TimPix: Whatever the Weather - Monitoring Peake Radiation Levels with Timepix

As part of the educational activities around the British astronaut Tim Peake's mission to the International Space Station (ISS), this project offers schools the unique opportunity to access and analyse ionising radiation data from the ISS. A variety of data sets will be available from the start with others being...

Armageddon time?

This activity uses the context of asteroids and meteorites, and the film Armageddon, to allow students to explore kinetic energy, momentum, and critical thinking by asking them to establish whether the information presented in the film is correct. 

Curriculum links:

• Kinetic energy.
• Unit...

Smart Materials

This resource includes examples of real technologies which can be used as inspiration to children from age 7 to 16. Following on from the challenges that Tim Peake and his clothing will face in space, these case studies include background information for teachers, supporting Powerpoint slides, and example...

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...

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...

Marble-ous ellipses: speed and time of orbiting bodies

This activity puts speed-time graphs in a space context by looking at the elliptical orbits. 

In order to understand the orbits of planets, comets and other celestial bodies, it is necessary to examine the principles of how gravity, and the velocity of an object, interact to produce an orbit. It is a common...

Mars Diary Chapter One: Life on Mars

‘Why do we send humans and robots into space? What will Mars be like, compared to Earth?’

In this introduction chapter students find out more about Mars, including:

• comparing Earth to Mars
• describing past, present and future missions to Mars
• writing a diary to Tim Peake...

Solar Images and Data

This resource contains three activities and accompanying teachers’ notes.

Picking out the details
Using images from the...

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,...

Issue 39: It's in the News! Space Junk

This activity from the National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics (NCETM) Primary magazine takes the issue of space junk as its central theme. There are opportunities to develop and understanding of time and time zones, probability, mass, speed and large numbers relating to distances.

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