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I’ve been asked to do a brief (20-30 minutes) outreach session with younger schoolchildren about robotic space exploration before they see a screening of WALL.E. I’ll have to present this session 5-6 times at different cinemas around London, so I want to make sure it’s good.
I’d like to illustrate for them what I feel is the central message of WALL.E, which is that even with the power to explore the solar system and the galaxy with robotic tools, the Earth is still unique and precious to humanity. Here are a couple of ideas I had for topics:
With a couple of additional steps, I thought this could segue nicely into working out how long it might take to reach another planet that was anything like the Earth, assuming we messed the planet up so badly we couldn’t go back.
I normally work with secondary school children (age 15-19). They’re more accustomed to sitting through a traditional style of PowerPoint lecture with lots of pretty pictures and movies, punctuated with occasional questions, for up to 40 minutes. Slightly younger children can handle this for about half the amount of time before they get fidgety. I don’t know if this works with much younger children. I presume not.
I would like to make the session interactive and fun, but I don’t want to lose complete control of the direction of questions (e.g. to the point where they start asking me about black holes and time travel). I thought strategic images might help to keep them focused. Will children this young be OK with a few PowerPoint slides in the background as a basis for me talking about specific topics for 2-3 minutes?
I also have very little idea what the average level of science knowledge is for this age group. Can they differentiate between science and engineering? What about the different branches of science? Can I assume, for instance, that they’ll know what “mass” is, if I try to explain spacecraft payload distribution?
Any information you can provide whether as a parent, a teacher, or a person who simply has more experience with seven-year-olds than I do would be much appreciated.
I’d like to illustrate for them what I feel is the central message of WALL.E, which is that even with the power to explore the solar system and the galaxy with robotic tools, the Earth is still unique and precious to humanity. Here are a couple of ideas I had for topics:
- Orders of magnitude. Ask them if they think the Earth is big. Show them how it compares with other planets and stars using a YouTube video like this one.
- Relative speeds. The passengers on the Axiom were traveling for 700 years. How far could you get in 700 years traveling at 70 mph in a car? Would you even get out of the solar system? What about on a spacecraft like Cassini, traveling at 9000 mph? How about if you were traveling at a million miles per hour? Could you reach the edge of our galaxy?
With a couple of additional steps, I thought this could segue nicely into working out how long it might take to reach another planet that was anything like the Earth, assuming we messed the planet up so badly we couldn’t go back.
I normally work with secondary school children (age 15-19). They’re more accustomed to sitting through a traditional style of PowerPoint lecture with lots of pretty pictures and movies, punctuated with occasional questions, for up to 40 minutes. Slightly younger children can handle this for about half the amount of time before they get fidgety. I don’t know if this works with much younger children. I presume not.
I would like to make the session interactive and fun, but I don’t want to lose complete control of the direction of questions (e.g. to the point where they start asking me about black holes and time travel). I thought strategic images might help to keep them focused. Will children this young be OK with a few PowerPoint slides in the background as a basis for me talking about specific topics for 2-3 minutes?
I also have very little idea what the average level of science knowledge is for this age group. Can they differentiate between science and engineering? What about the different branches of science? Can I assume, for instance, that they’ll know what “mass” is, if I try to explain spacecraft payload distribution?
Any information you can provide whether as a parent, a teacher, or a person who simply has more experience with seven-year-olds than I do would be much appreciated.
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I suspect my standard of reference might a bit skewed, though, because by the time my 7-8-year-old classes come in, I've had two hours of 3-6-year-olds, so 7-8-year-olds seem practically adult, if a little short.
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I'll try and see if I can figure out some ways to illustrate things using volunteers. that way they have a chance to get up and do things. Will post again when I have a chance to brainstorm them. Thank you!
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> Can I assume, for instance, that they’ll know what “mass” is
Yes, but they won't be able to distinguish it from "weight" until late high school. Of course when you're weightless the distinction is irrelevant, which is just one more reason why spacecraft are cool, right?
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This is true, but a critical difficulty of spaceflight (particularly robotic spaceflight) is not being in space, it's getting there in the first place, at which point you care quite a lot about the distinction between mass and weight! I imagine that sort of discussion might be a bit over the heads of children this age, though.
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Mass vs. weight---difficult to make the distinction interesting to eight year olds, perhaps. I would quite possibly have found it useful to know that it's this sort of mathematical quibble that scientists spend a lot of time on, and how doing so allows us to launch awesome things into SPACE ITSELF, but then I was never exactly your average eight year old kid.
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I wouldn't hold out much hope of keeping them away from black holes, time travel, daleks and Ben 10 though. You don't even have to mention space for them to start on about those things in my experience.
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*frantically Googles Ben 10* Oh dear. I can see I'm going to have to come up with stock answers to certain questions.
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I went along with the class to see a production of a musical based on Magic School Bus last week. It was full of music and dancing and lots of information about global warming. The kids were attentive, but the words went by so fast I think a lot of it was over their heads. It was great for 2nd grade and up though and there were lots of really creative and engaging ways they got their points across. They used bubbles and a parachute among other things. I was impressed!
