Here’s some ideas about what you can do before you go…

  1. Draw a constellation. Lots of constellations look like things or animals. The constellation URSA MAJOR is supposed to look just like a bear. Why don’t you have a go at drawing out the pattern of the stars in the constellation and then drawing the picture of what they represent around the star pattern?
  1. Visit the NASA website.The NASA website has loads of cool stuff on it. You can look at pictures of space that have been taken by people on space expeditions, you can read about the history of NASA and their upcoming projects such as sending humans to go live on Mars!
  1. Stargazing Evening. You could organise a stargazing evening to look at the different constellations. There are also lots of online resources that would allow you to mimic the stargazing experience using a computer in the classroom.
  1. Write a story about a constellation. There are all sorts of different stories you could write to do with the constellations. You could write about how they all got their nicknames, or you could imagine you are an astronaut visiting the constellation for the first time and are telling the people back on earth what it is like. There are loads of possibilities!

Here’s some ideas about what you can do when you come back…

  1. Design a spacesuit. You could design your spacesuit with pens and pencils, but you could also use things you find around the house to get the textures you want. Is a bit of your spacesuit shiny and reflective? You could use tinfoil for this bit! Or is a bit soft and cushiony to protect the astronaut? You could use cotton wool or toilet paper for this bit!
  1. Draw a scale model of the planets. You can use a ruler to measure across and up to measure to the size of the circles for the planets. Or you can find different round objects to draw around, like 2 p for a small planet and the bottom of a glass for one of the bigger planets!
  1. Do the ‘Planets in a Bottle’ experiment from the NASA website.This experiment uses the carbon dioxide produced by yeast to blow up a balloon and the different conditions you can make for the yeast represent the different types of conditions you can find on the planets in our solar system. The full details of how to do the experiment can be found here:
  1. Find out about careers in STEM. There are loads of different types of jobs, like being an astronaut, that require a background in science and maths. You start to find out about these by doing online research. For girls, there is a dedicated website called ‘Women in STEM’ which had loads of information about all the different science and maths based jobs out there and how to get into them.