Space Science

Space Science!

Space science is something that goes beyond what we already know, in fact, most of space has not even been discovered yet. But if most of it has never been seen, how are we as teachers supposed to educate our students on it? Well, most children are interesting in the different planets and aliens naturally, so you start with your students thoughts. You start with what they already know or think about space and move forward from there. Technically, space science encompasses all of the scientific disciplines that involve space exploration and study natural phenomena and physical bodies occurring in outer space, such as space medicine and astrobiology. But, if you were to say those words to even a fourth or fifth grader, they would immediately loose interest and not want to learn. Therefore, if you start with just the simple plants, it is more likely your students will want to keep learning about what life would be like in a place other than earth. 

When teaching space science you can talk about different space expeditions and NASA. If your cards are right, you could even go on a field trip to a space museum or exhibit, this will make it more real for your students. They will most likely have a hard time picturing space, because it is somewhere they have never been and probably never will go. So, using as many visuals and physical objects as you can find is the best way to go about teaching space science. The sheer vastness of it, along with the trillions upon trillions of objects in the many billion galaxies of the universe is almost incomprehensible to the human brain. So when trying to explain all of it to elementary school children, you must make sure to make it as basic, yet informational as possible. To start with a few important facts for the students to visual what space is is helpful, such as, space is silent, there may be life on mars, nobody knows how many stars are in space, there is floating water in space, etc. These starting facts will helps your students create a point where they at least understand what space is and why it is so undiscovered. To also talk about the moon is very important because a lot of children are already interested in the moon. Building off what your students already know or are interested in helps you to teach topics that are so broad, such as space science!