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Lunar Nautics is a hands-on curriculum targeted to youth in grades 6 to 8, that allows the students to design, test, analyze and manage a space mission from initial concept to project funding. Lunar Nautics provides opportunities for development of problem solving skills and critical thinking skills that are needed to design, organize and manage a space mission through its life cycle. The curriculum is designed as a template curriculum that can be applied to any space mission: past, present or future. Each section of this guide contains background information, demonstrations and activities that support the section topic and the overall design and engineering goals of Lunar Nautics. This guide is divided into sections that touch upon space mission awareness, concept understanding, teamwork, design and proposal development. Educators can use this guide with great flexibility in a variety of formats such as week long day camps, after-school programs, a classroom unit or simply as supporting curriculum. An appendix providing useful information for the Lunar Nautics program is included. (Contains 3 figures.) [This paper was produced by the Discovery Place, Inc.]

When asked to list some strong materials, people think of steel, concrete, and wood. In this activity, students learn about the force of compression and how it acts on structural components through a hands-on group problem. Using everyday products such as paper, toothpicks, and tape, students construct a structure that will support the weight of a cylinder block for 30 seconds. This activity requires a 75-minute time period over three days for completion. (Author/SOE)

After a discussion about what a parachute is and how it works, students create a parachute using different materials that they think will work best. They then test their designs, which is followed by a class discussion to highlight which paper material worked best. This activity requires a 60-minute time period for completion. (Author/SOE)