“No Dream is too far: The Rakia Mission as a bridge to SPACE & STEM”

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The activity took place between April 4th and April 6th and further

Author: Stella Magid-Podolsky

This activity is a long-term activity and consists of three parts:

 1. An educational field trip of two hours for 7th grade students (100 students) to the “Check Point “company where they visited the control room of the “Rakia Mission” to Space a few days before Israel’s second Astronaut Eithan Stiva took off towards the International Space Station. The trip took place on April 4th. Twelve and thirteen old students participated in this activity

 2. A school activity about Space Careers at School. This is a 2 hours long activity which contains two lessons. During the first lesson there was a summary of our educational Field trip and during the second lesson students had an activity about SPACE careers (with an emphasis on Jessica Meir’s Female Astronaut career) . This activity was taught by me 4 times at 4 classes of 25 students.

 3. A Home activity during the Holidays-Keep Track of the Rakia Mission. The Rakia mission started on April 8th. Between April 7th and April 23rd Israeli students had their Passover Holidays, so they got a homework assignment to keep track of the Rakia Mission and report it to the teacher.

All students that took part in this activity had some previous knowledge about SPACE issues because two months prior the activity Israeli Space week was mentioned in Israel and all students had a Space activity where they played space games and solved spaced Trivia.

Israeli Apace week activities

The description of the activity:

  • Educational field trip: this activity took two hours. Students were exposed to the real control room of the Rakia Mission, watched a short movie about the Israeli second astronaut Eithan Stiva , learnt about the connection between first Israeli Astronaut Ilan Ramon (who died with all his crew 19 years ago while coming back  from Space to Earth on the Colombia shuttle) and Eithan Stiva. The two of them were friends and trained together. Stiva continued Ramon’s scientific experiment in Space that began 19 years ago. This experiment is about Lighting storm. Also, students were exposed to the 35 scientific experiments that Eithan Stiva was about to conduct in Space ( some of these scientific experiments were proposed by Israeli High school students and others scientific experiments which was proposed by universities and Research centers) and had an opportunity to do some experiments during their visit.
Students during their trip To Rakia Mission control room
The experiments that Eithan Stiva did in Space
Students make experiments during their visit to the Check Point company
  • A school activity about SPACE careers and summary of the visit to Rakia Mission Control Room

First lesson: This lesson was based on The STEM Alliance Guide for Schools http://www.stemalliance.eu/documents/99712/452773/Booklet+schools+PGB2S/315d1227-837f-46ad-adc2-f259dd79f437

After the Educational Field Trip: Collect feedback and impressions from students, it was converted to a classroom exchange activity. For example, students were invited to write down 2-3 things that they learned during the visit and share them with their peers. After that, we had an open discussion about our visit to the Check Point Company.

Second lesson about Space Careers:

This lesson was based on two resources:

*The STE(A)M IT Guidelines on how to present STEM jobs in classroom http://steamit.eun.org/guidelines-on-how-to-present-stem-jobs-in-classrooms/

Before the lesson, the teacher (me) prepared a story about a certain profession (Astronaut), The main character of the story is Jessica Meir (American female astronaut). I mentioned specific information about the profession through Jessica’s story, for example: • Who am I, what are my skills? • What are my advantages and disadvantages? • Where was I educated, what have I learned / done during schooling? • Where am I employed, what do the preparation for my workday looks like? • What my workday looks like? • What does my work environment look like?

After hearing the story about Jessica ( based on the following site:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgVDmVNB4Bg ), students are instructed to try to imagine themselves in the role of a character from the story (Jessica) that was read. They are then given a worksheet on which students use the SWOT analysis method to write impressions of the profession from the story from their perspective, for example:

 • Strengths – what are my characteristics that would make me good in this profession?

 • Weaknesses – are there any shortcomings to deal with this occupation that I could work on?

 • Opportunities – what are my goals, what would I get if I pursued this occupation?

• Threats – what challenges would I face if I pursued this profession?

Students who wished to do so shared their analysis in front of other students

The video about Jessica Meir
Students are exposed to Jessica’s Meir story

After this activity students were exposed to *The STEM Alliance / STE(A)M IT Career Sheets http://steamit.eun.org/category/stem-careers/

The class was divided into groups of 2-3 students. Each group had to find one career related to SPACE, discover it and then present it to their peers. The examples of such careers are:

Space psychologist, space mission specialist, Aeronautical meteorological technician….

A home activity

During the Passover holidays students had to keep track of Rakia Mission in space and participate at least in one virtual activity for students from International Space Station that was broadcast by Eithan Stiva. For example: Learning about lack of gravity, exposing to experiment about growing Humus in Space…..

Also, students had to report about their participation in the activity to the teacher (to me).

