Transportation Chapter 3: Journey to the Moon ...

Chapter Challenge
Science fiction as a style of writing sets the stage for this chapter. Students are challenged to help any young science fiction fan to learn the difference between science fact and science fiction. They are to write a science fiction story that incorporates a trip to the moon. Then, students must write annotation that explains where the science is true and where the science has been modified to make the story interesting or exciting.

Chapter Summary
To meet this challenge, students engage in collaborative activities that explore how differences in the atmosphere and gravity between the Earth and on the moon. These experiences engage students in the content from the National Science Education Standards.

Activity Summaries

Physics Principles

Activity One: Weight Change During Takeoff

This activity introduces students to real and perceived changes in weight. Using a model elevator and a force probe, they investigate the changes in the measured weight, then generalize this in terms of velocity and acceleration. This introduction to gravity as force sets the stage for activities that focus on air and space travel.

• Physical properties of matter on Earth and in space
• Effect of forces on motion

Activity Two: Weightlessness with Gravity

Students explore free fall with graphical analysis of data collected in a computer simulation. They then apply the concept of free fall to analyze a variety of situations that vary the factors of mass, drag, and acceleration. Connecting this to sky diving and parachutes expands their understanding of the factors that affect free fall.

• Acceleration due to gravity
• Relationship of gravity to free fall

Activity Three: Spreadsheet Games: Free Fall

Using a computer simulation that allows comparison of velocity, acceleration, and time of objects with different mass, students investigate the ratio of gravity on the Earth to that on the moon and determine force necessary to move objects on the moon. Reading about how shape affects air molecules an object strikes helps them understand events that appear to conflict with science.

• Gravity and mass on the Earth and moon
• Inertial and gravitational mass
• Newton's Laws of Motion

Activity Four: Life without Gravity

Students observe and interpret what life is like in zero gravity. Students then brainstorm how common devices could be adapted for use without gravity. They conclude by reading more about daily routines in space.

• Newton's First Law
• Technology with and without gravity

Activity Five: Exercise on the Moon

Students measure inertial mass and weight. Using the relationships between weight and force of gravity, they are able to compare gravitational mass to inertial mass. They apply this understanding and knowledge of gravitational force on the moon and on Earth to design an exercise program for use in space.

• Newton's Second Law
• Gravity and mass on the Earth and moon
• Effect of force and gravity on horizontal and vertical motion

Activity Six: The Necessities of Life

Looking first at oxygen requirements, students experiment with the differences in oxygen needs at rest and during exercise. They then consider how to obtain oxygen in space and explore how many plants would be needed to provide adequate oxygen for life in space. Other requirements for life in space, including food and water, are then considered.

• Photosynthesis
• Fermi problem - oxygen use

Activity Seven: Communication

How sound travels is the focus of this activity which involves students in testing sounds in a vacuum and in the classroom. They then read about how sound waves travel in air, water, and through objects. This introduces the need to use electromagnetic waves rather than sound waves to communicate in space.

• Sound waves
• Sound in a vacuum

Activity Eight: The Speed of Radio Waves

In this concluding activity, students learn more about radio waves that are used to communicate in space. They investigate time delay over several distances, then listen to NASA tapes from space missions to determine the delay that results from extreme distances.

• d = vt where v is the speed of radio waves
• Radio waves can travel in a vacuum