CLASSROOM LEARNING RESOURCES

The inherent excitement and learning potential of space will be captured in and harnessed via Spacelink's unique range of learning resources. Learning resources for many subjects will incorporate real space data and the Learning Service will also offer students the opportunity to be directly engaged in live space activities.

INTERACTIVE CURRICULUM-RELATED LEARNING RESOURCES

The Service will provide a range of lesson materials, which we call learning resources, which relate closely to prescribed school curricula/syllabuses of the specific education jurisdiction. They will include those used by teachers, those used by students under teacher direction, and those used by students pursuing independent study. To assist understanding of learning resources, the following definitions have been adopted:

• learning resources includes lessons, worksheets, exercises and puzzles which are designed to guide, prompt, stimulate and broaden students’ interest in learning; an essential element of learning resources are space-related artifacts pertinent to the subject or topic of the learning resource;
  
  
• space-related artifacts are interpretations of pertinent space data which are derived from observations or experiments in space, but prepared and packaged for use in educational (school) settings; they can be presented in any medium, whether print, graphic, sound, video, digital or any combination of these.
  
  

The learning resources combine the relevant space-related artifacts with the dynamism of space activities – the purpose being to make science and other subjects in the curriculum more relevant to the modern world. The resources will exhibit relevance to the needs and interests of students, exploit students’ known interest in space, motivate less enthusiastic students, or stretch those who are more able. They will involve the application to problems, investigations and use of information technology, and assist the learning of information technology.

Some space artifacts will need to be purpose-designed for the Service, e.g. derived from the datastreams and features of the Spacelink Education Payloads in Space, outlined in the web page ‘Education Use of Satellites’; others will be adapted - with permission - from existing materials and others will be derived, again with agreement, from datastreams from space missions. This will maximise the choice of learning resources available to teachers and students from which to select and satisfy their needs.

Learning resources prepared from archived materials will simulate the dynamism of space by incorporating interactivity, still or moving features of satellites and other space activities.

All learning resources will include a Teachers’ Guide to their use and be authenticated by representative groups of user teachers, preferably through their involvement in the development and trialling of the resources; all resources will be kite-marked, showing that they meet the requirements of educational authorities in the user jurisdictions and countries.

As teachers gain experience of using space and satellites, we would expect they would contribute new learning resources to the Service.

RANGE OF SUBJECTS COVERED

The planned learning resources will make use of space for two distinct purposes, both of which are likely to meet the requirements of curricula in many or even most educational jurisdictions:

• for the first purpose we use the phrase learning through space as a generic term to denote aiding the learning about selected elements of a number of mainstream subjects in the school curricula, through using the learning potential of space. The subjects benefiting will include physics, applications of mathematics, computing skills, information technology, geography and related subjects, design and technology and various environmental studies. In the context of the school curriculum Learning through Space represents an even greater opportunity for the use of space than Learning about Space.
  
  
• the second purpose is to aid learning about space - this relates to the space topics in the school curriculum of the specific education jurisdiction.
  
  

A well-established example of learning through space is geography. This uses images from purpose-designed remote-sensing satellites and has become a useful tool in schools, as well as in industry and commerce.

Many learning resources relating to learning through space will use artifacts from the datastreams provided by the Spacelink Education Payloads in Space. Others will use artifacts derived from non-educational satellites, such as those of the major space agencies, e.g. NASA, ESA, NOAA, EUMETSAT and from remote-sensing satellites.

The space artifacts used in learning resources about space will mainly be derived from observations or other archived data from telescopes, space stations, etc. and interplanetary missions.

INTERACTIVE EXERCISES

Some sample interactive exercises can be accessed below, or through using the Grey button at the top right hand side of this page. They show just a few of the many ideas for learning resources that Spacelink will be developing. These are not at this stage fully developed or complete resources, but are intended simply to illustrate the type of concepts and approach that Spacelink will utilise when developing the full Learning Service.

Click here to try some sample interactive exercises:

Many of the learning resources will involve the use of data sets received from real satellites orbiting in space. Data from commercial and other satellites will be adapted where necessary for use by schools, whilst data from Spacelink's own educational payloads will be specifically designed for schools' use. Data from both sources will be pre-selected to suit the subject under study and the ability level of the particular student group. Sample data sets will be provided pre-packaged with the lesson materials, but additional sets will be available for down load via the Spacelink website or on CDs.

Direct use by schools of the planned educational payloads will require a specialist (but low cost) receiving kit, comprising an aerial, plus certain bespoke hardware and PC software. Schools without such a kit of their own will still be able to interact with the host satellite and its education payload, but only indirectly via the web site, using Spacelink's own receiver facilities on a shared basis with other users.

Once Spacelink's first dedicated education payload has been launched and is fully operational, students will be able to perform various live, hands-on interactive activities. These will include experiments based on use of the host satellite's signals, the operation of its payloads and other systems, or the direct collection of real data streams from the education payload itself. In the interim, early learning resources will utilise simulated space data or data streams from existing space missions operated by other organisations such as NASA, NOAA or ESA. Spacelink's aim throughout will be to maximise the choice of learning resources that teachers have available to them and to provide full support for all the resources which may be used.

LEARNING THROUGH SPACE NOT JUST ABOUT SPACE

The great variety of phenomena in space and the technologies used by satellites represent a rich and largely under utilised resource for formulating valuable and thought provoking lessons in a range of subjects and for after school activities. The school subjects mainly benefiting will include physics, applications of mathematics, computer information technology, geography, design and technology and some environmental studies.

As students enhance their science education using space and space data they will also learn about the properties, phenomena and technologies of space itself. This is, however a secondary benefit. The main aim for Spacelink is to harness the natural fascination and excitement that space and satellites hold for students of all ages, to aid the teaching of science and related subjects.

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

Last modified: 28. 12. 04