• In this activity students will view an article from the web and explore aspects of everyday life in space.
  

• The students will learn about everyday life on the space station and how it differs from life on earth.
  

• A computer with internet access.
• Websites with activity sheet and article listed below Procedures.

1. Go to this website for activity one.
   
2. Scroll down to Kid's Stories.
3. Then choose 2nd-4th Grade reading level "Far Out Chores and Fun." This is an article about chores on the space station. Print out this article to accomodate the number of students in your class.
4. Next, print out this activity for students to complete prior to reading the article.
   
5. Ask students what kinds of chores they have done at home. Then ask what they think it would be like to do chores if they lived in space.
6. Distribute the activtiy sheet and read the directions together. As a class, do "making the bed" together. There will be several ideas about making he bed in space,
   
7. Have students complete the chart independently.
8. Go over some of the predicitons.
9. Distribute the article. Read the article as a class. Some of the discussion questions may include:

• What chores do they do on the International Space Station?
• What job would you like best? Least?
• Who dod you think cleans the bathroom; how do you think they do it?
• What do astronauts do in their time off?
• How would playing games be different in microgravity?
• What would happen to card shuffling in space?
• How long would you be willing to work in space?
  

• This lesson provides background in the beginning of the scientific method- predictions and observations-as well as providing a motivational way to introduce the concept of microgravity in relation to messes in general.
  

• The students will learn about predict and observe aspects of  microgravtiy and relate it to floating food in space.

• A computer with internet access.
  
• Website with activity sheet listed below procedures.
• Five chocolate covered candies per group.
• Bubble solution and bubble blowers, one set per group. Your own bubbles can be mixed with water and dishwashing detergent. Or you can purchase a product called "Candy Buubles" in which the students may actually eat the buubles. These can be purchased inexpensively at this number: 707-251-3700. The candy bubbles have great potential for simulating eating on the Space Station.
  

1. First, gather the needed materials and gather them into groups sets.

2. Distribute copies of the activity sheet and read it together as a class. Review the sequence of activities. Have students write their predictions about bubbles and share them with the class. Then distribute the bubbles and closely monitor students as they work. Discuss with students the behavior of the bubbles on Earth and the behavior of human movement in microgravity.

3. Repeat the process for the candy experiment. Discuss with students the difference between messes on Earth, where all crumbs and liquids fall down, and messes in microgravity where small air flows will send small messes in any direction!

4. As a class, review how the original predictions compared with the observations. How do the Earth observations compare to the predictions on the Space Station.

• In this activity students will research a website in order to create a mobile of the solar system as well as categorize planets as inner planets or outer planets. Also students will be able to research why planets can be seen at different locations at different times. Finally, students will be able to view facts about the sun and the nine planets that orbit the sun as well as research the astronomer that responsible for this system.
  

• A round piece of cardboard about 1 ft across (the cardboard from a frozen pizza works well)
• Lots of colors of oak tag (or construction paper)
• Scissors
• Tape
• String
• Pencil, crayons, or markers
• A compass (for making circles)
• A computer with internet access.
  

• Gather needed materials to accommodate the number of students in the class.
• Find the center of the large cardboard circle by drawing a line from top to bottom and a line from right to left. Where these two lines meet is the center of the circle. This will be the position of the Sun.
• Using a compass, draw the orbits of the 9 planets (draw circles around the center of the piece of cardboard). The first 4 planets orbit relatively close to the Sun, then there is a gap ( this is where the asteroids orbit). Then the last 5 planets orbit very far from the Sun.
• Using an awl, the sharp point of scissors, or a large nail, punch a series of holes in the cardboard. First puch a hole in the center (this is where the Sun will hang). Then punch one hole somewhere on each circle (orbit); a planet will hang from each hole.
  

The "ingredients" for a six-inch comet are:

• 2 cups of water
• 2 cups dry ice (frozen carbon dioxide):
• 2 spoonfuls of sand or dirt
• a dash of ammonia
• a dash of organic material (dark corn syrup works well)

• an ice chest
• a large mixing bowl (plastic if possible)
• 4 medium-sized plastic garbage bags
• work gloves
• a hammer, meat pounder, or rubber mallet
• a large mixing spoon
• paper towels
• spoons
  

1. Cut open one garbage bag and use it to line your mixing bowl.
2. Have all ingredients and utensils arranged in front of you.
3. Place water in mixing bowl.
4. Add sand or dirt, stirring well.
5. Add dash of ammonia
6. Add dash of organic material (e.g. corn syrup), stirring until well mixed.
7. Place dry ice in 3 garbage bags that have been placed inside each other. Be sure to wear gloves while handling dry ice to keep from being burned.
8. Crush dry ice by pounding it with hammer.
9. Add the dry ice to the rest of the ingredients in the mixing bowl while stirring vigorously.
10. Continue stirring until mixture is almost totally frozen.
11. Lift the comet out of the bowl using the plastic liner and shape it as you would a snowball.
12. Unwrap the comet as soon as it is frozen sufficiently to hold its shape.
13. Place the comet on display and allow students to watch as it begins to melt. Make known that it turned directly from a solid to a gas. This is what carbon dioxide does at room temperature and comets do this under the same conditions of interplanetary space when they are heated by the Sun.
14. Provide students with a spoon to examine the comet. As the comet begins to melt, the class may notice small jets of gas coming from it. These are locations where the gaseous carbon dioxide is escaping through small holes in the still frozen water. This type of activity is also detected on real comets. This allows small changes in the orbit of the comet.
15. After several hours, the comet will become a creater-filled ice ball as the more volatile carbon dioxide sublimates before the water ice melts. Real comets are also depleted by sublimation each time they come near the Sun. Old comets may break into several peices or even completely disintegrate.