Half Term Fun - Science and Astronaut Club

Over the next 5 days, I'll be posting some challenges and questions for Year 3, 3/4 and 4 science groups, Year 1 Wacky Science and our Astronaut Club. Our learning platform might take a little more time for me to get organized, so I'll also keep our blog up until we have the LP up and running.

Remember, you can e-mail me through the web page. I'll post your comments and questions on our blog.

Hope you had a fun weekend...check back Monday.

Cheers,
Mrs. T

KS2 Astronaut Training Camp - Mission Set!

 Wow!  The team of astronauts came together last Thursday and researched the missions past for the space shuttle and international space station.  I was impressed at how quickly they worked together and decided, not only on what their own mission would be centred around, but which jobs each astronaut would step into.

As it stands, we have.
 3 mission specialists (Brazil, Canada, Japan) - each planning a space walk to study Black Holes.
1 mission specialist (Italy) - planning a space walk and continuing research into the Moon.
Mission Commander (Germany) - continuing research on 'Astronaut Technology'
Pilot (Finland)

Some of our astronaut team was ill and we will be catching up with them this week.  Each astronaut has been researching mission patches used by the Space Shuttle and are working on their own design that will reflect their combined mission.  We will post the design once it is complete.

Our family night and ISS charter has been postponed to December 10th to allow all astronauts time to prepare and ensure the patches are complete.

Cheers,
Mrs. T

KS2 Astronaut Training Camp

(All images courtesy of Nasa.gov)


Wow!  We have grown and the club is considered filled with 9 to insure we can complete the projects scheduled for the next 3 terms.

This coming week we have completed our country assignments and journals are started.  Each astronaut has chosen a country to represent and is working on learning the language.

Currently our project has representatives for the following countries:

Italy

Canada

Japan

Russia

United Kingdom

United States

Brazil

Finland

Germany

Poland

We have included all the countries we currently are working with in our Comenius Project (Finland, Germany and Poland).

Our current term is busy so I will post the outline and work to update as we finalize any events.

Remember, wear your PE kits to TRAIN and bring your journal!

Term 2

• Week 1 (5/11):  Review languages and flags.  Complete country/astronaut links.
• Week 2 (12/11):  Training.  Sign the International Space Station charter. Fitness without gravity.  Research mission project and select.  HW:  Patch design. Training. Pending:  approval for remote tracking station visit.
  
• Week 3 (19/11):  Training.  Continue: Module research and selection.  Begin module design in teams.  Presentation of Astronaut Countries and patch selection at 4.00pm (Families invited...remember to bring a dish from your country to share).
• Week 4 (26/11):  We need walkie talkies on this DAY! (Wear your astronaut kit from this day on.)  Thanksgiving Day in America!  Training and team building projects (Working together at a distance). 
• Week 5:   Training.  Continue Module Design.
• Week 6: Satellite Communication.  How do we talk to things in space?
  
• Week 7: No meeting.  School is OUT for Christmas!  Enjoy.
  

Websites:

 Nasa International Space Station Page  http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

Comenius   http://www.britishcouncil.org/comenius

European Space Agency    http://www.esa.int/esaCP/index.html

"* The 18 ESA Member States are: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom.

Canada, Hungary, Poland and Romania participate in some ESA projects under cooperation agreements." As of 5/11/09 (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Education/SEMT6BOFGLE_0.html)

KS2 Astronaut Training Camp

Welcome Astronauts and Families to our weekly training camp.  There is so much we are going to explore in such a short time.  Before we go too far, let me share a little about how our club started...

Years ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I used to work in Satellite Operations.  I worked with teams of people and we supported launches of programs like GPS (yes, like the ones in your car!) and other programs.  Rockets took the satellites into space and we helped put them in orbit around our Earth so they could do the work they were built for.  One time, just one time, we supported a satellite that was launched from the space shuttle!  I was so excited to meet the astronauts that would end up flying in space.  Years later, my family moved to Florida and I worked with some of the Overnight and Camp programs at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. Working there I had a chance to see the International Space Station being built, meet and talk with more astronauts, watch the launch of satellites and the shuttle first hand and learn more about the space programs and how they help our current and future lives.

I look forward to sharing my experiences and hopefully encouraging you on a path of curiousity about our solar system and beyond!

It's all quite amazing really and so much fun to explore. So let's get started.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here is a look at our proposed agenda:

Week 1:  The International Space Station, country selection and training.

         Experiment 1:  Living in space

Week 2:  Developing our country presentations, exploring the modules and training.

          Experiment 2: Eating in Space

Week 3:  Developing our ISS charter and team selection. International food fair.

          Experiment 3: Building a perfect space craft. (It's 'egg'cellent...hopefully).

          Families invited.

Week 4: Choosing modules and patch designs.  Training.

          Experiment:  NASA Simulators

Week 5:  Training and Module planning.

          Experiment 6:  Eating astronaut food.  Do you have what it takes?!

Half Term
To Infinity and BEYOND!!!

Coming soon:  Building a module, what do satellite's do, blind communication and more, orbit around and up and down...and more!