Introduction

Challenges

Activities

Cyber Cafe

Teacher Resources

Goals

The International Space Station (ISS) is an Earth orbiting facility that will house astronauts and scientists for long periods of time and enable them to conduct scientific research in a microgravity environment.

The International Space Station:

• Is a world-class orbiting laboratory for conducting scientific research
• Provides access to a microgravity environment
• Makes it possible to live and work in space for extended periods
• Is a model for international cooperation
• Is a testbed for developing 21st Century technology.

Find out more about the ISS at NASA's Web site

In early December of 1998, the Shuttle Endeavour attached the Unity module to Zarya initiating the first ISS assembly sequence.

Over the next six years, it will require more than 40 space flights to deliver the various components to the assembly site in orbit around the Earth.

Space Station Challenge is an internet-based, engineering and design curriculum supplement for high school students. In this project, students work in teams to design and construct models of International Space Station modules, test sub-unit features and functions, and ultimately construct a "working model" of the International Space Station to be displayed in a public location. Students engaged in the Space Station Challenges will learn about new and emerging technologies in science and technology fields that did not exist five or ten years ago. Via the World Wide Web students will be able take advantage of the ISS design challenge, constructing, assembling, and exploring operations processes in "real time".

Features of Space Station Challenge Web Site

Welcome to Space Station Challenge
Includes information about this site, background information about the International Space Station, and links for related and more in-depth information. Challenges
Open-ended problems related to International Space Station design, construction, and research. Activities
Sample investigations to test possible solutions to problems related to International Space Station engineering and research. Cyber Cafe
A fun place to connect with others, submit questions, share results, view additional material, and send postcards. Teacher Resources
Description of instructional goals addressed by activities and challenges, teaching tips, lesson plans, and links for additional information.

Summary of Project Goals

Our primary goal is to use the excitement and timeliness of the International Space Station to engage students in challenges that introduce them to engineering, design, and technology processes. Each of the design, prototyping, and construction challenges will target specific math, design, and technology skills that students will perform to complete their projects that can be integrated into existing curriculum scope and sequences. A series of structured activities will be linked to the challenges to offer guided skill-building exercises that apply to the open-ended problems.

Goal 1: Project a Positive Image of Vocational and Technical Career Paths
The Space Station Challenge project provides alternative images of vocational and technical careers by associating the International Space Station with technology studies in a new classroom context, and by incorporating new approaches to teaching.

Goal 2: Inform and Prepare Students for a Competitive, Highly Skilled Labor Market
The Space Station Challenge project draws upon the newly revised Technology Education and Mathematics standards as well as the Science and Communications standards as they apply to the problem-solving challenges and guided activities.

Goal 3: Use the Space Station as a Platform for Real-Life, Timely, and Multi-Disciplinary Learning Experiences
Designing challenges and activities that directly relate to the design, construction, and critical issues of the International Space Station offers an opportunity to bring topics in technology education together with international and highly charged human exploration. The Space Station Challenge targets specific engineering, design, and technology concepts that capture the students' imagination..

Goal 4: Use On-line Tracking and Survey Techniques
Through carefully constructed interactive "events" and forms, the Space Station Challenge web site will capture information about student learning, performance, and attitudes. This information can be collected for participating teachers.

Goal 5: Model New Approaches to Teaching
As a web-based project, the Space Station Challenge features classroom management tips, stories, and examples of successful, alternative approaches to teaching. The Cyber Cafe and Teacher Resources pages provide opportunities for sharing and communicating among teachers, students, and curriculum developers.