SPACELINK LEARNING SERVICE

Our prime aim is to provide a comprehensive range of space and satellite related learning resources, which when used by schools and other educational institutions worldwide, will significantly enhance their teaching of elements of science and other subjects.

SPACE IN SCHOOLS

Certain space topics have been included in science teaching for many years, and since the mid-1980s satellite products such as images of the Earth taken from space have become increasingly available. The launch of Sputnick 1 prompted many UK schools to try by themselves to make direct use of satellites to aid learning. There were considerable benefits for those that did so, but it soon became evident that success was heavily dependent on having enthusiastic and technically competent teachers - and only then at quite a cost to each school. The Spacelink Learning Service will overcome these limitations and allow a much wider range of uses of space within schools, as part of their prescribed curricula and extra mural activities.

The Spacelink Learning Service is the brand name chosen for the array of learning materials and support services that will be made available to schools. Based on considerable educational and technical research, undertaken by itself and partners since 1995, the Foundation is very confident that it's one stop, on-line service will be cost effective, affordable by most schools and easy to use by both teachers and students alike.

SCOPE

Teachers will have available to them an new and increasing range of exciting and stimulating resources and support services, which will help to develop student motivation and learning, including:

• Interactive curriculum-related resources to help teaching of elements of science, mathematics, technology, geography and other subjects, as well as about space itself.
  
  
• Access to education payloads on live satellites plus other experimental facilities, bringing teachers and students into direct contact with the realities of space.
  
  
• Opportunities for hands-on space-related work in out-of-school hours.
  
  
• The latest news about space developments to attract, widen and deepen initial interest among teachers and students.
  
  
• Support services - teacher development and operational support - to enable teachers to make the most effective use of the Learning Service.
  
  

LEARNING POTENTIAL OF SPACE

"I have no doubt of the value of these satellite contacts to [our] school, …Take-up of science at the school after 16 is above the national average, and our space education programme in the early years is an important factor."

The Final Frontier by Tim Young: The Journal of the Secondary Heads Association.

Over a number of years many schools across the world have experimented with the use of space and satellites to aid education. Students' interest in such things can be used to motivate them to learn about many topics, including subjects unrelated to space itself. Schools that have used space in their science education have found space a valuable education tool because:

• Space and space activities are perceived by many students as representing the modern world and thus form part of their vision of the future.
  
  
• Collecting live and varying signals from satellites can be exciting and interesting, helping the learning of elements of science and other subjects in new, more cost effective ways.
  
  
• Involvement in space activities at an early age provides a means of capturing students' interest in science and engineering, establishing a bond with these topics before they develop other goals, or worse become indifferent to education in general.
  
  

TARGET AUDIENCE

The Service's main targets are students aged 10-19 years and their teachers.

Grabbing attention in the early secondary years (11-14 year olds) is crucial, as a range of evidence shows that many students interested in science during their formative school years do not build on this interest in the following stages of education.

There is evidence to suggest that using space in schools could make a significant contribution to rectifying this situation and hence improve continuity of science related studies after the age of 16 - thereby contributing towards the future 'pool' of scientists and engineers.

BENEFITS

The Service will allow more cost effective teaching of elements of science, applications of mathematics, computing and information technology, and geography, plus aspects of various other subjects, whilst also improving pupils' understanding about space itself.

As the initative matures and gains momentum, we anticipate that the take up rate by students of science and related subjects will improve markedly in schools that adopt the Service. A breakdown of the potential benefits of the Service to different groups of society is given below:

Students' benefits:

• They will gain a new and added incentive for learning.
  
  
• The effectiveness of their education in the targeted elements of science and other subjects will be enhanced.
  
  

Teachers will benefit from:

• Easy access to all parts of the Learning Service, enabling them to select and adopt suitable teaching materials, working within their time constraints.
  
  
• Access to a rich and largely under-utilised source of space teaching material; also to tested and verified learning resources directly keyed to the school curricula.
  
  
• New ways in which to conduct effective classroom lessons and experimental work in a range of curriculum-related subjects, plus a wide variety of after-school activities.
  
  
• Support services covering all possible needs, including introductory and in-service training, to ensure proper use of the Spacelink Learning Service within school.
  
  

Schools' benefits:

• The Learning Service will be cost effective and provided at an affordable rate to schools worldwide. There will be an equivalent weekly fee for the standard service of c£5 (US$7-8) per school.
  
  
• Science and related departments will have a new and innovative method to improve continuity of science related strudies after the age of 16.
  
  
• Incorporating the Learning Service into their teaching programmes will help prepare students for a future in which global perspectives, global communications, technological innovations and widespread applications of information technology will be dominant themes.
  
  

Benefits to Society

• The supply of scientists and engineers worldwide will be enhanced.
  
  
• Public understanding of science and space worldwide will be increased.
  
  
• In the long term, the service will help to increase the competitiveness of the knowledge-based economies in countries using the service.
  
  

© 2005 Spacelink^TM Learning Foundation. All rights reserved.
Duplication only with the permission of the Spacelink Learning Foundation.

Last modified: 11. 10. 04