Tag Archives: astronomy

Designing a spacesuit for the Moon mission

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Author: Ferhat Ayranci

Our mission to the Moon continues in our astronomy club, which we have been conducting online during these weeks. As the second part of our ‘The Moon Mission’ project, our future astronauts designed their spacesuits.

During this second phase of our project, we implemented the ‘Let’s Design a Spacesuit’ lesson plan from Space Awareness website. This spacesuit part of our project took 3 weeks to be completed. You can find the lesson plan here.

The plan helped us so well through an inquiry-based lesson flow. In the first 2 weeks, students answered the questions and followed a route towards designing their spacesuits. They first made research and discussed the conditions in space and on the Moon which then led them to drawing a blueprint of their spacesuits.

This part of the lesson helps students revise their data to be able to start their designs

Students presented their work during the third week of the designing phase. They drew their spacesuit design as a homework assignment and presented during our online class.

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Building a rover for the Moon mission

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Author: Ferhat Ayranci

In our astronomy club, students designed their 3D rover which will fit best on the Moon’s surface and help scientists discover the Moon.

They constructed the Moon surface

As a part of 2020 STEM Discovery Campaign, my students challenged themselves with a very tough mission; designing the best rover for the Moon’s surface. They constructed Moon surfaces by looking at the pictures of the Moon and changed the design of their rover accordingly.

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Coloring the Universe

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Have you seen the first ever black hole image?

Have you heard about Katie Bouman, MIT’s student, whose algorithm helped to process Event Horizon Telescope data?

She is one of the numerous researchers and scientists involved in the EHT project from various institutions. Her engagement and success were actually the base for the event organized April 17th during this year’s STEM Discovery Week campaign – Coloring the Universe.

In the class with girls who showed great interest in astronomy (astronomy is not part of the curriculum), Katie Bouman’s story, her engagement and contribution within the EHT project was a good starting point for the realization of teaching activities. Katie was not only a role model but also an inspiration.

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STEM4all

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For this year’s STEM Discovery Week the headmaster of Ano Syros Primary School Mr Nektarios Farassopoulos along with the students of the Fourth Grade decided to organize a peer learning activity about day and night for the students of the Special Primary School of Hermoupolis.

Firstly, all the pupils, (10 boys and 6 girls) studied a SCIENTIX resource (http://bit.ly/2Y1Xtb3) related to our topic. Then they visited the Special Primary School of Hermoupolis where students with disabilities attend lessons. For one day the pupils became teachers and tried to explain to the pupils of the Special Primary School how the day becomes night and vice versa using a SCIENTIX resource.

1. At the Special Primary School of Hermoupolis
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STEM Discovery Week 2018: Athens Science Festival 2018 is loading

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Athens Science Festival 2018

Science without Borders
Technopolis City of Athens
24th – 29th April 2018

Athens Science Festival (ASF18) returns for the 5th consecutive year with a program beyond… limitations, full of new ideas and creativity. As an educative and cultural landmark that has enthused the audience of Athens and the whole of Greece with Science, Technology and Innovation, this coming April ASF18 aspires to present the most exciting, attractive and creative scientific advancements free of limitations, prejudice and political conventions to people of all ages.
From the 24th to the 29th of April, at Technopolis City of Athens, a diverse program with a rich set of exhibitions, presentations, workshops, screenings and discussions – speeches by prominent Greek and foreign scientists, will give visitors the opportunity to engage with and celebrate the liberating power of science. With this year’s motto “Science without Borders” we will all indulge into how scientific discoveries can go beyond geographic, cognitive and conceptual boundaries and create new perspectives and new ways of exploring the human intellect.