Learning outcomes from the activity: Students were very interested both in the Rakia Mission and in SPACE Careers. During one discussion students even discussed future SPACE careers that do not exist today. They made some suggestions and were asked to assume which profession could be real and which profession would stay “the fruit of their imagination”.

My advice to other teachers planning to introduce their students in STEM career orientation: Use the resources which are provided by STEM Alliance and STE(A)M IT project and create the framework short or long-term activity according to the cultural & scientific aspects of your country

Teaching outcomes: I really enjoyed organizing this activity. I think that the Educational field trip had a great contribution and impact on student’s interest and motivation to learn about the Rakia Mission and Space Careers. It was important to me to make a connection between a very important occasion for my country (the Rakia Mission) and a very important issue for my students-exposure for STEM careers in general and Space careers in Particular. May be, one day one of my students will be one of the Astronauts in SPACE or will have SPACE related Career….I have fulfilled my role as a teacher and my students will make their choice of Career in the future and I hope they will choose a career that will make them happy…..

Do The World A Favor (Stem for Peace)

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This year my students are first grade, I’m just meeting them, they are also new to Stem Education and many other things. There are 23 students in my class. 6 of my students are Syrian, 2 of them are Sudanese, 1 of them are Somali and the others are Turkish. Peace is a concept that we value very much . We are one with our differences

This learning activity is a result of the Terra Mission MOOC. I very much appreciate the Terra Mission teaching and learning resources. The lesson on climate change displayed by Gynzy platform is relevant and corresponds to students’ interests and curiosity. There is a strong focus on learning by doing activities which stimulates communication, collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking.

Why This Event?

There is three reason for  his event  ;

* There are children from different countries in my class who have migrated due to war and different reasons.

* The forest fires that broke out in Turkey last summer made us all very sad. Deforestation is a major threat to climate change. So we have to do a favor for our Earth. The tree is also a symbol of peace for us.

* It is very important to me that my students, especially my female students, who are new to Stem and many learning areas, are active in Stem and science activities.

Preparation Work

I specifically wanted to read Wangari’s peace tree to  my pupils because it is very important for girls to be involved in science, science and Stem activities. Wangari is a great example for us.

Who is WANGARI MAATHAI?

I specifically wanted to read Wangari’s peace tree to  my pupils because it is very important for girls to be involved in science, science and Stem activities. Wangari is a great example for us.

* She worked for his country, for peace.

*Worked to combat deforestation and erosion. At the same time, the tree is a symbol of peace in his country.

*The first girl to be educated in her country. Wangari Maathai was the first African woman to win a Nobel Peace Prize.

The forest fires that broke out in Turkey last summer made us all very sad. Deforestation is a major threat to climate change. So we have to do a favor for our Earth.

Mind Map

I asked a disscusion  question “What do you think about trees?”

They answered on Coogle tool.

Interaction Video

Watched an interaction video about Wangari Maathi.

Reading

After reading the Wangari’s Peace Trees, we searched for the words deforestation, reforestation and germination that we had just learned, and each student made their own plan.

Designing       

It was desired to create a peace forest by designing three-dimensional trees that can stand without using glue with the materials provided.

Individual Planning :10 minutes

Team Planning: 10 minutes

Tree Building: 30 minutes

Product – see our video on the link below

https://youtu.be/H9p_mEecO5o


PEACE FOREST

Mother Tongue Development

17 April World Haiku Day

They made a word cloud study by using the Wordart tool with the words they learned.

BIOMIMICRY

(21 APRIL WORLD INNOVATION AND CREATIVITY DAY)

Design inspired by nature, develop technology. This is called “biomimicry”.

*Inspired by nature, we made a design by observing that maple seeds turn and fall to the ground.

For inspiration from nature, we studied maple seeds and observed that they fell to the ground by spinning.

They examined the maple seeds and observed that they had spun and fell to the ground. like a propeller. They built a helicopter and a seed launch pod.

See our video on the link: https://youtu.be/bxJQgrTClDo
BIOMIMICRY

KWL CHART ABOUT TREE

TECHNO GREEN SCHOOL

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Projenin adı: Techno Green School

Sınıf: 3rd Class

SUMMARY

The methods that will enable our students to develop their basic skills are developing and changing day by day. Solution-oriented approaches to problems come to the fore. With our project, our students will establish a new sustainable school. They will be able to examine the ecosystem of the place where they live and select compatible plants. They will redesign the sections where there are animals that can be found in the school and will not harm the students, and they will create different study areas that are compatible with nature. They will create the school of their dreams by creating the school garden, building and ecological section.

