This lesson for students aged 7-11 is about life on extremely long space journeys, and how to provide enough food and water to keep astronauts going. They are based on video clips of the CHRISTMAS LECTURES from the Royal Institution, the UK's iconic science series on TV.
To use the resource, you'll need the PowerPoint presentation to show to your class, alongside the video clips, and the Teachers Guide to help you prepare.
Lesson outline
Step 1: Starter to link to pupil experience
Introduce the topic of extremely long journeys by starting with talking about pupils’ greatest or most extreme experiences.
Step 2: Develop through imagination the concept of ‘space tools’ capable of making food and water
This section is set up as a mystery: what amazing, cutting edge technology could astronauts possibly use to generate their food, oxygen and water on a journey to mars? Encourage pupil’s imagination and then reveal simple ‘space tools’ in the classroom.
Step 3: Main investigation to measure change across a semi-permeable membrane and two solutions of different concentration
Pupils plan, predict and carry out a practical activity to measure and record the changes to a gummy bear (or potato stick).
Step 4: Plenary sets a further amazing possibility
Food, whilst amazing, can possibly be made in space. Water, whilst amazing, can be made safe enough to drink. What about artificial gravity? Leave pupils to wonder: could that be possible too?
Video links
Drinking urine https://youtu.be/qGRYKuVyEGE
Making gravity https://youtu.be/JytmUHNuY48
Objectives
Children will be able to work scientifically by:
- Making systematic and careful observations and, where appropriate, taking accurate measurements using standard units, to make observations over time
Children will learn:
- That animals, including humans, need the right types and amount of nutrition, and that they cannot make their own food; they get nutrition from what they eat
Cross-curricular opportunities:
- Speaking and listening in groups
This resource is part of Tim Peake's Principia mission education programme, supported by the UK Space Agency and ESA.
To use the resource, you'll need the PowerPoint presentation to show to your class, alongside the video clips, and the Teachers Guide to help you prepare.
Lesson outline
Step 1: Starter to link to pupil experience
Introduce the topic of extremely long journeys by starting with talking about pupils’ greatest or most extreme experiences.
Step 2: Develop through imagination the concept of ‘space tools’ capable of making food and water
This section is set up as a mystery: what amazing, cutting edge technology could astronauts possibly use to generate their food, oxygen and water on a journey to mars? Encourage pupil’s imagination and then reveal simple ‘space tools’ in the classroom.
Step 3: Main investigation to measure change across a semi-permeable membrane and two solutions of different concentration
Pupils plan, predict and carry out a practical activity to measure and record the changes to a gummy bear (or potato stick).
Step 4: Plenary sets a further amazing possibility
Food, whilst amazing, can possibly be made in space. Water, whilst amazing, can be made safe enough to drink. What about artificial gravity? Leave pupils to wonder: could that be possible too?
Video links
Drinking urine https://youtu.be/qGRYKuVyEGE
Making gravity https://youtu.be/JytmUHNuY48
Objectives
Children will be able to work scientifically by:
- Making systematic and careful observations and, where appropriate, taking accurate measurements using standard units, to make observations over time
Children will learn:
- That animals, including humans, need the right types and amount of nutrition, and that they cannot make their own food; they get nutrition from what they eat
Cross-curricular opportunities:
- Speaking and listening in groups
This resource is part of Tim Peake's Principia mission education programme, supported by the UK Space Agency and ESA.
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