The Great Space Challenge Language/Science/Technology: Levels 2-5 The Scenario Your students as a group of technicians have been chosen to live on a space station for a year. The purpose of the mission is to undertake experiments, maintain and fix any faults that occur in the space station during the year. Getting Started Explain the scenario to the class and have groups of students plan for the following; Fitness Physical fitness will have to be maintained during the visit. The space station has an artificial gravity approximately the same as earth. The restriction is in room to carry out exercise. There is room only for individual exercise. Plan a series of exercises that will exercise each muscle group. Have the class try out each exercise programme. Food and Nutrition The food that is taken with you must be nutritious, light in weight, attractive to the senses of sight, taste and smell and offer a variety of choices. Plan out your menus for a sample week and present your findings to the class. Be prepared to justify your choices. Check the nutrition context with a health nurse or food expert to make sure it contains essential vitamins and minerals. Find out what makes a balanced diet. Students may be interested to visit the following web site to learn about the history of food taken into space by astronauts. Click on the link below. http://astro-2.msfc.nasa.gov/academy/astronauts/food-history.html Entertainment and Music Because of the weight restrictions students are only able to choose three books and three CDs/tapes and one game. What ones will be chosen and why? You will be expected as an individual and as a group to take part in 'space concerts' to alleviate the boredom. Students learn, practice and perform at least one song and one poem. Share these with the class Clothing Art and Technology Scientific improvements have meant that bulky and unattractive space suits are no longer necessary. Have students design two sets of clothing. One set is to be comfortable and used for working around the station and for wearing inside a space suit, when working outside the space station. The other set of clothes is to be for off duty casual wear. As in keeping with the exotic environment of space, these should be bright and imaginative. Paint draw and design these clothes. Further Directions Make a tape recorded live report to be broadcast on radio describing the liftoff of the space shuttle. Write a story describing the view from space, from the space station students can see from Thailand in the east to California in the west, use atlases. Research the countries, continents and islands that would be in your view and include evidence of atlas research in the story. Paint a group or class mural of this view from spaces, include the space station, satellites and the view into outer space. Using tightly rolled up newspaper, joined in three dimensional triangular shapes, construct a space station/satellite. Panels can be filled in with sheets of paper. Make it colourful and hang it from the classroom ceiling. Emergency! the space station has been hit by a small shower of meteorite dust and has suffered major damage. You think it can be repaired but help from earth will be required. Describe the incident for the earth communication station and give them precise instructions as to the materials they will need to send up on a shuttle and help they will be expected to render. Act, write. Research the uses of satellites for communication. How are they used? What other uses do they have? How Satellites Work: (Click here for link) View the Earth from a Satellite (Click here for Link) Extension Activity Virtual Journey of the Universe A wonderful Virtual Journey into the Universe - Students will feel like real space explorers when they visit this very cool astronomy site. Let your students explore the planets in our solar system on many different levels or watch beautifully crafted Flash animations of the planets' orbits from several different viewpoints. Click on the Satellite for Links to the Virtual Tour of the Universe You will need Flash Player to view the animations. Click this icon for(FREE) Flash Player