Ready, S.E.T. (Science, Engineering, Technology), Go!

• Read unit.
• Print Notebooks.
• Categorize materials.

*See Materials & Preparation in the Educator Guide linked above for full info.

21st Century Skills

• Critical Thinking

Habits of Mind

• Use a structured problem-solving process.

Science Practices

• Construct explanations.

Learners Will Do

• As scientists, study the energy of space trash as it impacts materials. As engineers, design technology to protect against space trash impacts.

Learners Will Know

• Scientists and engineers work together to solve problems

Connecting Across Adventures

• Ready, S.E.T., Go!: Today, learners explore space trash. As scientists, they observe the energy of space trash impacts. As engineers, they design ways to protect against those impacts.
• Adventure 1: Sharing Experiences: Next time, learners share experiences with

  and stories about making hazards safer.

Level Up! (Optional)

• View the Translanguaging Video to support learners who speak multiple languages.

• If you can, show the video clip NASA has big ‘guns’ to study micrometeorite & space debris impacts – See test fires (2:33–2:53). Preview audio before playing; it compares the speed of the test trash to the speed of a gun. (5 min.)

• Introduce this activity with a children’s book about trash like Team Trash by Kate Wheeler and Trent Huntington (weblink), or one that is relevant to your community to get your learners invested in the character’s problem. (30 min.)

• Play the translatable video Space Hazards Instructional Read Aloud, which describes the testing procedure.

• If you have decibel meters or a decibel meter smartphone app available, learners can use them to measure the loudness of each impact. They can graph the results to observe how the loudness changes as other things change. (10 min.)

• Have groups time how long it takes the washers to fall two feet, then calculate the average fall speed by dividing 2 feet by the amount of time. (Note that the average fall speed is not the same as the speed on impact, because the washers get faster as they fall.) (10 min.)

• Tell learners that when washers are dropped from 2 feet, they are moving at 11.2 feet per second when they hit the tray. Actual space trash can move at up to 18,000 miles per hour. Have them figure out how much faster the actual space trash is moving than the washers. (10 min.)

• For an additional challenge, have groups construct a shield using only 10 index cards, 12 inches of tape, and no other materials. (10 min.)

• Introduce the terms criteria (requirements for evaluating a design), constraints (limitations on a design), and tradeoff (a compromise engineers make to balance competing design requirements). Have learners consider how each term applies to the shields they are engineering. (10 min.)

• Learners may believe that technology refers only to devices powered by electricity. Explain that anything designed by people to solve a problem is technology. Have learners identify non-electrical technologies around them. (5 min.)

• Have learners explore actual shielding for NASA spacecraft in the video How Can We Protect Our Astronauts in Space? (1:32) (5 min.)