TARGETS

The aim of our project is to enable students to find basic skills and solutions themselves by providing them with the skills to solve real-world problems in the environment they live in. Offering different solutions to problems is being a part of the solution. With the school they will re-establish, they will contribute to the creation of a more environmentally friendly and more livable environment. They will design the living spaces of both humans and animals by using the sun, water, soil and technology. A nature-friendly school will be created with designs that will reduce carbon and water footprints. With the web 2.0 tools to be used throughout the project, students will develop their digital competencies, take the responsibility of being a digital citizen, and move from being a consumer to a producer.

PARTİCİPANTS IN THE PROJECT

The project, which has 10 Turkish and 6 foreign partners, is a project that we carry out jointly with the countries of Turkey, Azerbaijan, Italy, Greece, Romania and Ukraine.

Project Plan

In the project, students determined what their dream school was and realized it in their schools.

In the first stage, the students visited the school and searched the area.

In the second stage, using the web2 tool mentimeter, brainstorming was done and the students were allowed to think and write about what their dream school was.

As a result of the Mentimeter, we concluded that the students wanted to create a hobby garden in our school.

Officials from the Provincial Directorate of Agriculture explained the life cycle of the plant to the students and planted applied flowers in the school garden.

We made the drawings of our hobby garden that we plan to realize in our school.

We made a model of our hobby garden that we plan to realize in our school.

They made a school exhibition and explained the models designed by our students.

We have integrated the technology into our project, and we have made a drip system and we have both saved water and provided the water required for our plants.

Our students planted the flowers of our application garden and thus we added our hobby garden to our learning process.

Project Results

Thanks to the project, students’ 21st century skills have improved. Students who are confused with a problem situation have produced solutions to the problem, analyzed the solutions and come up with a product. Thanks to the work they have done in groups, their collaborative working skills have improved. The students who designed the school of their dreams are now coming to school more happily and in the learning process. They were very happy to be active.

Hydroponic System

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by Özlem Saygın, Ph. D. (#Integrated STEM Teaching for Secondary Schools Rerun)

(2022 STEM Discovery Campaign-Scientix Competition 1: STEM Activities)

The activities of the Hydroponic System were implemented in 10th grade (age 16) in Antalya Erünal Sosyal Bilimler Lisesi, Turkey. We implemented the learning scenario between 08 March and 26 April 2022.

Global warming in the world, the inefficiency of agricultural lands, unbalanced increase in the world population, increase in food prices, and similar problems cause great problems in healthy and adequate nutrition. Landless farming methods which are applied to limited areas seek solutions to these problems. The aim of our activities was to learn about growing plants in the hydroponic system. So, students can grow plants in soilless conditions inside the buildings. Students researched necessary conditions for plant growth, the quality of water, essential minerals, and the importance of the wavelength of light. They tried to find solutions to the problems they faced.

Firstly, we prepared this learning scenario for Integrated STEM Teaching for Secondary Schools Rerun MOOC as a team. Then we improved and implemented it.

Our activities

Engage

Students were asked the following questions as real-world problems, respectively:

  • How can we meet our food needs if we face food shortages due to climate change?
  • How can we grow our vegetables in a drought?
  • Is soilless agriculture possible?
  • Which methods can be applied for the use of inorganic substances by producer organisms?

After the students’ preliminary information was revealed and their ideas were taken, the following videos were watched on the subject.

Explore

Students were divided into groups. By examining this website, they decided to do deep water culture.

The groups did internet research and watched videos both in English and Turkish about the hydroponic system setup they have chosen. They tried to find answers to these questions:

– Which plant species can be grown in hydroponic water culture?

– What nutrients do plants need? Do the nutrients need to change according to the plant species?

-What should be pH, EC, and temperature of water for their plants?

Students wrote the list of materials they would need. We bought A and B nutrients, pH meter, EC meter, pH reducer, perforated pots, air stones, air motor, air pipe, storage containers, perlite, LED, and Arduio set.

Explain

Students discussed the causes and consequences of global climate change. They brought their bills of electricity, water, and natural gas. They asked their parents how many kilometers a month they traveled by car and motorbike. They measured the carbon footprint of their family at this link.

They researched what they can do to reduce their carbon footprints and made a list.

  • The distances that can be traveled on foot should be covered by walking, if there are suitable conditions, by using a bicycle.
  • Reducing waste, consuming products that can be consumed without packaging, and paying attention to recycling.
  • Using solar energy instead of natural gas and electricity.
  • To use renewable energy for electricity, to prefer energy-saving light bulbs, refrigerators, and air conditioners.
  • To travel by public transport as much as possible.
  • Hang dry the laundry instead of using a dryer.
  • Do not run your dishwasher before it is full.
  • You can water your plants in the garden with the water you use for washing fruits and vegetables.
  • When you are not using your electronic devices such as computers and televisions, be sure to turn them off and unplug them.
  • Buy as much food as you need and put as much food on your plate as you can eat. Try not to create food waste.
  • Instead of buying bottled water, carry flasks.
  • Use a water-saving showerhead.

