Principia Space Diary

The Principia Space Diary aims to help children find out more about the Principia mission, to strengthen literacy and visual literacy skills and engage children in STEM learning. The diary is supported over the six months of Tim's mission by lesson plans released each month. The teaching notes produced so far...

Principia Space Diary: making history

In this activity children explore timelines, identifying dates relevant to themselves and their families and then significant events in the history of space exploration. They could then interview family and friends about their...

Principia Space Diary: space gardening

Growing plants on the International Space Station (ISS) is an important research area as it has the potential to help future exploration. In this activity, children consider the different factors that impact the growth of plants...

Principia mission - maths in space

On December 15th 2015 European Space Agency astronaut Tim Peake launched on the six month Principia mission to the International Space Station (ISS). Principia was named after Isaac Newton’s Naturalis Principia Mathematica, describing the principal laws of motion and gravity.

The education and inspiration of...

Principia Space Diary: robots in space

Robots are really useful in space as they can do lots of different jobs, some of which are too difficult or dangerous for humans. This activity looks at the different uses of robots in space exploration, with children...

Principia Space Diary: the solar system

In this activity children read and extract key facts about the different planets in our Solar System: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Using this information they write a planetary report...

Principia Space Diary: 8 minutes to space

In this creative writing activity children imagine what it is like to leave Earth on a journey into outer space.  It uses the context of British astronaut Tim Peake’s journey to the International Space Station as a stimulus to develop literacy skills.

This resource is part of the Principia Space Diary,...

Principia Space Diary: looking at Earth from space

This creative writing exercise asks your space apprentices to choose a place on Earth that they have never been to, and imagine what it might be like to visit. They will use a selection of images that Tim Peake took while on...

Inspired by space: engaging girls in STEM

This guide supports educators in inspiring all children to enjoy activities relating to STEM subjects, in particular girls. It looks at statistics of women in STEM roles and introduces many female...

Radius and Volume of Exoplanets

This activity, from the Royal Observatory Greenwich, uses data from NASA’s Kepler space probe to determine the size of an exoplanet, and provides students with an insight into the advantages and disadvantages of the transit method of exoplanet detection.