What was the mission of your project?

• The mission of our project was to simulate and analyze communication in space. More specifically, we wanted to determine the factors that affect communication and how to get around them: how does distance affect communication? Can we increase the range of communication?

Why was this your mission?

• This was our mission because we could replicate communication in space realistically; we used devices (micro:bits) to transmit and receive radio waves (as in space). Therefore, the factors that occurred in our experiment could happen while communicating over the cosmos. Humanity in the future must understand the nature of communication and this experiment can help them with that. 

What action did you take?

• We simulated space communication by sending/receiving information from micro:bits, which we coded to transmit messages at the click of a button. We would analyze the time taken for communication and the messages sent (would it stay the same throughout?). We stood at different points, separating ourselves by increasing amounts, and had one person in the middle with a micro:bit.  We wanted to see if this additional micro:bit would increase our range.

How did you use what you learned in grade 9 science in the design?

• By understanding the scientific method, we could plan our entire experiment and guide us through the process; we posed a question: how does distance affect communication? How can we increase the range of communication? We researched this question, understanding that radio waves (used for communication) lose speed as they go over longer distances. We created a hypothesis, stating that communication would take longer as we got farther from each other. We tested this hypothesis by planning and conducting our experiment. We created a detailed graph and results table, using various resources shown throughout grade 9 science and then created a conclusion using the CER format. We also used knowledge of the electromagnetic spectrum (shown while working on atoms: emission of light) to conclude that radio waves were the best communication method: their being of the lowest frequency on the spectrum makes them much less harmful to living things than other, higher-frequency forms (like gamma rays); so, we could use them in our experiment and in real life. Next, the class collectively used knowledge from exoplanets to determine a fit planet as a future home for humanity: we could understand that despite its distance, it has a great deal of water and other similarities to Earth (in the "habitable zone" and having similar stars). Finally, we used prior lessons about working with micro:bits to understand how to code them and implement them into our experiment. 

How does your project fit or connect with the other projects in the class?  Are we living sustainably on your chosen planet?

Though the projects varied in several aspects, they all had at least one thing in common: they aimed to sustain life on another planet. They looked at the most vital areas for human survival and analyzed the factors that affect them. Our project aimed to help humanity understand cosmic communication: being able to send information back and forth over incomprehensible distances; other projects grew food and created homes on Kepler-22b, among other things. It seems likely that humanity would live sustainability on Kepler-22b. All these projects come together to tackle many vital areas of life--human or not. It is also crucial to understand that no single experiment could sustain life on Kepler-22b alone. 

How successful was your action (it's OK if it didn't go as planned)?  Did you meet your goal?

Our action turned out to be successful: it proved our hypothesis (that it would take longer to communicate as we got farther from each other). It also proved that adding an additional micro:bit increased our range to send and receive information. Through this experiment, multiple cause-and-effect relationships have formed, such as: as we get farther from each other, it takes longer to send information; as we increase the amount of micro:bits/satellites, we can communicate farther.

What contributed to your group's success (or lack of success)?

What contributed to our group's success was not giving in when our experiment was not going as planned: many times, while we were sending information, the micro:bits would malfunction and not send anything. We kept on going, as annoying as it may have been. Additionally, we were able to code the micro:bits to quickly reset after sending a message, saving us heaps of time and energy. The micro:bits overall were also a vital addition to our team. Despite the malfunctions, they made it all possible and were the core premise of our experiment. We were able to intricately code them to have a delay, making communication easier to time.  

What would you do differently if you could?

If we could, we would have utilised the micro:bits to create an automatic timer that accurately measures the time taken for communication: it would start when we click the button for communication,  right until the message is shown on the receiving micro:bit. With this, we would have also been able to do multiple trials at once for different amounts of micro:bits to add detail to our experiment (i.e. diving deep into the impact of an additional micro:bit: how far can we communicate with 2? 4?); they could all work automatically, and we would just have to wait for them to finish themselves.

Pitch the next phase of your project.

In order to take this project further, the next phase would be to do another set of trials with two micro:bits instead of three (as stated before). This would highlight the impact of an additional micro:bit in the middle. For example, after doing all trials, one could analyze the maximum distance for communication with two and three micro:bits: are they the same? Is one higher? Which? Was the speed of communication affected?

Inspire a future group of students to pick up where you left off.

On Earth, for as long as humanity has lived, we have invented and innovated in each area of life. We created language, culture, civilization, and technology, among countless other things. We even sent people to the moon. Sometime in the future, humanity will have done all there is on just Earth and will want to explore the cosmos, the only thing left. To do this, our civilization must have mastered various areas of human endeavour. The ability to send information over massive distances is one of them. You may be there to see it, or you may not be. Either way, you can leave your mark on human achievement by helping humanity through experimenting, innovating and inventing: to find the best way to communicate and to send information incomprehensibly far. 

Why is this an important cause?  Why should they continue with it?

They should continue with it to send information anywhere: we may be 600 light years away from Earth, but by using radio waves, anyone can talk with anyone they want, for whatever reason it may be. 

Where would you like to see it go next?

It would be interesting to see just how far we can get communication to go with just micro:bits: could we travel hundreds of meters? Maybe kilometers? With enough micro:bits, could we send information just as far as we'd like? What's the limit, if there is one?

Quinn

One of the things I learned was communication in space is very important. The reason is that we need to get info from Earth to the planet and back.

Neel

The space camp project taught me a great deal about various topics in science and working in a team. For example, I learned heaps about radio waves and how they were crucial to the experiment; they are found on the electromagnetic spectrum and have the lowest frequency. This was important because they are not as harmful to living things as other levels are (i.e. gamma rays). We learned about the electromagnetic spectrum while working with atoms and the emission of colours. Second, I learned that using the scientific method was crucial to the basics of our experiment: having a goal and the steps towards it. Generally, I learned to plan what I want to do before I do it: it's considerably better to make a mistake while planning than to do so during the experiment. On the other hand, I also learned much about working in a team towards a goal. Communication is vital to the success of any group, and there are various tools to help with that. For example, Google Chat helped us organize our work and communicate even while not in class. This was very important to understand where we were in the assignment; on top of that, we could assign tasks for individuals to make sure things got done on time. With regards to the actual experiment, I learned about the nature of communication in space with radio waves, and the cause-and-effect relationships that pair with it (as we get farther from each other, communication takes longer; as we add more satellites, we can communicate farther).

Elesh

I learned that before we make a way to communicate in space, it's important that we do many tests and always have some sort of plan. There were many times when we had to reset the program due to things that got in the way of the signal. If something like that happens in space and we don't prepare for it then we could lose millions to billions of dollars.