Tag Archives: space education

Exploring STEM Careers

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As Amasya Şehit Ferhat Ünelli Science and Art Center, we established an eTwinning project called Exploring STEM Careers. 16 different schools and more than 100 students from 7 different countries participated in our project. Within the scope of the project, firstly we prepared projects in accordance with the STEM approach within the scope of a theme we determine every month. Secondly we invited experts from this field for a career talk. In addition, every month students from different schools made presentations to their peers introducing their future professions.

STEM Careers Talks

‘Space’ was chosen as the theme between February 15 and March 15. Therefore we had an online career talk with the academician Astrophysicist Selçuk Topal from Van Yüzüncü Yıl University.

Nearly 300 students between the ages of 10 and 17 from different cities attended the conversation. Dr. Selçuk Topal gave information to the students about space, astronomy and future professions in these fields. After that the students sent all the questions they were curious about to our guest. Our guest answered all questions with great care.

Space themed STEM Projects

Within the scope of the Space theme, our students prepare STEM projects throughout the month. Even during distance education periods due to the pandemic, they come together with online meetings and design their projects. After that our students shared their projects they prepared with other students in the online meeting. In addition They asked each other about the projects. They shared their suggestions.

The phases of the moon
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“The Moon Landscape”

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“The Moon Landscape”

The activity took place on 22 April 2020

Auther: Stella Magid-Podolsky, STEM teacher and educator in Israel

Scientix resources that were used for this activity:

This activity took place during the week of Holocaust Remembrance Day in Israel.  7th grade students were introduced to the sad story of the Jewish boy Petr Ginz and his painting “Moon Landscape” which he drew during World War II while living in the ghetto. Through Petr’s personal story students were introduced to the Lunar Landscape. After that, students studied further about the moon through activities which were taken from Scientix Resource Repository: “Lunar phases” and “Lunar landscape”.

The activity was divided into 4 lessons.

During the lesson number one, students were required to learn about Petr Genz’s biography. They read about his life and his passion for Science and Space and they had a chance to see his painting which he drew before his death in the Auschwitz concentration camp. Also, students were introduced to the special connection between the first Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon and Petr Ginz. At 2003 Ilan took Petr Ginz’s painting “Moon Landscape” with him to the space mission. Unfortunately, he was killed in the crash of the Columbia shuttle.

Students were introduced to the first part of the activity through this website.

After that they got the following assignment:

Look at the painting “Moon Landscape” and answer the following questions:

“Moon Landscape”

A. What feelings do you have as you look at the painting?

B. If you could meet Peter Ginz today, what would you tell him about inventions, innovations and discoveries in space?

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STEM Education vs Traditional Education

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Author: Alketa Barjami

For the 2020 STEM Discovery Campaign, I organised few activities. They are listed and described below.

“STEM Education vs Traditional Education”


Type of activity or action: Training session
Date: 20/04/2020 – 24/04/2020

STEM helps to turn new ideas into better education. Timely education during PANDEMIC showed that STEM in home conditions, with the presence of the Internet, brought solutions to online education. Traditional education allows the student to receive formal education and teaches to focus on the topic in question.

Resource: SCIENTIX WEBINAR: QUIRKY IDEAS TO PIQUE AND PROMOTE STUDENT INTEREST IN STEM CLASSROOMS.

For me, it was the first time I designed and implemented a lesson plan on Scientix, but it was not difficult … I could enrich it over time. The difficulty for students was that it was the first time they used online tools to build online puzzles. We could apply it for some more projects this month because we needed to learn online more…

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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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Stay Home and Train Like an Astronaut

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Author: Michaela Balint

Date of activities: 22 April – 8 May.

Introduction

We are staying home, isolated and respecting strict rules. The hygiene rules and safety routines are reinforced, they are even more important to follow now.
We have physical contact only with the members of our family, in the familiar and safe space of our homes. We communicate with our friends, colleagues and teachers, or other members of the family via electronic devices, not face to face.
School activities are held online as well. We take our classes, do our homework and our work is assessed online. We use computers, laptops, cameras, phones, the internet, a lot of devices, techniques and programs. We get new experiences, learn a lot every day. We are forced to find innovative creative solutions to new, demanding problems. Why?

Step 1

This was the moment when our previous Science activities with 3rd and 4th graders, aged 9 to 11, from our school (Discovery Kids Primary School from Ramnicu Valcea, Romania) about Micro-organisms revealed new perspectives and the knowledge about viruses and bacteria were reinforced. The coronavirus data and the methods to prevent illness caused by this particularly aggressive microorganism were introduced to pupils in a way appropriate for their age. The teaching resources we used: presentations made by the teacher, a selection of pictures representing micro-organisms modelled by pupils (from playdough), posters with Hygiene rules, selected video files from the internet.

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