I have the impression that you have lots of personality, so I bet you can hold their attention. You might be able to think of a way you could use a volunteer picked from the audience to illustrate a point and give the kids a vicarious thrill. Props are good. Props pulled from inside a bag so the kids have to guess what it is are really good. You could get them involved by having them chant a catchphrase - at the Magic School Bus show the kids were taught a hand motion that went with the phrase "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rethink!" You could have them chant the phrase at different times during your presentation.
Also it sounds like you need a standard line to deal with off-topic questions. You never know what kids will ask! Something that affirms their curiosity and refers them to research on their own, maybe in a funny way...
I bet you will have lots of fun with this!
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I think the main thing you should be more cautious about is how much they know - I don't know how it works here, but in S'pore at that age they haven't started on science in school and they're still learning things like the multiplication tables, so that bit on "relative speeds" might go straight over their heads. I don't think they'd be able to differentiate between science & engineering/the different branches of science, etc., basically anything too technical and fiddly would probably be too much.
Ask lots of questions, get them to repeat after you, call for volunteers for anything and everything, use loads of examples/analogies, and illustrate everything as visually as possible.
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At that age, they can name for you a crap load of things you can find in space or that we send up (be warned, you may well get the do aliens exist question - also, watch out with your wording with saying anything about Pluto not being a planet any more - we ended up with repeated questions like "Why did they destroy Pluto?" "How did they destroy Pluto?" etc. from one particularly dense class), they probably will know a bit about the planets - mainly what their names are. They may be aware that we live in a galaxy and that the Sun is a star. I think some powerpoint slides in the background as a basis for talking for 2-3 minutes would be okay.
Make it some level of interactive if you can - pulling out volunteers, asking questions that test what they know on the basics is great. Any sort of quick experiment or demo is great. They will understand the concept that there is different areas of science, but won't necessarily know their names, and probably won't understand the difference between science and engineering (but you can explain that to them in simple terms). Whether they'll know what mass is - maybe. Sometimes it's better to use the 'incorrect' term if it's one that they'll actually know. Or say that they'd think about weight, but what's important is actually mass, and it's pretty similar.
Out here, in Kindy (5-6) kids start learning about Force and Movement, and that there's push, pull, friction, etc., but we have to keep it very basic. For example, friction is a rubbing force, and getting them to rub their hands and feel how hot it is. Friction stops us from falling over, name same slippery surfaces. At year 7-8, we can explain a bit more (but I'd be saying the same as above). With interactive, our intro bit for programs can sometimes take 15-20 minutes and still keep them sitting there pretty well.
If you want to ask me anything else, please feel free!
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After that, I would start trying to get them to understand how far away Saturn is. I might ask them how long they think it would take a robot like Cassini to get to Saturn. Maybe I could time one of the kids running from one side of the cinema to the other and explain that at that speed, it would take you X number of years to get from the Earth to Saturn? Then I could tell them how many times faster they'd have to go to get there in the time Cassini did.
Am I going in the right direction here?
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If you mention Saturn to Holly be prepared to get a lecture on how it is her favourite planet and all about the moons and the rings, though.
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Yep, you're definitely going in the right direction, I like the idea of all of that. I do suggest that you get some kids up to hold the basketball, etc. and ask for their names - get the kids to clap while the kid is coming up to the front for any of these bits.
If you can also give how long Cassini would take approximately to go the same distance in the cinema, that would be a good thing, I think.
You'll be fantastic!
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Apart from that: shiny!
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Yes.
7-8 is a bit older than most of the kids I work with--I'm always excited to get a kid that age because their attention span is a bit longer than that of a goldfish and they can often figure out fairly complex concepts with guidance.
I'd say in general the two things I try to do with younger kids are 1) give them a chance to move. Not necessarily get up out of their seats, but if there's any way you can incorporate gestures/physical motion, that's not a bad idea. Volunteers to demonstrate things are also good. 2) Socratic method. Kids keep their attention better on things they think they're figuring out themselves--and retain it better. I ask a lot of leading questions. Getting them to use "observation skills" "like a scientist" can also be very effective.
In that kind of context, I'd probably try to make it clear at the beginning that they need to raise hands for answers or questions.
I personally would not assume they know what mass is, but it's not something that comes up in my job and your education system is totally different. You can always ask "Does anyone know what x is/means?" and gauge by the number of hands that go up, then pick one kid to define it and correct gently as necessary. I would expect 7-8 year-olds to have some science going on in school, but probably more biology--but again, no idea what your education system is like. (Space is, like dinosaurs, something a lot of kids start osmosing about pretty early.)
Younger kids take being told they're "wrong" harder; "great guess" or "that's almost it, but..." is very useful for transitioning into a correct answer/explanation if necessary.
Upbeat! For higher-level concepts, analogies to things you're pretty sure they'll be familiar with are helpful.