Elaborate

Students set up their hydroponic system as groups.

Materials:

  • Lettuce etc. seedlings
  • Perforated pots for seedlings
  • Styrofoam (3 mm thick)
  • Deep, opaque storage container (10-25 L)
  • Airstone
  • Aquarium air motor
  • Water pipe
  • Aquarium check valve
  • A and B nutrients
  • pH meter
  • pH reducer
  • Conductivity (EC) meter
  • Thermometer
  • Injector
  • Utility knife
  • LED
  • Arduino set
  • Perlite

Students cut styrofoam suitable for the storage container. They drilled round holes for the perforated pots on the styrofoam. They cut the corner of the Styrofoam, so the water hose could pass. They measured the liter of water while they were putting it in the storage container, then placed the air motor and airstone. They used a check valve to prevent water from entering the air motor. They mounted the air motor high above the system. They put 2 ml of each A and B nutrient per liter. Then, we adjusted the EC=0.8 mS/cm and pH=6.0, these values are for lettuce. Values of water should be adjusted according to the plant species. Students put seedlings in the perforated pots and filled them with perlite. They sat the pots on styrofoam.

In the chemistry lesson, students learned which minerals plants need and how to calculate the ratios of chemicals in a mixture.

In the physic lesson, students investigated the effect of the wavelength of light on plant growth. They used LED lighting with an intense red light so that the plants can grow faster in a low light environment. Then, they programmed its timing to be ON for 16 hours (lighting) and to be OFF for 8 hours (dark) via the Arduino.

Students measured and recorded EC, pH, and temperature of the water every day.  We made the necessary adjustments. The problem we faced was that the pH was rising every day. We added 20% nitric acid for reducing it. Then we used purified water instead of tap water because the EC of tap water was high. Using purified water slowed pH to rise. After 5 weeks, our lettuces grew enough, we harvested and ate them.

In the mathematics lesson, students drew graphics of daily pH increases and the temperature of the water.

The video of the project presentation can be seen here.

We used a self-assessment form for evaluation. In addition, students replied to these questions in the form:

  • What problems did you encounter while installing the hydroponic system and growing your plants?
  • How did you find solutions to these problems?
  • What can you do to improve your design?
  • Are you considering using the hydroponic system in your home?

Students exhibited their projects at the Science Fair of our school on 27th April 2022.

Teachers used the teacher assessment form for evaluating the performance of students.

Connection to STEM Careers

Our activities are associated with professional areas such as environmental engineering, biochemistry, biotechnology, management of biological resources, agricultural engineering, and computer engineering. Students watched a video of the plant factory in our city.

21st Century Skills

Collaboration, communication, productivity, critical thinking, problem-solving, information and technology literacy, initiative, and social skills.

Conclusion

This project is an effective STEM project. It promotes entrepreneurship. Students enjoyed trying something new and they realized that growing plants takes effort. They had to devote time to their projects every day, but some students found it difficult. They learned the importance of recording data while doing a scientific study. They presented their projects with pride and enthusiasm at the science fair. Growing plants in hydroponics are not very common, so it attracted a lot of attention. This project needs a budget. The project can be continuously developed, and new applications can be tried in time.

Our Team

Biology: Özlem Saygın, PhD.

Chemistry: Ayşegül Gençer, PhD.

Mathematics and Information Technologies: D. Aslı Kaplan Yaşkaya

Physic: Şerife Demirel

Leonardo da Vinci Bridge – “Self Supporting Bridge”

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Our Self Supporting Bridge event; We planned to get to know the world-famous painter and engineer Leonardo Da Vinci, who lived in the fifteenth century, and one of his works, to see how to build a bridge without using nails or any other clamps.
By watching a video about Leonardo Da Vinci’s life, students learned about Leonardo da Vinci, one of the engineers with the most surprising intelligence. They also had the opportunity to examine the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci, a famous painter.

They examined some of Leonardo Da Vinci’s inventions that shed light on the Helicopter, Tank design and anatomy studies. Developed by Leonardo Da Vinci; they learned about bridge design that we could build using only long boards and wooden sticks, without the need for hammers and nails. The working logic of the bridge lies in the fact that the materials used can be clamped together without slipping. The parts that lean against each other never slide so that there is no collapse. The reason why the parts do not slide is that the system transfers the weight on the wooden bars exactly in the middle. Each plank, placed parallel to the bridge, presses the wooden bars on which they rest against each other. This ensures that the bridge parts are clamped together as the weight on the bridge increases.

The students, who discovered how to build the da Vinci bridge, completed the bridge design with great excitement. Students developed their problem solving, cooperation, responsibility, and creative thinking skills. Thus, it positively affected the students’ perspectives on science and engineering.