Space Junk

This activity tackles a way-out pollution problem, junk in space. Through NASA photos, original art, and animations, students learn that an amazing assortment of debris is in orbit around the earth, including old broken down satellites, pieces of exploded rockets, and even ordinary household trash. The activity was developed in a Learning Magic Table of Contents template, similar to the one used for the Raptors CD.

Students then learn how this space junk got up into orbit, why it stays there, and how it poses dangers to the space station, shuttle, and the communication and weather satellites we rely upon. Finally, children learn about what is being done to take care of this junk. This final topic is open-ended, in that there is no definitive solution so far. Students are invited to use their imaginations and the things they have learned to potentially come up with solutions to this real-world problem. They will get a chance to write about these ideas in the next section.

The Space Junk activity then links to a second IntelliPics Studio 3® activity, Space News. Here students can set up a scene using clip art derived from NASA photos to illustrate space junk in orbit along with the International Space Station, the Space Shuttle, and/or various satellites. When their scene is finished, a picture of the scene goes onto a newspaper page where the student can write about it. The article might be a proposed way to clean up space junk, or an imaginary account of the close encounter of a satellite or space station with a piece of the fast-moving trash.

Required Software: IntelliTools Classroom Suite Player® or IntelliPics Studio 3®.