I am looking for a link to a classroom assignment on the Challenger accident in 1986 - do you have the link?

Answer 1

Here is a link http://school.discovery.com/lessonplans/programs/thespaceshuttle/

Good Luck!!!

Answer 2

The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster occurred at 11:39 a.m. EST (16:38 GMT) on January 28, 1986, when the NASA Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrated 73 seconds into its flight after an O-ring seal in its right solid rocket booster (SRB) failed. The seal failure caused a flame leak from the solid rocket booster that impinged upon the adjacent external fuel tank. Within seconds, the flame caused structural failure of the external tank, and the orbiter broke up abruptly due to aerodynamic forces. The shuttle was destroyed and all seven crew members were killed. The crew compartment and many other vehicle fragments were eventually recovered from the ocean floor after a lengthy search and recovery operation.

The disaster resulted in a 32-month hiatus in the shuttle program and the formation of the Rogers Commission, a special commission appointed by President Ronald Reagan to investigate the accident. The Rogers Commission found that NASA's organizational culture and decision-making processes had been a key contributing factor to the accident. NASA managers had known that contractor Morton Thiokol's design of the SRBs contained a potentially catastrophic flaw, but they failed to address it properly. They also ignored warnings from engineers about the dangers of launching on such a cold day and had failed to adequately report these technical concerns to their superiors. The Rogers Commission offered NASA nine recommendations that were to be implemented before shuttle flights resumed.

Many schoolchildren saw the launch live due to the presence on the crew of Christa McAuliffe, the first member of the Teacher in Space Project. Media coverage of the accident was extensive: one study reported that 85 percent of Americans surveyed in a poll had heard the news within an hour of the accident. The Challenger disaster has been used as a case study in many discussions of engineering safety and workplace ethics and inspired the 1990 television movie, Challenger.

Answer 3

http://www.fas.org/spp/51L.html

Answer 4

Here are some that look interesting.

http://www.challenger.org/students/history/challenger_center.cfm

http://observe.arc.nasa.gov/nasa/ootw/1998/ootw_980211/ob980211.html

http://www.jlhs.nhusd.k12.ca.us/Classes/Social_Science/Challenger.html/Challenger.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Challenger_disasterl

http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/SPACEFLIGHT/challenger/SP26.htm

http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/missions/51-l/docs/rogers-commission/table-of-contents.html

http://space.about.com/cs/challenger/a/challenger.htm

http://www.space.com/news/060127_challenger_anniversary.html

http://library.thinkquest.org/CR0215468/shuttle_challenger_disaster.htm