Aerospace
Hand-on-History, as an educational idea was born out of the rocket exhaust of the Challenger disaster of January 27, 1986. Although the first programming was in world history, aerospace projects became the mainstay of workshop creation during the first several years of operation.
Four basic programs are offered.
- Fundamental Aviation and Space Flight
- Basic Rocketry
- History of manned Space Flight
- Spacesuit Science and EVA
Each of these workshops has an academic focus and a hands-on component. Using models, slides, texts, and aerospace materials each workshop can be tailored to include or exclude any topic the school system defines. Students will enjoy seeing unique NASA film clips of astronauts in flight. They will handle models of space hardware. They will put on helmets and gloves and to do work as if in space. They will do a weightless exercise in teams helping an astronaut go to the bathroom as if in space. They will build rockets and launch them, weather permitting. They may don cooling garments, put on space suits, leave the airlock and repair a broken satellite. They may build super gliders and learn about basic flight. They will learn how steel flies and how props and jets provide lift and thrust, making powered flight possible. They will assemble a space shuttle model and learn why it can’t fly to the moon. They will learn what a flying thermos bottle is and how the space station was almost built from several of them. Lots and lots of stuff to learn and do in any of these workshops. Just ask for a list of activities or present your own and we will accommodate.