The Athens Science Festival is organized by

  • the educational non-profit organization in Science Communication, SciCo,     (Theo Anagnostopoulos, PhD Founder and General Manager, SciCo, Ashoka Fellow m:+306977431304 | e:theo@scico.gr | w:www.scico.gr)
  • the British Council,
  • Technopolis City of Athens,
     the Onassis Foundation Scholars’ Association and the General Secretariat for Research and Technology.
  • It is launched in collaboration with academic, research and educational institutions.
    Leading people in the world of science are present at the Athens Science Festival  at Technopolis City of Athens 94 interactive events (50 interactive and 46 experimentalexhibitions) 35 workshops for children | 22 workshop for adults | 45 speeches |5 competitions and many moremorning and evening artistic events for all ages How do great scientists explore the great mysteries of the universe at CERN? How will our digital future be? Why should we be interestedin Martian pebbles? These and many more exciting questions will be answered to visitors of Athens Science Festival who are returning this year, more dynamically, for the 5th consecutive year.

From the 24th to the 29th of April, people of all ages will attend an exciting program with more than 200 different events, which will hopefully excite every advocate of knowledge and scientific avant-garde.

Some of the outstanding speakers will be:

Vasilios Nassis, an academic and a successful entrepreneur, founder of Netronix and pioneer in the field of Internet of Things. He will explain why millions of objects available online – from watches and cars to refrigerators and pressure gauges – can change the world, but also what business opportunities can arise through the vision of the Internet of Things.  Title: IoT: The Evolution of a New Industrial Revolution || Date & Time: April 25, 20:00 * With the support of the US Embassy in Athens.

James Beacham is one of the “stars” in experimental high-energy physics and a talented musician and movie director. In his speech he will explain how and why CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) can solve universal mysteries such as: What is Dark matter? Why gravity is so weak compared to other physical forces?
Title: A Big Bang on the Moon || Date & Time: April 29, 20.00

Vassilis Ntziachristos, an award-winning scientist, is the director of the Biological Imaging Center at Munich’s Polytechnic University. He will discuss about innovative applications and uses of light in medicine and biology that have opened new paths to diagnosis, treatment, and have led to the advancement of medical science. Title: Light and Sound: Magic, Science and Entrepreneurship || Date & Time: April 29th, 6pm * With the support of Goethe-InstitutAthen.

Carsten Mahrenholz, the co-founder of ColdPlasmaTech, will present a revolutionary product from this award-winning German company. By exploiting the properties of cold plasma, he has devised a bandage that activates the body’s own-repair mechanisms, enabling healing of chronic wounds and repairing serious skin lesions. Title: Med Tech: Science Fiction in Medical Practice || Date & Time: April 27, 19.00 * With the support of Goethe-InstitutAthen.

Joseph Sifakis, is a world’s leading computer scientist, who has been awarded the Turing Prize, or what is called the “Nobel Prize in Informatics”. A very exciting talk on the ways in which modern and emerging technologies improve our quality of life and help protect the environment. Title: Understanding and Changing the World || Date & Time: April 25, 19.00

Gábor Domokos, an award-winning academic and head of the Department of Engineering, Materials and Structures at the University of Technology and Economics in Budapest. He will share with us his fascinating experience duringhisquestfor the existence of bodies with stable and unstable points of balance – the Gömböc bodies, that were initially only theoretically proved to exist but eventually were discovered for real on planet Mars! Title: Gömböc, Earth and the gravel on Mars || Date & Time: April 25th, 6pm * With the support of the Hungarian Embassy in Athens.

With the help of science and people working in it andlook into things with no constraints or conventions, our world is changing.

Come and find out how, at the Athens Science Festival 2018.

Join us to discover a world free of boundaries, stereotypes and conventions at the
Athens Science Festival 2018.

Soon, with more science news in a festive mood! Stay tuned!

Days & Hours of Operation:
Tuesday 24 April: Opening Ceremony at 18.30
Wednesday 25th to Friday 27th April: 09:00 to 23:00
Saturday 28 & Sunday 29 April: 11:00 to 23:00

Information:
http://www.athens-science-festival.gr/

http://www.athens-science-festival.gr/en/press/

Technopolis City of Athens: Pireos 100, Gazi, 213 0109300, 213 0109324
press@athens-technopolis.gr ,

www.technopolis-athens.com