Project Template Headings



|Grade: 6th – 8th grades |

|Scenario |

This workshop gives students the chance to put their space knowledge to the test with a Jeopardy-style question game covering different topics from space travel, to little known facts. The students will also get the chance to learn about the way rockets are propelled into the sky by making their own miniature rocket using baking soda and vinegar. There is also possibility of making a star-finder that can be used to analyse the night sky at different times.

|Material |

|Question game |Rocket |Star-finder |

|Question/answer cards |Film canisters WITH LIDS (enough for the whole class) |Star finder sheets (enough for the whole |

|Picture of pancake volcanoes |Rocket cut-out sheets (enough for the whole class) |class) |

| |Tape |Scissors |

| |Scissors | |

| |Baking soda | |

| |Vinegar | |

| |Plaster of Paris | |

| |Water | |

| |Spoon | |

| |

|Material to replace |

| |Baking soda |Star-finder sheets |

| |Vinegar | |

| |Plaster of paris | |

| |Rocket cut-out sheets | |

| |Tape | |

|Activities |

Question game: Separate the class into 4-5 groups (depending on the size of the class), and give each group a team name. Start with the first team and let them pick a category and point value. Ask the team that question and give them time (ie. 1 minute) to answer. If they get the correct answer, they receive the corresponding amount of points. If not, they got no points. Continue with the next team, until all the questions have been asked. Team with the most points wins.

Rocket: Place the class in groups of 2. Each team gets one film canister. Have them decorate their rocket how they want. Place vinegar into the actual canister (one team member can have this part), then combine the baking soda and plaster of Paris on the lid of the canister (just a bit of each), adding a drop of water (second team member). Have the students quickly place the lid on the canister and place the canister on the ground with the lid on the ground. Step back quickly and watch your rocket fly.

Star-finder: Give each student a template, and have them cut it out along the lines. Help the students put the star-finder together and explain to them how it works (by aligning the time of year and time of night, you get a representation of what the sky will look like, what stars are visible, etc.)

|Safety |

Don’t let students ingest any of the ingredients for the rockets. It is better to do the rockets outside because they can get messy. Make sure all the students are a safe distance away when the rockets go off, so no one gets hit. Be careful with scissors.

|Workshop |

1. Question game

Jump right into the game after the introduction. Separate the class into 4-5 groups (depending on the size of the class), and give each group a team name. Write down the team names on the board (to keep track of points), along with all the question categories and point value possibilities. Start with the first team and let them pick a category and point value. Ask the team that question and give them time (ie. 1 minute) to answer. If they get the correct answer, they receive the corresponding amount of points. If not, they got no points. Continue with the next team, until all the questions have been asked. Team with the most points wins. All questions and answers are below, along with interesting facts having to do with the question.

Astronauts

Q: How many changes of clothes does an astronaut bring in space?

a) 2 : A casual work outfit during the day and a suit for formal events at night

b) 3 : A lunch suit, a work outfit and a space suit

c) 4 : A spring ensemble, a summer swimsuit, a fall work uniform and a winter coat.

d) It depends on the length of the mission:

Since there is no washer or dryer in the space shuttle, astronauts bring a change of underwear for each day they are in space. They also have a few extra shirts, shorts and trousers. The dirty clothes are placed in a bag inside the shuttle's airlock. Space station astronauts send their dirty clothes back to Earth in the space shuttle or Russian Progress cargo capsules. The shuttle and the Progress can also bring them clean clothes.

Q: Why do astronauts eat tortillas instead of bread?

1. Tex-Mex food tastes better in space

2. Tortillas make great space Frisbees

3. Bread takes up too much room

4. Tortillas don’t crumble.

Tortillas make far less crumbs than bread. Bread crumbs are bad because they can potentially float around and get stuck in filters or an astronaut's eye.

Q: How do astronauts sleep at night?

1. On a cosy, fluffy, king sized bed

2. On a fold out couch in the living room of the spaceship

3. On bunk beds

4. In sleeping bags attached to the walls or to their seats.

Since there is no "up" in space, they can comfortably sleep vertically as well as horizontally.  Also they need to be attached to anchored structure to ensure that they don’t float around in their sleep!

Q: What are some of the fun things astronauts do in space?

a) Do somersaults and exercise

b) Stare out into the blackness of space

c) Play video games in the cockpit

d) Race through the space station

e) All of the above

A popular activity onboard the space station, for both shuttle and station crews, is racing from one end of the International Space Station to the other end. Actually, the crew members don't race each other, though, since the openings between modules are too small.

