iPBL Space Mission

By jzagami

  • Senior Student planning team

    Year 11 and 12 students meet to decide on an xProblem to solve, drawing upon their collective entrepreneurial capital, with most students interested in science fiction and science, and their recent studies in computer simulations, they decide that their strengths are in simulating a Space Mission.

  • xProblem

    Students decide to include Year 9 and 10 students studying Space Science to help, and Year 5 students would be the students they would help through the project - getting them more interested in science. So it emerged that their xProblem became lack of interest in studying science, and their xSolution - a Space Flight simulation for year 5 students, using the xTechnologies they had available - robotics, VR, video camera, computers, and their ability write computer simulations.

  • xSolution

    Outsourcing an Astronaut training program to Year 9 and 10 students so the 11 and 12 students could focus on preparing the simulation, 9 and 10 students designed the selection and training program for Year 5 Astronauts.

  • Astronaut Selection

    Year 5 students apply to become Astronauts, Mission Control, Reporters, and Roboticists, and attend a selection session designed by 9 and 10 students that tests their memory, reflexes, stamina, etc. through a series of tests modelled on what 9 and 10 students had discovered were used in NASA Astronaut selection.

  • Astronaut, Mission Control, Reporters, and Roboticist training

    Year 9 and 10 students prepare training sessions for year 5 students to teach them how to fly a flight simulator, a rocket launch simulator, a lunar lander, video cameras, video editing, making robots, and programming robots. This draws upon and consolidated their own studies.

  • Simulation Training

    Year 11 and 12 students gain feedback from 9 and 10 Space Science students on their simulation designs, and they work together to plan how the Space Flight event will use various technologies.

  • Simulation Trials

    Year 9, 10, 11 and 12 students trial and refine the simulation over several sessions, refining the solution and ironing out the many technical problems.

  • Mission Day

    With community wide publicity, Year 5 students embark upon their Space Mission, the Astronauts entering the Space Ship mockup, where they can only be communicate with via computers - and with an increasing delay as they move further from Earth. The Mission Control team monitors the Astronauts heart rates and views them through cameras in the Space Ship, giving them instructions on checklists and during scientific experiements during the flight & reporting team interviews and records the mission.

  • Space Walk and Robot Repair

    During the mission, Astronauts conduct a space walk using VR Helmet simulation developed by 11 and 12 students, and complete robotic repairs on the engine using a robot built and programmed by the Robotics Team. Launch and landing simulations developed by the 11 and 12 students were controlled by the Astronuauts and monitored by Mission control.

  • Post Flight

    Following the mission, the Recording team developed a record of the event, and this was used by all students as they produced assessment material documenting their learning.