This is a cool lesson related to MESSENGER’s mission to Mercury and the Inuit people inhabiting the Arctic region. By studying ancient solutions to the issue of excessive sunlight on human vision, students better understand the process of designing solutions to similar problems for MESSENGER.Students measure their field-of-view then make snow goggles similar to those used by ancient Inuit hunters and determine changes in their field-of-view. Check out this lesson and have a classroom discussion on how MESSENGER uses similar approaches to limit its exposure to intense sunlight as it orbits Mercury.
Read the NEON article to find out more about the lesson ‘Snow Goggles and Limiting Sunlight.’
Link to the NES Virtual Campus home page.