A popular pastime while orbiting the Earth is simply looking out the window. Astronauts onboard the space shuttle can look out the cockpit windows and watch the Earth below or the deep blackness of space. Inside the International Space Station, crewmembers have numerous windows they can look out. Astronauts often comment on their fascination and awe as they look at the Earth spin beneath them with its multiple shades and textures. Sunsets and sunrises are also very spectacular, occurring every 45 minutes above the Earth's atmosphere.

Q: What happens to an astronaut’s sweat when he/she exercises in the space station?

a) Trick question! It’s impossible to sweat in space.

b) Astronauts will sweat up to 3 times faster than they would on Earth because of the lack of gravity in space.

c) Their sweat gathers in little puddles on their arms that can reach the size of a large plate.

d) Astronauts don’t have time to exercise while in space, therefore they never sweat.

When exercising, astronauts have to wipe the sweat of their body’s every 30 minutes. Otherwise, the sweat puddles could peel of their body’s and could damage some of the equipment in the spacecraft.

Space Facts

Q: Which one of these facts is true?

a) There are more stars in the Universe than grains of sand on all of the world’s beaches.

b) There are more stars in the Universe than seconds of past since the Earth was formed (4.5 billions of years)

c) There are more stars in the Universe than words and sounds ever uttered by all the humans who ever lived.

d) All of these facts are true

e) None of these facts are true

Q: What is the “sling-shot” manoeuvre?

a) A manoeuvre mastered by Bart Simpson

b) An energy efficient way astronauts use to accelerate their spacecraft using the earth’s orbit.

c) The giant sling-shot NASA uses in order to shoot satellites into space.

d) A hunting skill mastered by astronauts in order to obtain their food (birds and bugs) while in space.

The sling-shot maneuver is the use of the relative movement and gravity of a planet or other celestial body to alter the path and speed of a spacecraft, typically in order to save propellant, time, and expense. Gravity assistance can be used to accelerate, decelerate and/or re-direct the path of a spacecraft.

Q: What is the term used to describe an object getting sucked in to a black hole?

a) Light Amplified by a Stimulated Emission Radiation

b) Vacuumation

c) Spaghettification

d) Mukayama-lactonised-esterification

As objects get closer and closer to the core of the black hole, the black hole gets thinner and thinner. This causes the object to get squeezed together. On the other hand, the bottom object falls faster than the top one, because the force of gravity decreases with distance. The object nearer the planet is pulled harder than the one that is farther away, and so the top and bottom objects are pulled farther apart. The net result of these two sets of effects is to distort the diamond shape into a longer and thinner form, like spaghetti.

Q : According to astrophysicists, and only astrophysicists, what are we formed from?

a) Stardust

b) Dust from the floor

c) The Sun and water

d) Soil and water

e) You are what you eat… chocolate bars, candy, cereal, bread, meat, fruits and vegetables

Q : What’s the name of the robot sent to Mars to further explore the planet?

a) The Marsbar Robot

b) The Mars Explorer

c) Wall-E: the movie was actually based on this robot

d) The Mars Pathfinder

Solar System

Q: What are these? Hint: They are found on Venus, the second planet from the Sun.

a) Footsteps of a giant alien

b) Pancake volcanoes

c) Craters caused by meteorites

d) Giant Venusian jelly-fish!

The volcanoes average about 25 kilometres (16 miles) in diameter with maximum heights of 750 meters (2,460 feet). Pancake volcanoes are between 10 and 100 times larger than volcanoes formed on Earth.

Q: How long would it take to cook a frozen pizza on Venus if you were to leave it outside?

a) 2 hours

b) You can only cook the pizza if you have an oven because it’s too cold outside.

c) 0.5 seconds

d) 8 seconds

Q: How many times can you fit the Earth in Jupiter’s diameter?

1. one and a half times

2. 12 times

3. The earth is too big too fit in Jupiter’s diameter

4. 100 times

Jupiter is so big that you can fit 1 000 planet Earths inside 1 planet Jupiter. It is the largest and most massive planet in the Solar System (Jupiter is also 318 times heavier than the Earth. What’s the little red spot in the center of Jupiter? This little round red spot in Jupiter center is called the Great Red Spot. The Great Red Spot is a complex storm moving in a counter-clockwise direction that has lasted for about 200 years (you can fit 2 planet Earths in the Great Red Spot).

