List your event, and share the results

We aim to promote all space-related activities occurring in New Zealand during World Space Week -- so let us know what you're doing in your classroom. If you're running an art session, send us photos of some of the artwork; if doing astronomy after school, we'd love to see pictures of the students peering through telescopes, etc.

We are in the process of reviewing and compiling a list of resources suitable for use in New Zealand classrooms. In the interim, here is a number of international guides produced by/for the World Space Week organisation a few years ago.

A range of activities for all grade levels: Download Guide

• Lance's Lab: Students design a laboratory for the ISS
• Space Web Design: Ideas for each grade level
• Eggnaut ... or ... Houston we may have an omelet!: Design a re-entry system to keep your 'Eggnaut' safe
• Make a critter: Imagine that a new planet has been discovered – Betelgoose - your job is to design an animal to live there
• "Zero-G" Game or Sport: Invent a game or sport that can only be played in Zero-G
• Star Watch: This can be an exciting event for students and families.
• Observation Inclinometer: Students build and use an inclinometer to find stars in thenightsky
• Space Art: Students will be given the opportunity to develop a mural, picture, flip book, cartoon book, or sculpture that would relate to this year’s World Space Week theme
• Timeline: Develop an astronomy timeline
• Board Game: Develop a board game which uses space exploration or space fact/knowledge as a framework.
• Great Scientists: Dress as, Act as or Research key historic figures
• Sundial: Students can make their own sundial
• Popular Media: Explore science fiction and space reality.
• Super Quiz: Team-based or school-wide
• Astronomy and Soccer: A 100-yard soccer field could serve as a venue to compare distances in our Solar System.
• Photographing the night sky: xxx
• Solar Radiation: Determine the insolation (incoming solar radiation) received at your latitude for each of the seasons of the year and design a house that will effectively use the insolation.
• The Cross Staff for Data Collecting: Build and use a cross staff to collect data about the location of celestial objects.
• The Greenhouse effect on Earth & Space: Investigate the green house effect and relate the data to the climate on earth and in space.
• Saturn, "Jewel of the solar system": Build a 3D model of saturn
• Estimating Cloud Cover: Devise strategies to improve your ability to estimate cloud cover.
• Observing visibility and sky colour: Through direct observations, develop an understanding that visibility and sky colour are related and that both are due to the relative presence or absence of aerosols.

Download Guide A Collection of Science and Language Arts Activities Based on the Book "Have Spacesuit - Will Travel" by Robert A. Heinlein. For Use in Grades 5 - 9.

SCIENCE ACTIVITIES

• Space Suit Design: Electric Circuits: Students are introduced to series and parallel circuits in a problem based activity.
• Earth / Moon System: Students construct a simple scale model of the Earth, Moon and other Solar System objects that is accurate for size and distance..
• Lunar Escape: Students are introduced to the concept of gravity and plan an escape from "Wormface.".
• Humans on the Moon: Students investigate NASA's Apollo program..
• Space Suit Design: Solar System Diversity: Students design space suits for survival on different Solar System objects.
• Making Observations: Students explore how we use multiple senses while making observations.

LANGUAGE ARTS ACTIVITIES

• Imagery: Students use the text excerpt to identify the author's use of imagery.
• Descriptive Writing: A Lesson in Revision: Students create a monster and then write a description of it. Students exchange descriptions and attempt to draw the monster. Students then revise their original description.
• Tone / Mood: Students use a text passage to explore the concepts of tone and mood. Students then write a passage to convey a specific tone or mood.
• The Journey of a Hero: A Discussion: Students reflect on the entire novel to determine if the main character, Kip, fits the role of a classic hero.
• Conflict: Students explore the concept of literary conflict.
• Compare and Contrast: Students compare and contrast two aliens using a text excerpt.

Download Guide A free resource developed by the MED to support delivery of the new Zealand Curriculum, centred around the upcoming Square Kilometre Array project, for which Australia & New Zealand are bidding to be the selected site.

• Messages in Colour: Lean how the colour of visible light provides information about stars and other objects
• Messages in Code: Use flashes of visible light to carry messages in code
• Messages Hidden in Light : How intensity can reveal properties of objects
• Messages in Light we Cannot See (Infrared): An investigation of devices we use every day which utilise infrared light
• Messages in Light we Cannot See (Radio): Radio waves
• More Properties of Light: Properties and behaviour of radiation
• How Signals Can be Swamped: Explore behaviour of infrared in both indoor and outdoor settings

We aim to promote all space-related activities occurring in New Zealand during World Space Week -- so let us know what you're doing in your classroom. If you're running an art session, send us photos of some of the artwork; if doing astronomy after school, we'd love to see pictures of the students peering through telescopes, etc.