A few weeks ago, I blogged about the NASA Tweetup. Well, it’s finally almost here! I’ve set up a blog called Learning Endeavour to share the experience with my students (and yours!) I have been thinking of all the ways that space science can be integrated into the curriculum. Why not plan a few special activities and watch the launch LIVE with your class next week? (April 29, 3:47 EDT)
1. Elapsed Time: The countdown clock stops and starts often during holds. What better way to learn about elapsed time than to calculate the minutes and seconds that pass between holds. For more information, visit NASA’s Countdown 101
2. Sequencing: Ask students to research the flight path of the Space Shuttle. They could explore writing with words like next, then, and after. Or, let them sequence the events on a timeline.
3. Experiment: The shuttle will be docking with the International Space Station. Tons of experiments occur on the ISS. Host a “Space Station” day in your classroom. Set up some fun experiments, give everyone an astronaut badge, and let them rotate through the station. Serve snacks of applesauce in baggies or pudding to drink through a straw like space food!
4. Make Rockets: Soda Straw Rockets are not only easy to make, if you leave the fin design up to students, they can experiment and learn as they try to improve their rocket. Measure the distances travel and for more advanced math, determine the mean, median, mode, maximum, and minimum of the data.
5. YouTube: Watch some authentic moments from history on YouTube like Apollo Astronauts singing on the moon, the return of Apollo 13, or more!
6. Roll Out: For the ultimate math problem, learn about how long it takes to roll the shuttle out to the launch pad, the speed of the crawler, how much fuel it uses, and how much it costs. Lots of math involved and it’s pretty interesting! Here is a video to get kids interested! This handout from NASA has all the facts and figures and some you didn’t even know you wanted to know.
7. Mission Patch: Explore the LIFE Mission Patch Gallery. Older students could choose a patch, research the mission, and determine what symbols are on the patch. Students could also choose a historical event of any type and create a Mission Patch. Imagine a Mission Patch design of the Oregon Trail or Martin Luther King, Jr’s “I Have a Dream Speech.”
8. Analyze A Launch: Ask students to watch a launch video and think like a scientist. Have them record their observations. Then, ask them research the steps to a launch. Many details occur that they might not see until after they explore what happens during a launch!
There are a million different directions you could take learning in, you never know where students’ questions are going to end up! But, that’s what learning is all about!
