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University College London (UCL) - Institute of Education
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These resources have been reviewed and selected by STEM Learning’s team of education specialists for factual accuracy and relevance to teaching STEM subjects in UK schools.
Commercial exploration of space
This unit of work enables students to understand the risks, costs and potential benefits in the commercial exploration of space; and why decisions about scientific and engineering solutions need to take account of expert opinions from a broad range of disciplines. Initially students work individually to design a land base on Mars that would support a human community and then one is selected to be put forward as part of a segmented tender process. Aspects of this design are then assigned to different groups to work on and then present their solution back to the class. The purpose of the unit is to show how NASA develop space projects.
It is part of a series of units from 'Science Beyond the Boundaries' which can be used for interdisciplinary teaching about applications of science and is designed for use in sixth-form enrichment programmes.
This unit has 7 main phases, lasting from 5 to 9 hours in total. It contains 5 activities in total and those that require specialist resources are listed below along with teacher guidance and presentation.
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