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Take your Classroom into Space

The European Space Agency (ESA) has launched a Call for Education Ideas, which invites European educators to propose a scientific demonstration that would behave differently in the weightlessness of the International Space Station (ISS) than on Earth. The participants should identify the objectives, the expected results, the materials required, and any other features to be considered for such an activity.

The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest international space project of all time: it orbits at an altitude of 400 kilometres and provides a continuing human presence in space. The key feature of the ISS is its weightless environment. The goal of this ‘Call for Education Ideas’ is to find new ideas for illustrating to pupils the effects of weightlessness thanks to this unique aspect of the ISS.

What is the task?
Propose a scientific demonstration that would behave differently in the weightlessness of the ISS than on Earth. Identify the objectives, the expected results, the materials required, and any other features to be considered for such an activity. Then write up your proposal by completing the downloadable form and send it to ESA before 30 May 2008.

Who can participate?
Participation is open to European* educators including primary and secondary school teachers, and other education representatives (from, for example, science museums and teacher training colleges).

Reward
ESA experts will select the 20 best proposals. The top ten will be announced on our website in mid-June 2008 and will each receive €500, a package of our education material plus a scale-model kit of the ISS. The ten runners-up will each receive a scale-model kit of the ISS in recognition of their effort. Some of the selected proposals will be developed by ESA for fl ight to the ISS, and will be performed by an ESA astronaut there. Pupils from across Europe will be offered a unique opportunity to witness a ‘classroom in space’ in action, and perhaps to perform the same activities in their own classrooms in parallel.

For more detailed information about the ‘Call for Education Ideas’ (including selection criteria), please visit:
http://www.esa.int/esaHS/education.html

* Participants have to be a national of one (or more) of the ESA Member States: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France,
Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom.