Spiders in Space

Orion's Quest is an internet based, education program for upper elementary, middle and high school students. OQ employs current NASA research to reach and inspire “the next generation of explorers.”

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Student Investigation Activities:

I spent countless hours adapting these activities for remote use-and their perfect! Students record on Orion's Quest as well, which sends their data to the researchers.

Note: Students must have a measuring device for activity 1.

  • Any units are ok-I created conversions in the spreadsheet. I know this can get tricky-but I gave TONS of notice, sent emails to parents, etc. If your school provides a planner-there is a ruler there. They literally click on pictures and measure the screen.

Sub topics: planning and carrying out investigations, analyzing and interpreting data, using computational thinking, engaging in argument from evidence, constructing explanations, obtaining, evaluating and communicating information (yes-ALL of the SEP's!)

Spiders in Space: This material is all related to this investigation. I adapted all of this to work in a remote environment. Use it!

In this mission students will participate in 4 activities designed to compare spiders living in two very different environments. Each activity asks them to analyze photos from a space-based (flight) experiment and an earth-based (ground) control experiment. Their measurements and observations will be recorded on an electronic data table and forwarded to the Principal Scientists (PIs) for this mission.

Activity length: 4-6 weeks if doing ALL components. This could definitely be abbreviated, or stretched out.

My classes: Middle school (7-8) science projects course; Students do not choose their elective, quite a few who log in and keep camera and mic off all the time.

This investigation consists of the following components:

  • Background information
    • ISS Background
    • NASA Background
    • Spider background
  • Pre-investigation activities
    • Metric practice
    • predictions
    • designing a research question
  • Student investigations
    • Activity 1: Measuring spiders in space
    • Activity 2: Hub location
    • Activity 3: Spider orientation
    • Activity 4: Web Comparison
  • Conclusions

For this entire activity, I utilized breakout rooms for students to collaborate and share ideas for jam boards, and the collaborative slides in the background material. I require screen sharing in breakout rooms, which also allowed me see any mistakes in their work (like the graph). All students had to do their own work.

Measurement practice

Pre-investigation Activities

Did you know that spiders are the most abundant predators on Earth? I think that's gross too.

Student Investigation Activities:

I spent countless hours adapting these activities for remote use-and their perfect! Students record on Orion's Quest as well, which sends their data to the researchers.

Note: Students must have a measuring device for activity 1.

  • Any units are ok-I created conversions in the spreadsheet. I know this can get tricky-but I gave TONS of notice, sent emails to parents, etc. If your school provides a planner-there is a ruler there. They literally click on pictures and measure the screen.

Activity 1:

Due to the quantitative nature, this has more components for analysis than the rest, and will take students ~4 60 minute classes.

Activities 2-4:

These all require qualitative descriptions and evaluation. Have them do the web diagram just before they start activity 2.

Activity 4: Web Comparison