Welcome to Unit 1 Hearing STEAM: What if we moved to space?
On this page, we will review some key resources from the Hearing STEAM group on the theme of sounds to save from Earth, which we hope will give you inspiration to plan a relevant lesson with your own learners.
After you have reviewed these materials click on Mark Complete at the bottom of this page to continue.
Case study and lesson plan
Idea to Explore
What if we had to move to space? How would we get off our planet? What would we miss from Earth?
Introductory Video
Methodology
The sections below – Discover, Define, Develop and Deliver – align to the design thinking model:
Discover
Trigger 1:
A tweet was sent out from a fake space agency informing us that we had to leave Earth due to an approaching asteroid.
Trigger 2:
NASA tweeted that the asteroid was approaching more quickly than anticipated and we had to leave Earth ASAP.
View the Twitter thread here: https://twitter.com/search?q=%40warningspace&src=typd
NASA decided where the inhabitants of every country had to leave Earth based on their population (link to the population of our countries)
- Norway (5.2M inhabitants): Neptune
- Denmark (5.7M inhabitants): Uranus
- Belgium (11.3M inhabitants): Saturn
- United Kingdom (65.6M inhabitants): Jupiter
Define – part 1
The pupils built a prototype of how they would leave Earth. Before building their prototype, the pupils thought about challenges they would encounter and shared a few on Twitter. The pupils could either come up with these challenges themselves or use the Internet.
(Extra science concepts can also be linked here)
Next, the pupils built a prototype of how they would land on a planet. Their challenge was to build a construction that would be able to protect an egg when dropped from a height.
Develop – part 1
The pupils designed their prototype using Paint 3D. Once the design was done, they shared it with the class.
Deliver – part 1
The pupils designed, built and tested their prototypes. The results were shared with other classes.
Define – part 2
The pupils listened to some of the sound fragments on the golden plate NASA made to send into space with the Voyager project. They were asked questions like:
- What is it?
- Why was it made?
- Why were these sounds chosen to share?
Develop – part 2
We launched: #NeverForgetEarth on Twitter. The goal of this was that important sounds from Earth would not be lost.
The pupils then collected sounds they wanted to save.
They were asked questions like:
- Why do we need to collect the sounds?
- Where can we collect interesting sounds?
- Which sounds do we want to collect?
The teachers collected the sounds on a CD
Deliver
The CD’s with the collected sounds were sent to the other countries. The pupils could then listen to their own sounds and to the sounds the other groups collected.
International Collaboration
- Sharing challenges
- Sharing transportation designs
- Sharing sounds
- Sharing CDs and making songs
Reflections and Questions
- Is your rocket design attainable right now? Will it ever be? Why or why not?
- Are there certain aspects you saw in other designs you could incorporate in yours?
- Do the CD’s from the different countries sound different? Why? Can we find the same sounds anywhere?
- Were there certain types of sounds you had not thought about? What sounds would you add that you could not record, why couldn’t you?
- What sounds would you want to hear from an alien planet?
- Is it possible to think about this or would the sounds be so different we can’t even think them up?
Resources
- Sound recording equipment
- Materials to prototype designs
- CDs
- Computers with Paint 3D software or similar.
STEM to STEAM analysis
Science: Conditions and challenges in space
Technology: Paint 3D, Twitter, recording sounds, making a soundboard
Engineering: Paint 3D, building/drawing prototypes
Art: Drawing the prototypes, creating music
Mathematics: Creating and searching databases of earth sounds
Padlet – Ideas
Below is a Padlet of examples to help you to think about how you could develop this theme in your own teaching context.
You can open the Padlet in a new tab if you prefer: https://padlet.com/dlaberasmus/Unit3HearingSTEAMWhatifwemovedtospace
After you have reviewed these materials click on Mark Complete at the bottom of this page to continue.