Q: What is the hottest planet in the Solar System?

a) Mercury obviously. It is the closest planet to the sun therefore it receives the most heat, and is therefore the hottest planet.

b) The Earth. Because of all the human activity on Earth, all of the energy created combined produces a lot of heat.

c) Venus. The large amount of carbon dioxide in Venus’ atmosphere acts like a “blanket”. The heat gets trapped underneath the thick layer of clouds. Because the heat has nowhere to go, Venus gets hotter and stays hot.

d) Mars. Mars, referred to as the Red Planet, got its nickname because it is the hottest planet in our solar system.

Although Mercury is the closest planet to the sun, the sun’s rays reflect off of Mercury, and only a small amount of heat is absorbed. The large amount of carbon dioxide on Venus acts like a blanket, and the heat gets trapped and absorbed.

Q: In the last couple of years the status of Pluto was changed. How was it changed?

a) Trick question. Pluto is still and will always be the ninth planet in our Solar System.

b) Pluto does not meet all the characteristics of a planet, therefore its status as a planet has been removed.

c) Pluto was based on the dog in Mickey Mouse and because of copyright laws NASA was forced to change its name.

d) Because Pluto’s orbit intersects with Neptune’s orbit, it is sometimes closer to the Sun then Neptune. Because of this, Pluto is now the 8th planet in our Solar System.

Pluto is not big enough to be considered a planet.

• In fact, there exists 7 moons that are bigger than Pluto in our solar system (Moon!, Io (jup.), Europa (jup.), Ganymede (jup.), Callisto (jup.), Titan (sat.) and Triton (nep)

Pluto is only made 30% of water ice. The other 70% is made of rock. (very similar to a comet)

In contrast to the orbit shapes of the other 8 planets, Pluto has a weird orbit.

• Pluto is the only planet that breaks the orbit of its neighbour planet (Neptune).

Canadian History

Q: What was Canada’s greatest contribution to space exploration?

a) Canadarm

b) The Avro-Arrow (very fast aircraft)

c) The Hubble telescope

d) Vacuum sealed poutine

Q: In what Canadian city did astronauts on the Apollo moon mission train?

a) Trick question! It was actually in Houston, Texas.

b) Sudbury. The rocky infertile landscape resembled that of the moon.

c) Vancouver Island. The harsh weather conditions help them prepare for their mission.

d) Iqualuit, Nunavut. This environment helped them adapt to the cold temperatures of the moon.

Q: Who was the first Canadian astronaut to go in space?

a) Neil Armstrong

b) David Suzuki

c) Marc Garneau

d) Julie Payette

Q: What Canadian is more likely to become an astronaut?

a) Biologist

b) Physicist

c) Chemist

d) Teacher

e) You

f) All of these people

g) None of these people.

Q: Which one of these facts is true?

a) In 1953, a Canadian astrophysicist introduced the big bang theory.

b) In 1969, Canadian astronauts were the first to land on the moon.

c) At the turn of the new millennium, several meteorites were found in the Northwest Territories that dated back to 4.5 billion years.

d) All of these facts are true.

These are one of the oldest meteorites in the world because they date back to the time when the earth was formed.

2. Rockets

1. Place the class in groups of 2. Each team gets one film canister.

2. Cut out all the pieces for your rocket.

3. Wrap and tape a tube of paper around the film canister. Hint: Tape the canister to the end of the paper before you start wrapping.

3. Tape fins to your rocket body, if you want.

4. Roll the circle (with a wedge cut out) into a cone and tape it to the rocket's top.

Blasting Off

1. Turn the rocket upside down and remove the canister's lid.

2. Fill up the “dimple” in the cap with a mix of antacid powder (baking soda) and plaster of paris.

3. Add 5 drops of water to the mix and stir with a tooth pick until it becomes solid.

5. Fill the canister one-third full of vinegar.

Work quickly on the next steps:

1. Snap the lid on tight.

2. Stand your rocket on a launch platform, preferably the floor. Important! Place the lid end of the canister down.

3. Stand back and wait. Your rocket will blast off!

So, how does the pop-rocket work?

When the vinegar and baking soda react together, many little bubbles of gas escape. The bubbles go up, instead of down, because they weigh less than water. When the bubbles get to the surface of the water, they break open. All that gas that has escaped from the bubbles pushes on the sides of the canister. Now when you blow up a balloon, the air makes the balloon stretch bigger and bigger, but the little film canister doesn't stretch and all this gas has to go somewhere! Eventually, something has to give! So the canister pops its top (which is really its bottom, since it's upside down) because that is where the weakest point in the canister is found. All the water and gas rush down and out, pushing the canister up and up, along with the rocket attached to it.

