unit for each.
Find Voyager 1's distance on the map. It is so far away that a message takes about a day to reach it. Write its distance in kilometres, then in astronomical units (1 AU is about 150 million km). Which unit is easier to use, and why?
When the space station passes over your town, to the minute, and where to look.
predict when the space station will pass over their town, observe it, and explain why it shines.
Find the next evening pass for your town: its start time, direction and highest point. Predict where it will appear, then check that night. Why can we see the station only shortly after sunset or before sunrise?
Every upcoming eclipse, and how much of the Sun will be covered from your town.
explain the causes of solar and lunar eclipses, and why they do not happen every month.
Find the next eclipse that can be seen from your town. The Moon's orbit is tilted by about 5 degrees to the Earth's, so most months the Moon passes above or below the Sun. Model it with a tilted hoop round a lamp.
Gravity and weight in SPH3U, and gravitational fields, satellite orbits and storm-tracking satellites in SPH4U.
Real-time 3D globes of the Moon, Mars and the Sun.
use W = mg to relate mass, gravitational field strength and weight on the Earth, the Moon, Mars and at the space station's height.
A 70 kg astronaut weighs about 690 N on the Earth (g = 9.8 N/kg). Work out their weight on the Moon (1.6 N/kg) and on Mars (3.7 N/kg). Then use the worksheet to find g at the space station: why do astronauts float if gravity there is still about 90% as strong?
Where the ISS is right now, and how fast it is going.
use the space station's live height and speed to analyze its orbit as uniform circular motion under gravity.
Read the station's height and speed from the tracker. Work out its orbital radius, the distance round one orbit and the time for one lap. Then check that its centripetal acceleration matches g at that height, using Newton's law of universal gravitation.
Orbit details for thousands of satellites: height, period and inclination.
explain how weather satellites in geostationary and polar orbits help forecasters track storms, and why each orbit is used.
Find a geostationary weather satellite and a polar-orbiting one in the directory, and compare their heights and periods. Which can watch a hurricane all day, and which sees the whole Earth, strip by strip? Why do forecasters need both?
From the 2008 course: observing the sky, the electromagnetic spectrum, orbits, planetary geology, small bodies, and Kepler's and Newton's laws.
When the space station passes over your town, to the minute, and where to look.
describe a pass of the space station in altitude and azimuth, and explain how these differ from right ascension and declination.
Take the next pass for your town and write its start, highest and end points as azimuth and altitude. Sketch the path on a sky dome. Why does a satellite's position depend on where you stand, while a star's right ascension and declination do not?
The telescopes working in space, from Hubble to JWST, and what each one is for.
match space telescopes to the bands of the electromagnetic spectrum they observe, and explain why some bands can only be seen from space.
Sort the telescopes on the list by the band they observe: infrared, visible, ultraviolet, X-ray or gamma rays. Shade the bands the Earth's atmosphere blocks. What does that tell you about where each telescope has to be?
Low, medium, geostationary and polar orbits, and what each one is used for.
use the terms geosynchronous, geostationary, apogee and perigee correctly, and describe the orbits satellites use.
Compare low, medium and geostationary orbits on the page. Draw an elliptical orbit and label its apogee and perigee. Then use the worksheet to work out how high a geostationary orbit must be, and check it against a real TV satellite.
A real-time 3D globe of Mars.
use images and data from spacecraft to describe Mars's geology, such as its volcanoes, canyons and old riverbeds.
Spin the globe to Olympus Mons and Valles Marineris, both mapped by spacecraft in orbit. What do they suggest about Mars's past: volcanoes, moving crust, water? Compare each with a similar feature on the Earth.
Asteroids and comets passing close to the Earth.
describe the small bodies that orbit the Sun, such as asteroids and comets, and how close some come to the Earth.
Pick three objects from the list of close approaches. For each, note its size and how close it comes, then give the distance in Earth-Moon distances (about 384,400 km). Which one is most worth watching, and why?
Orbit details for thousands of satellites: height, period and inclination.
use real satellites' heights and periods to test Kepler's third law, and explain the result with Newton's law of gravitation.
Look up the ISS, a GPS satellite and a geostationary satellite. Add the radius of the Earth (6,371 km) to each height, then plot T2 against r3. Is it a straight line? The worksheet does it for five satellites and finds the mass of the Earth from the slope.
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 9 to 12. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://orbitalradar.com/schools/ca/ontario-secondary
“Space for Schools: Ontario, Grades 9 to 12.” Orbital Radar, 4 Nov. 2026, orbitalradar.com/schools/ca/ontario-secondary. Accessed 5 Nov. 2026.
Orbital Radar (2026) Space for Schools: Ontario, Grades 9 to 12. Available at: https://orbitalradar.com/schools/ca/ontario-secondary (Accessed: 5 November 2026).
Orbital Radar. “Space for Schools: Ontario, Grades 9 to 12.” Last modified November 4, 2026. https://orbitalradar.com/schools/ca/ontario-secondary.
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title = {Space for Schools: Ontario, Grades 9 to 12},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
howpublished = {\url{https://orbitalradar.com/schools/ca/ontario-secondary}},
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urldate = {2026-11-05},
note = {Accessed 2026-11-05}
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