Audience
Educators
Grade Levels
Grades 5-8
Subject
Engineering Design, Technology, Space Vehicles
Type
Educator Guides, Lesson Plans / Activities
Four standards-aligned activities help students learn about NASA’s future lunar habitat, the Gateway. Using science, engineering and math, students learn how NASA will explore the Moon by allowing astronauts to live and work there in an orbiting habitat.
With these activities, students will:
- Design and build the skeletal structure or framework for a spaghetti space module that can support as much weight as possible.
- Work as a team to design and build a model of a space habitat using the engineering design process.
- Create a water filtration system using an assortment of materials that will produce filtered water with a pH level of 6.5 to 8.5.
- Use ultraviolet-sensitive beads to test a variety of materials and determine if they are suitable for shielding against UV radiation.
Next Generation Science Standards: MS-PS2-1, MS-PS4-2, MS-ETS1-1, MS-ETS1-2, MS-ETS1-3, MS-ETS1-4, MS-LS2-1, MS-LS2-5
Common Core State Standards: 6.NS.B.3, 6.SP.B.5, 7.G.B.6
Habitation With Gateway (Spanish Version)
Section Links:
Introductory Pages
Activity One: Assess the Integrity of a Space Module
Activity Two: Design and Build a Space Habitat
Activity Three: Experiment with Water Filtration
Activity Four: Test Materials for a Radiation Shield
Appendix
This educator guide is part of the Next Gen STEM Moon series. Also in this series:
Crew Transportation With Orion
Propulsion With the Space Launch System
Habitation With Gateway
Landing Humans on the Moon
Hazards to Deep Space Astronauts
Deep Space Communications
Artemis Generation Spacesuits
Build, Launch, Recover