A) [pic] B) [pic]

How do real rockets work?

Real rockets work kind of the same way. But instead of using tablets that fizz in water, they use rocket fuel.

Most rockets launched in space have four different kinds of engines. Some pushed the rocket off the ground. Then some helped it continue its climb into space. Others gave the spacecraft its final push away from Earth. But all of them forced a gas to shoot out of the rocket, thus pushing the rocket the other way. We call this wonderful and useful fact the law of action and reaction (Newton’s third law). The action is the gas rushing out of the rocket. The reaction is the rocket taking off in the other direction. In other words, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. The rocket goes in the opposite direction from the gas, and the faster the gas leaves the rocket, the faster the rocket gets pushed the other way.

Instead of using a neutralisation reaction between the vinegar (acid) and the magic powder (antacid) to create a high pressure gas, a real rocket uses a combustion reaction.

A rocket engine is generally throwing mass in the form of a high-pressure gas. The engine throws the mass of gas out in one direction in order to get a reaction in the opposite direction. The mass comes from the weight of the fuel that the rocket engine burns. The burning process accelerates the mass of fuel so that it comes out of the rocket nozzle at high speed. The fact that the fuel turns from a solid or liquid (usually liquid hydrogen) into a gas when it burns does not change its mass. If you burn a pound of rocket fuel, a pound of exhaust comes out the nozzle in the form of a high-temperature, high-velocity gas. The form changes, but the mass does not. The burning process accelerates the mass.

[pic]

3. Star-finder

Imagine yourself in ancient times, in the middle of the desert at night, without sunlight, without a map, without any trees or houses or streets. How would you be able to locate or orient yourself?

Using Stars!

But there are two major problems that you could experience if you were only to use stars:

Problem 1. Do you think that you’re going to see the same stars in the sky every night?

Demo with 5 volunteers :

- 1 planet Earth (kid#1)

- 1 Sun (kid#2)

- 3 stars ( kids #3-5)

Position the Earth near the Sun.

Position the 3 stars surrounding the Earth and Sun in a triangular shape.

Position the Earth in an area where all three Stars are visible. Ask the students: How many stars can the Earth see!....Three

Ask the students: What does the Earth do around the Sun….It orbits!!

Tell the Earth to orbit around the Sun until one of the three stars is no longer visible (blocked by the Sun).

Ask the students how many stars the Earth see now!.......Two.

So what happened…….the Sun blocked the Earth’s view of the star!

This represents the changing of seasons: when the Earth orbits around the Sun, the seasons change and certain stars now become visible while others get blocked by the Sun.

This demo simply explains why we can’t just pick one star because we don’t see the same stars in the sky every night.

Problem 2. Has anybody noticed that all of the stars look pretty similar in the sky? The majority of them just seem like little white dots. This would make it impossible for us to distinguish one star form the others individually. So what do you think astronomers decided to do in order to solve this problem?

They made pictures with them! We call these pictures constellations!

You can do a short demo (time permitting) by putting little dots randomly on the chalk board (representing stars) and ask the students to make there own constellations with what they see (ex: smiley face)

Examples of constellation : Orion (the Hunter), Lepus (rabbit) et Canis Major (large dog)

[pic]

Popular constellations:

Leo (lion), Lepus (rabbit), Orion (the Hunter), Ursa Major (Big Bear), the Big Dipper, etc.

• The Big Dipper is formed from the seven brightest stars in the constellation Big Bear.

In order to know which constellations you will be able to see on any particular night, you will need something called a Star Finder! And we will be making one today!

Once the kids have finished making the Star Finder, you can show them what constellations they will be able to see that particular night (simply by associating or lining up the date with the desired time of observation (between 7pm and 12am)). Make sure you explain to the students why it’s normal that you are not able to see some constellations….Because depending on where the Earth is positioned, some constellation get blocked by the Sun and you are no longer able to see them!... just like in the demo that was done earlier. Also point out that clouds and big cities will prevent them from seeing many stars and constellations (physical barrier due to cloud cover and city lights play same role as sun).

Different activities with Star Finder: comparing what they will see tonight with what they will see 6 months from now, ask them what constellations they will see on their birthday, etc.

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Submitted by: Nick Spagnolo

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