Creating a LEGO Space Station
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Creating a LEGO Space Station Grades: 4-10 Time: 50-70 min Original Idea by Dr. Daniel LeGoff originally used to help children with Autism increase their social activity. Re-worked for Astronomy. Learning objectives Students use their imagination to design their own space station out of LEGO bricks. They will learn how about the different components of the International Space Station, and how they link together to form a space habitat for astronauts. Students will learn communication and collaboratively build the station with their teammates. What will the students do? Students will work in groups to create a LEGO space station and mini space stations or spaceships. After each group has finished building their space stations the students will present their creation to the class. This activity can be modified into the class building one large space station where the groups create different parts of a space station and have to work as a class to put it all together. Tips & Suggestions: ● Each group should have one “Medium Creative Brick Box”, one “Getaway Truck”, and one “Police Pursuit” so each group has enough normal LEGO pieces and enough Technic Pieces to work and design with. ● The cost for this per group if there are four groups should be around $300 providing that you can find each set/box on the LEGO website. And brand or collection of building bricks will work, as long as there are enough bricks for the students to get creative. ● The 2014 documentary “Beyond The Brick: A LEGO Brickumentary” discusses how NASA uses small scale dioramas made from LEGO bricks to plan out their spacecraft and satellites. This may be useful to show the class. Supply List: ● 1 LEGO Medium Creative box per group ● 1 LEGO Getaway truck (or equal to less expensive substitute) per group ● 1 LEGO Police Pursuit (or equal to less expensive substitute) per group ● Different colored raffle tickets or post-it notes per group (Not necessary if you are going to make a classroom space station) Background Information: The International Space Station, still in use today, is an Earth-orbiting station where astronauts live and conduct experiments. The first components were launched into space in November of 1998 and parts have been added to its structure ever since. Construction of the space station was a collaboration between many space agencies around the world, including Japan, Russia, the European Space Agency, and the United States (NASA). Astronauts from 18+ countries have traveled to space station, usually staying for about 6 months before returning to Earth. The station is continually inhabited by 3-6 people at a time. What do astronauts do on the Space Station? According to the NASA FAQ regarding the space station and its missions, “Astronauts and cosmonauts on the space station stay busy. There’s lots of work to operate the many science experiments on board. The crew also has to make sure that the station is in top shape, so they clean, check equipment, maintain and repair or replace broken equipment. Crew members also must exercise two hours each day to stay fit and keep their bones and muscles strong. Sometimes we need to do a spacewalk to work outside the station in our space suit. It’s a tough and dangerous job but the view is terrific.” Over 250 research experiments have been conducted on the space station in many different fields of science. LEGO background: Here is a great video describing the origin of LEGO: https://youtu.be/uHwEoN3qpx4 LEGO and NASA On February 1st, 2020 LEGO released the ISS as part of its LEGO IDEAS product line. The LEGO IDEAS products are fan made sets that are posted on the LEGO IDEAS website, and once a set reaches 10,000 supports it gets reviewed by a team of master builders (LEGO workers). If the master builders like the set upon review, the set goes into a development stage where these master builders improve on the design set forth by the original owner. One of the most popular IDEA sets was the LEGO Mars Curiosity Rover that was released in 2014. This set was originally created by Stephen Pakbaz, one of the real engineers who designed the Mars rover for NASA and JPL in 2011. Stephen is a Mechanical Engineer for NASA’s Jet propulsion laboratory, and also an “AFOL” or “Adult Fan of LEGO”. The picture at right is of Stephen Pakbaz with his manufactured version of the Mars rover from LEGO. There is a video link to the reveal of this set in the accompanying slide presentation. LEGO and Child psychology: In the LEGO movie “A LEGO Brickumentary”, Dr. Daniel LeGoff, a board certified Pediatric Neuropsychologist, comments on how important LEGO exploration activities can be for children. In his practice, he noticed two of his patients brought LEGOs that they had both made at their homes to show Dr. LeGoff. In the waiting room, Dr. LeGoff noticed that the two patients were talking to each other and showing each other their respective LEGO sets. After seeing those two children interacting with each other and seeing how happy their mothers were, Dr. LeGoff decided to do group sessions with his patients where one child is the engineer, one is the parts supplier, one is the architect, and one is the builder. Through this activity, he found that the children who participated in the LEGO groups had better social skills than the children who did not participate in the LEGO groups. In 1997, he started using LEGO bricks in his practice. Since then, he has published two books discussing the relationship between children and LEGOs. The following link demonstrates Dr. LeGoff’s therapy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5pCPKg13z8&t=173s Expected Results: After the building time is up, each group should have one large space station and multiple spacecrafts or smaller space stations that can connect to the group station. Or if your class is doing the large class model, each group should have their individual parts ready to be connected to make the large classroom station. Teacher Instructions: ● Separate the groups into groups of around 4 students ● Introduce yourself to students as the “project lead” for the new space station. Each student will play the role of a NASA engineer helping build model components for the new space station. ● Share some information about the International Space Station, including how the different components each have a specific purpose and were built and connected to one another over time. The accompanying slide presentation may be a useful tool. Group Station Instructions ● Provide each group of students with a bucket of LEGO bricks. Encourage them to use their imagination to each build a component of the new space station. Have them think about the purpose of the component they are building and design accordingly. Students should work with their teammates to ensure that each engineer builds a component for a different purpose, and the station components are scaled similarly. ● Allow students 30-45 min (or more) to build their components. If a group finishes early, have them design “hatches” or “connecting pathways” to connect each of their components together. ● After the students build their stations, have each group present their build to the class. Explain what each component is used for, and how they adapted their components to fit with the team’s station components. Class Station Instructions: • Split the class into groups of 2-3 and assign each group a component of the space station (e.g. living quarters, kitchen, laboratory, observing deck, etc.) • Provide each group of students with a bucket of LEGO bricks. Encourage them to use their imagination to work together and build the component of the class space station. Have them think about the purpose of the component they are building and design accordingly. • Allow students 30-45 min (or more) to build their components. • Once the groups are finished, have each group present to the class what their component is, how it works, and why it is an important part of the space station. • The groups will likely have different sized and shaped components that now need to be connected together to form one large station. Have two groups work together to design a connection pathway between the two station components. Ultimately, the goal is to have all the station components connected together into one large and logically designed station. The entire class must work together to adjust their design models to fit with the other groups. Questions to have the students think about as a group or class: 1) What would the purpose of your space station be and why? 2) Would the space station orbit Earth or another planet/moon? 3) How long would astronauts stay on the station and what would be the necessary components for astronauts to survive? 4) What types of experiments would the astronauts do on the space station, and what equipment and components would be necessary for these experiments? 5) How would the astronauts conduct experiments and communicate with people back on Earth? .