STEAM education elements for the Sprite picosatellite
Readings:
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our proposal for a simple kit to help students understand the complexity heat flows, in space and on the ground: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EXS-L3TITFTscPt-rEdWPuGxG3G0lJ-JblA4cFKX0k4/edit
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our proposal for using music in the classroom to help teach the communications theory behind Sprite's communications with ground stations. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jvAutZOK-oTKVhUwr3GIXUakZ8oVpEgYwVftfqEvYD4/edit
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presentation slides including some other ideas: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1SuPp06Mu9vdNHGf4Ls2tTCGeB2S8RchysAYGBmpC6fI/edit#slide=id.gabd0677b_081
Build a kit for field trips on which students simulate communication between atmosphere and orbit by splitting up, climbing to two different mountain peaks, and transmitting between them.
Write instructions for mounting a sprite on the cap of a pen (or if necessary, some larger writing device) -- see if it can digitize writing using the accelerometers and perhaps send the scribbles as signals. (Other games are possible, like hide-and-seek with accelerometer-based map-clues going to the seeker from Sprites planted on hiders' bodies.)
Build a kit for synchronized drop of a Sprite inside a box as the box is dropped from a multistory building -- microgravity demonstrated by accelerometer, reading changes during flight. Compare these readings with just dropping an unboxed Sprite the same distance to land on a cushion. Spin the sprite edgewise to the drop, then again facing the direction of the drop, to observe the differences in ballistic coefficient, as part of explaining the deorbiting of a Sprite that's been spun up to keep facing the sun.