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Lunar - Blog Posts
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Morning moon. #moon #luna #earlymornings #moonset #sun #natural #satelite #lunar #6oclock #celestial #celestialmage #nature #cool #cratersofthemoon #craters #250mm #upright #lunatica #morningsky #instapics #dailypic #randomshot #instamood #darkblue #explorer #sky #explore #india (at Tada)
A month of moons 🌘🌗🌕🌓🌒
The world has lost a hero, Eugene Cernan, the last man on the Moon. Commanded Apollo 17, drove the Moon buggy & collected critical lunar samples. Prior to Apollo 17 he was a Captain in the U.S. Navy, Piloted Gemini 9 and piloted the lunar module on the Apollo 10 mission. Post NASA Cernan conducted outreach to students to inspire a new generation of space explorers. This is how I want to remember hero and last man on the Moon Eugene Cernan:
Gene singing on the Moon
Apollo 17 Crew
Apollo 17 Lunar Site
Kindergarten Habitats & High School Design
Along with returning to my studies I have been visiting classes to talk programming, space and backwards design.
Kindergarteners love hands on work and it's one of the best ways to teach a new concept. During "L" week I challenged students to design a Lunar Habitat. This is apparently really hard to describe to a Kindergartener. After showing pictures of a habitat and making ones out of construction paper the idea clicked after building habitats out of Legos, Bristle Blocks, Tinker Toys and Mega Blocks. The definition best used to describe the Lunar Habitat to Kindergarteners is- "A place where astronauts can live on the Moon without a spacesuit on. It provides resources (like water, air and power) that the moon doesn't have." We also made a Yeti dance on Google's Made With Code website, drew astronaut's EVA suits and ate astronaut ice cream.
Once again high schoolers have been assigned the dreaded toothpick bridge project. I have friends who are therapists and they say this project is a family buster. I visited freshman science classes from my old high schooler to talk about backwards design. I shared how backwards design can help them in their bridge project, real life applications of backwards design while chatting about my NASA projects and admitted what I wish I knew as a freshman. When talking about backwards design I described that the design stage of a project should take the most brain power and more time then expected. Once a design is made you need to think about how much time each stage of production will take, what materials you need and if you learned as much as you can about the project so unknowns are resolved.
Tips for high school freshman I have are...
1) Keep alternate forms of postsecondary education and options in mind like Community College, ROTC (Reserve Officers' Training Corps), Technical Colleges, Study Abroad, Americorps and even taking a year off between high school and college.
2) Take honors classes only if the topic interests you.
3) Find a paid internship to replace you generic summer job (even as a freshman). This way you will be paid to do something meaningful that you are interested in.
4) Network with folks in your community that have your dream job. Ask CEOs, managers and other company leaders if you can shadow them. Ask for a tour of a business that you are interested in.
Although I use lesson plans I write about in previous posts some of the best lessons come from getting off topic. Building the habitats out of materials and talking about freshman advice was totally unplanned but still valuable.
WAYS TO GET INVOLVED
Visit a local classroom to read a book, talk about your career, or ask teacher how you can help out!
Teach programming with drag and drop code: https://www.madewithcode.com/projects/animation
Check out AmeriCorps: http://www.nationalservice.gov/programs/americorps
Check out ROTC: http://www.goarmy.com/rotc.html
Find ways to give back to the community: https://www.volunteermatch.org/
Ideas for Teachers: Apollo Mission Control Simulation Lesson Plan
In this activity students will watch clips of system failures from Apollo 13 movie and must come up with their own solutions to the problem. This activity would be good for 3rd or 4th graders but can be modified to be harder or easier.
Introduce the Flight Positions
Split up students into five groups EECOM (Electrical Environmental and Communication) Power, EECOM Environment, BOOSTER, GNC (Guidance and Navigation Control). and SURGEON. They should have paper and a writing utensil.
Teacher: "You are each flight controllers in NASA's Mission Control in Houston, TX. Have a picture on the board of NASA's mission control. For this mission I am the flight director but you are all experts on a space craft system. You are in charge of three astronauts heading to the Moon in this space craft. If you have something you want communicated to the astronaut you must tell me. Have a picture of the Apollo 13 command module attached to the Lunar Lander on the board.
