Your students can be rocket scientists - activities which teach about astronauts, gravity and motion

A galaxy of great activities about astronauts, gravity, and motion

When your students launch rockets and simulate a moon walk, their scientific curiosity will soar into the stratosphere. Use the activities presented here to launch a springtime Space Day at your school.

WARM-UPS SNACK TIME IN ORBIT

Pick up some dehydrated food--anything from fruit to chocolate ice cream--at a camping store or through a science supplier. Bring it in for kids to taste, introducing it as astronaut food. Tell kids that astronauts can choose from many different foods during their missions, including dehydrated steak, and shrimp cocktail. Ask students: Why would dehydrated foods be beneficial for space- shuttle travel? (They are lightweight, require little storage space, and need no refrigeration.)

ACTIVITY # 1 WE HAVE LIFTOFF!

Concept: The biggest obstacle in getting a spacecraft into space is overcoming gravity. Rockets are used to give a spacecraft the upward boost it needs. Rockets overcome gravity by producing thrust, a pushing motion.

Skills: observing, predicting, measuring, hypothesizing, identifying and manipulating variables, making conclusions

Materials: for the class--kite string, tape, a yardstick, a data chart; for each crew--a white lunch bag, a long balloon, a clothespin, a straw, a Crew Log Sheet

Procedure:

1. Before starting this activity, make the following data chart on the chalkboard. Divide the class into space crews of three or four students each. Distribute one copy of the Crew Log Sheet to each crew. Tell the crews their first mission is to name their spacecraft and write the names on the class data chart. Have kids decorate paper lunch bags to look like spacecraft.

2. Demonstrate a spacecraft launch to the class. First, push one end of a piece of string through a straw. Tape or tie this end of the string to the classroom wall.

3. Attach the other end of the string to the wall at the opposite end of the classroom, so the string creates a straight line.

4. Inflate a balloon, twist its neck, and clamp it shut with a clothespin. Slip the balloon into a decorated lunch bag. Use two pieces of tape to attach the bag to the straw. Tell kids to think of the bag as the spacecraft and the balloon as the rocket. Move the balloon to the middle of the string.

5. Ask students to predict which way the spacecraft will travel when you remove the clothespin. Release the balloon. What happens? (The rush of air escaping the balloon pushes the balloon forward. Rockets assist in spaceship travel by this same principle--the force of the escaping gas from a rocket's engines pushes the space-ship upward. Older students might wish to know that this is an example of Newton's Third Law of Motion: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.)

6. Ask students: Do you think the amount of air in the balloon affects the distance the balloon travels? Before crews launch their spacecraft, have them write hypotheses about the relationship between travel distance and the amount of air in the balloon.

7. Have crews take turns launching their spacecraft from one end of the string. Before liftoff, each crew should measure the length of its rocket (inflated balloon) and record it both on the class chart and on the Crew Log Sheet.

8. Have students record the distance their spacecraft traveled and record the results on their log sheets and on the class chart.

9. Next, have each crew conduct several more launches, experimenting with inflating their balloons to different degrees and recording the results on their log sheets.

10. After all crews have launched their spacecraft, each crew should look over the collected data and draw conclusions. Do their findings support their hypotheses?

11. Ask students to test a few other factors that could affect the travel of the balloons. For example, what happens if you use round balloons? Tape one end of the string near the ceiling?

ACTIVITY # 2: GRAVITY'S HEARTBEAT

Concept: Like Earth, other planets exert gravity. Smaller planets generally exert less pull than larger planets.

Skills: observing, measuring, recording data, inferring, drawing conclusions

Materials: a stopwatch, bags full of books

Astronauts experience all sorts of physical phenomena because of the change in gravity. To simulate gravity's effect on astronauts' pulse rates, have students walk for one minute around the gym or the playground, then measure and record their pulse rates on a class chart. Next, let students take the same walk, but this time have them each carry a canvas bag filled with books. At the end of one minute, measure their pulse rates and record them. What kinds of conclusions can they make based on their data? In other words, if the first walk represents a hike on a planet of lesser gravity (such as the moon) and the second walk represents a hike on a larger planet (Earth), what do they think happens to astronauts' pulse rates on the moon?

RESOURCES

Books

NASA offers excellent free experiment and activity books. Discovery is for grades 1-3; Living in Space is for grades 4-6. To order, contact NASA Educational Publications, Mailcode FEO-2, 300 E St. SW, Washington, DC 20546; (202) 755-0097.

Supplies

Oregon Freeze Dry, Inc. sells space-type freeze-dehydrated foods. Write to P.O. Box 1048344, Albany, OR 97321

Software

Multimedia Space Educators' Handbook, (Grades 4-12) is a free resource that corresponds to most space unit curricula. To order, send a request and 10 high-density formatted 3.5-inch diskettes to Jerry Woodfill, mail code EA63, NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX 77058 (Mac Plus or greater; PC Windows 386 or greater).

LYNNE KEPLER, a former elementary school teacher, is a freelance writer and elementary science consultant based in Pennsylvania.

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