It's very easy to have a geocentric (Earth centred) view of science; that chemistry happens in test tubes, physics happens in a gravity field of 9.8N/kg and biology is something stuck on the surface of our planet.

We have a box of elements at school.  It contains samples of all 92 naturally occurring elements.   Students are amazed when I tell them that it contains all of the elements,  not just those found on Earth but the only ones found in the whole Universe.   The Universe is a big place, they think there must be a part of it I don't know about, and there could reside an element that is not in my box.

Although scientists are sure about elements they do have a problem.   Elements only make up a tiny fraction of the mass of the Universe.  To account for the majority of the mass of the Universe they have come up with dark matter and dark energy.  'Dark' because we can't see it and because we don't really know what it is.   So, the good news for you budding scientific explorers is that there is still lots left for you to discover!

We hope to build this part of our site into a resource that will let you develop a Universal perspective to scientific ideas.  A good example of this approach is being developed by   NASA's Astrobiology Curriculum.  

Our first major original curriculum module is 'Mission to Mars'.

NASA teaching resources  for space science :