NASA spinoffs in your life

Grade level
Time
24 minutes
Materials needed
A pencil
Start the lessonPrint the worksheetTeacher guide
Time
37 minutes
Materials needed
A pencil and a calculator
Start the lessonPrint the worksheetTeacher guide
Time
35 minutes
Materials needed
A calculator
Start the lessonPrint the worksheetTeacher guide
The back of a white Google Pixel phone with its camera lenses in a row
Sources
  1. Eric Fossum and colleagues at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA Spinoff 2017 and a JPL news release, June 20, 1995
  2. Charles Yost, under a NASA contract through Stencel Aero Engineering, with NASA’s Ames Research Center, NASA Spinoff 2005, “Forty-Year-Old Foam Springs Back With New Benefits”
  3. Al Gross for AVIA, and KangaROOS USA, NASA Spinoff 1991 and NASA Spinoff 1986
  4. William English, Douglas Engelbart and Bonnie Huddart, Stanford Research Institute, for NASA’s Langley Research Center, Final report, “Computer-Aided Display Control,” 1965
  5. NASA’s Lewis Research Center, licensed to Air Products and Chemicals, NASA Spinoff 1996
  6. NASA’s Langley Research Center, with Speedo, “Space-Age Swimsuit Reduces Drag, Breaks Records,” NASA
  7. NASA-funded researchers working on life support for Mars missions, “Enriched Baby Formula,” NASA
  8. NASA, which builds and launches the GOES satellites, and NOAA, which runs them, NASA’s GOES mission page
  9. NOAA’s National Hurricane Center (NHC), “Official error trends,” NHC Forecast Verification, updated July 8, 2026, and its table “Average NHC Atlantic Track Forecast Errors (n mi), Tropical Storms and Hurricanes” (verification as of May 12, 2026)
  10. NOAA’s satellite and information service (NESDIS), “Twenty Years After Katrina: NOAA Satellite Advancements for Hurricane Forecasts and Tracking,” August 28, 2025
  11. The Planetary Society, a group that argues for space science funding, Press release, May 30, 2025
  12. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA Spinoff 2019
  13. Plantronics, with NASA engineers, NASA Spinoff 2005, “Crystal-Clear Communication a Sweet-Sounding Success”
  14. NASA’s Spinoff office, Spinoff FAQ
  15. NASA Spinoff articles on the video’s other claims: CT scans, eye surgery
  16. NASA pages: memory foam, clear braces, NASA history
  17. Rob Sharp, “50 years, 50 giant leaps: How NASA rocked our world”, The Irish Independent, July 29, 2008, the source of the Nike Air story
  18. NASA budget: SpacePolicyOnline, July 10, 2025, The Planetary Society and its May 30, 2025 press release, and Roohi Dalal, “Congress Passes Fiscal Year 2026 Spending Bills for NSF, NASA, and DOE,” American Astronomical Society, January 15, 2026, for the final 2026 budget (H.R. 6938, signed January 23, 2026)
  19. NGSS pages for the practice and connection elements, linked in the standards table: MS-PS1-3, HS-PS4-4, HS-PS4-5
  20. ABET, Criteria for Accrediting Engineering Programs, 2026-2027, Criterion 3, Student Outcomes
  21. Word origins from Dictionary.com: satellite, sputnik, aeronautics, aero-, nautical
  22. Transcript from the lyrics on the July 2025 version of Raven’s blog post, and outro quotes from the current post
  23. Instagram original, not linked because Instagram needs a login