Point at EECOM Power
Teacher: "EECOM Power, you are in charge of the power system that keeps the communication system, computers, heat, and lights on the space craft. You will get data on the battery level, amps, volts and which systems are on."
Point at EECOM Environment
Teacher: "EECOM Environment, you are in charge of the air system on board the space craft. This means scrubbing the carbon out of the air and supplying enough oxygen. You will get data on the O2 CO2 and poisonous gas levels."
Point at BOOSTER
Teacher: "You are in charge of the boosters that fly the astronauts too and from the Moon. You make sure that there is enough fuel to accomplish each task. You will get data on the fuel level and functioning boosters."
Point at GNC
Teacher: "You are in charge of making sure the space capsule is flying in the right direction. You will get data on the flight path of the space craft."
Point at SURGEON
Teacher: "You are in charge of the health of the astronauts. You will get data on their temperature, vital organs, and comments from them on their well being,"
Above are examples of data slides you can display I made with an old Mission Control Picture. Note that these levels and figures in coming up simulation data are not very accurate. For example - in reality over 15% CO2 would cause black outs and brain asphyxiation. What is most important is that data is fluctuating and the students learn what data is important, how to write down observations and react.
Begin Mission
Pull up the current and nominal flight data on the board.
Teacher: "Here is the current data for each of your systems. Write them down because they may change and you may need to fix your systems when something goes wrong."
Students write down data.
Houston We've Had A Problem
Teacher: "These three astronauts are on a mission to the Moon, but something goes horribly wrong. And you have to do something about it. Let's see what happened..."
Show this clip: https://youtu.be/kAmsi05P9Uw
Teacher: "You are tens of thousands of miles away from the astronauts but must fix the problem. Pull up the new set of data. Here the latest data. Tell me whats wrong and how you think we can fix it.
Students write down new data and discuss among themselves whats going on. Students then let the flight director know whats going wrong. Change the data three times so it fluctuates, don't wait for students to write everything down, this is a real time crisis and things won't run as planned.
Example of data slide 4, the vitals show error because in real life the Apollo 13 astronauts took off their vital sensors for privacy.
Teacher checks in with EECOM Power and lets students share their thoughts
Teacher: "Looks like we are loosing power rapidly and can only use certain devices at once. We need to figure out how keep the astronauts alive, send data back to Earth using the computers, and collect enough data on board so we can keep each flight team updated. Hand them batteries, paper clips/ wires, lights and switches. Each light represents an electrical device on board. You must find the correct electrical configuration to power the devices and order in which they must be powered on."
Teacher checks in with EECOM Environment & SURGEON and lets students share their thoughts
Teacher: "Looks like we are losing oxygen for the astronauts to breath. How long till its all gone? Students suggest answers. Here are the materials on board to create a new air filter. This square peg in a round hole. Make it work. Dump the materials on their table." Inspired by this clip: https://youtu.be/C2YZnTL596Q
Teacher checks in with BOOSTER & GNC and lets students share their thoughts
Teacher: Has BOOSTER & GNC sit closer to each other "Looks like we are off trajectory to the moon, the lunar lander is broken, the space craft is accelerating in the wrong direction we are losing fuel and the only logical thing to do now is head back to Earth. Both of you are needed to solve this problem. Give them a model of Earth, Moon, Capsule and attached Moon Lander. Work together to figure out how to then back to Earth with limited fuel."
Teacher: Talking to all. "Once you come up with a solution come up to the front and explain to your fellow flight controllers what you came up with and why it will work. The other flight controllers can argue if they think it won't work and why. Astronaut lives are at stake so it is necessarily to speak up if something is a faulty idea or you have a better solution."
Students work to solve their problems. Give them a little bit of time to work on it. After each team presents their solution.
Teacher: "Let's see how the NASA engineers solve the problems you were given..."
Note: You may want to scan these clips for swear words before showing them in class. And end the clip accordingly.
EECOM Power: https://youtu.be/KhoXFVQsIxw
EECOM Environment & SURGEON: https://youtu.be/Zm5nUEG5Bjo
BOOSTER & GNC: https://youtu.be/gmLgi5mdTVo
Teacher: "Lastly let's see if the crew makes it back after your adjustments"
https://youtu.be/-1BPx5Wsm7k
Celebrate with astronaut ice cream!
Hmmm the boys
