1. How to survive in space: Lecture 3: The next frontier
Step 1: Starter to link to pupil experience Introduce the topic of extremely long journeys by starting with talking about pupils’ greatest or most extreme experiences.
Step 2: Develop through imagination the concept of ‘space tools’ capable of making food and water This section is set up as a mystery: what amazing, cutting edge technology could astronauts possibly use to generate their food, oxygen and water on a journey to mars? Encourage pupil’s imagination and then reveal simple ‘space tools’ in the classroom.
Step 3: Main investigation to measure change across a semi-permeable membrane and two solutions of different concentration Pupils plan, predict and carry out a practical activity to measure and record the changes to a gummy bear (or potato stick).
Step 4: Plenary sets a further amazing possibility Food, whilst amazing, can possibly be made in space. Water, whilst amazing, can be made safe enough to drink. What about artificial gravity? Leave pupils to wonder: could that be possible too?
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Image credit: Paul Wilkinson

2. What is your most extreme journey?
Extreme space travel in the future could take human life as far as Mars. It will take 1000 days to get there.
What will astronauts eat and drink on such an extreme journey?
Pupils in groups of 4/5 pupils take part in a conversation about extremes.
Structure the speaking and listening activity such that the only way to answer the question is to listen to each other. There is no right answer but the order of the responses is needed.
For example:
Find out who likes sprouts the most/ least. Arrange your group into ‘most to least’ to respond to the question.
Find out who likes service station burgers the most. Order the group.
Find out who went the longest time without going to the toilet! Order the group.
Find out who has been on the longest car journey. Order the group.
Find out who has ever been the hungriest. Order the group.
Explain to the class that the future of space travel will be to the extremes of Mars.
Link to the longest journey story in the class and then explain that it would take 1000 days of travelling to get to Mars.
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3. Can science solve big challenges?
Incredible Fact Scientists have equipment that can turn HUMAN WASTE (carbon dioxide and urine) into edible food and water. Imagine this amazing equipment What size might it be? How complicated might it be? How expensive might it be? What if you could have the equipment in your school today?
Use the slide to share the facts and the problem – what could this amazing equipment be?
Set the context of preparing to travel for 1000 days and no shops along the way. Ask pupils to predict the size of the machinery that is needed to turn waste into something useful. Give concrete examples of everyday recycling eg glass, tin cans etc.
Ask pupils to sketch to describe a machine for space.
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4. Can the incredible be possible in our classroom?
What makes plants so amazing?
Why do humans need plants on Earth?
Have a big box marked with ‘For Use by ESA only’ as a prop to add an air of mystery.
In the box is….. a basil plant.
State that inside the box is the equipment to convert waste gases into food.
Surprise pupils and share an awe inspiring moment that plants are in fact incredible and that without plants we couldn’t survive on Earth.
Give out a basil leaf per pupil. The strong smell makes this magic moment more memorable.
A homework option could be to make a space pizza using the basil and to explore the question: Can everything that goes into a pizza be grown?
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5. How are essential resources reused or recycled?
Facts
Astronauts urinate into a simple bag surrounding another bag to recycle water. Watch the video
The gummy bear has a surface similar to the small bag in the big bag.
Image of a bag in a bag
Next to an image of a gummy bear
Video link of bag in a bag…and Kevin drinking his own urine!
Use the clip about Kevin’s ‘bag in a bag’  when he recycles his urine. This explains why reuse of water so important. This clip starts with Kevin loading the child up with resources for space as an illustrative model for why not everything can be taken into space but resources reused as much as possible.
Pose the question, ‘What effect, if any, does soaking gummy bear sweet in water have on the size of the sweet?’
(Note: this will also work with raw potato sticks if preferred)
Encourage pupils to make a prediction in the table suggested. Pupils recommend accurate data that could be collected before and after soaking the gummy bear for 24 hours.
Take the measurements, then carry out the task and then re-measure. Ask the pupils to reconsider and compare to their prediction.
Encourage pupil to link evidence to a conclusion about the movement of water.
Most pupils will expect the bear to dissolve or disintegrate but it will actually increase in size as water moves from where there is more water to where there is less water across the coating. The coating is a semi permeable membrane and does not allow non-water through.
The clip explains that the water moves from where there is lots of water to where there is less water so the scientists can control the direction that clean water moves, leaving the not clean water behind. This happens across a semi permeable membrane and is known as osmosis.
Note: specific terminology is not required at KS2.
Investigate
What happens to the gummy bear when left in water?
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6. Can the incredible become credible in the future of space?
Do you know what happens to a bucket of water when turned upside down?
Watch and wonder!
How might this affect space travel in the future?
Cut card into triangles and label at each corner with one of the following: FAKE IT, MAKE IT, TAKE IT
The teacher reads out some challenges of extreme space travel.
Pupils are asked to turn their triangle with one of the statements that they believe as the best fit response pointing up to the ceiling.
The teacher then poses the challenge:
How might astronauts in the next frontier have enough oxygen?
How might astronauts in the next frontier have enough water?
How might astronauts in the next frontier have enough food?
How might astronauts in the next frontier live without gravity?
The challenge is to consider whether gravity can be faked.
Can we artificially create gravity to keep the water in the bucket?
Show the clip of Kevin Fong.
Alternatively, try the demo yourself. Create a dramatic scenario by giving a pupil volunteer a water proof coat and ask them to put up a hood.
Show the water in the bucket and asks what will happen when tipped upside down. Spin it round fast enough, and the water will stay in the bucket.
Leave pupils with a pause for wonder.
Will space research ever solve the problem of weightlessness in space?
Could ‘artificial gravity’ be the science or engineering development of the future?
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7. Acknowledgments The Authoring team (www.fascinate.manchester.ac.uk)
Hannah Champion, Monteney Primary School, Sheffield
Shelley Kinman, St Mary’s RC Primary School, Salford
Sam Redfearn, Meadowbank Primary School, Atherton
Christina Whittaker, SEERIH Professional Development Champion
Dr Lynne Bianchi, Head of SEERIH, The University of Manchester
Photography
Paul Wilkinson
Images
Dmitry Mirolyubov, Jake Dunham, Matt Caisley Google maps, Royal Institution
The Association for Science Education for hosting the activities on