Students in LA's Best

February conjures up thoughts of Valentine's Day, President's Day and, depending on where you are, a snow day or two. In Los Angeles, February also brings an annual partnership between NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and LA's BEST, a Los Angeles-based after-school enrichment program.

The main objective is for JPL engineers, scientists, business managers, outreach staff and educators to visit LA's BEST after-school sites to share exciting topics in science, engineering and space exploration with students. One group from JPL's Office of Communications and Education led a "Space Web Editor for a Day" activity. Fourth and fifth graders selected their favorite space images and wrote captions explaining why they liked the images. They also prepped images and text for a web page. Their final product can be seen below.



Venus

I named it colorful Venus because its color is like a rainbow and I like all the colors of the rainbow.
- Isabel

Mars as seen by the MER rover

I picked Mars because it is cool but I think it is a little bit dangerous. I also like Mars because the dirt is the color brown and brown is my favorite color.
- Adriana

Solar flare

I like this image because it looks interesting and I like the shiny things coming out of it. This image is red, and a little bit yellow. I love the color yellow.
- Anali

I choose this picture because it looks very interesting. The sun is yellow because the sun is hot and bright.
- Jonathan

I like it because it looks like a ball of fire in space. Fire comes out and spreads into space.
- Johnny

Saturn's moon Enceladus seen beyond Saturn's rings

You might see it is similar to an eclipse, which more or less happens on Earth. What I think, it is an Eclipse. Since Earth's eclipse is similar, Enceladus is my best guess.
- Eduardo

Neptune

What I like about Neptune is that the color it has is blue. Blue is my favorite color. The shape of it reminds me of a round ball.
- Natalia

3-D image of the sun

I like this picture because it looks like a big pink diamond and it heats us up.
- Alexandria

Saturnian moon

I like this image because it looks like a sponge.
- Jaime

The moon gets heat from the sun and melts into the moon's surface. The moon may have low density.
- Virginia

Whirlpool galaxy

I like this picture because it looks like floating water in space. I also like this picture because it's cool.
- Ammerica

It looks like a lot of stars connecting. The whirlpool looks so bright. To me, it looks like a tornado of ice and water.
- Carlos

I picked the Whirlpool galaxy because it is like it is spinning around. It is blue, my favorite color. It is famous. I also like it because it is called Messier 51, named after Charles Messier.
- Jacqueline

I like this image because I could learn about this galaxy and where they found it.
- Juan

The Whirlpool galaxy is a famous spiral galaxy. The Whirlpool galaxy is also called Messier 51, named after Charles Messier. The Whirlpool's very bright spiral arms show areas of compressed dust and gas.
- Maritza

TAGS: K-12, STEAM, Space Images

  • NASA/JPL Edu