An Interdisciplinary Unit on Space

Activities students will engage in during our unit on space:

Students will use the driving question, "What would it be like to live away from the planet Earth?" as a springboard to their own investigations. Students will develop a multi-media presentation to share their findings and ideas with others. Some guided suggestions include:

Investigate the possibility of forming a colony away from the planet Earth, such as on the Moon, a space station, an asteroid, or on Mars?
Investigate the process by which you would communicate with an alien civilization using only mathematical code. Produce a message of your own for your presentation.
What opportunities are there away from Earth that might improve our society or standard of living? How might we take advantage of them?
Investigate the likelihood of meteor devastation of the Earth and determine the best method to avoid it.
Investigate the likelihood of alien civilizations. Are we capable of detecting such life?

All eighth grade students visit the Challenger Center in Brownsburg, Indiana. Students will get to simulate real activities on a space station and mission control center first hand.

Students build their own rockets from kits and launch them in the park.

Students will simulate fuel usage by tank size by doing an experiment with balloons and air.

Students will investigate the history of the space program, and local ties to Indiana.

We will view the movies Apollo 13, Contact, and October Sky.

Students will visit the Air and Space museum in Washington D.C. during our annual trip in the spring.

Page created by Sue Jackson, Heidi Shultz, Jill Walters, and Sean Watson.

Last updated December 5, 2000.