May 28, 2010
We’ve written before about "The Tech Challenge," the annual team design challenge for grades 5 through 12 run by The Tech Museum in Silicon Valley. Teams who enter must use the scientific process to design a hands-on project intended to solve a real-world problem. This year’s topic was "Ridding the Universe of Space Junk," described as follows: You and your team need to design and build a solution that can help rid the Universe of Space Junk one item at a time from the deck of your temporary home - The International Space Station.
CLICK HERE to see a 5-minute video from April’s final competition - with teams of kids trying to get a simulated "inoperative satellite" to burn up on delivery by attaching two Hall Thrusters to its thruster docking ports. Size D batteries were used to represent the thrusters. Looks like it was a fun - and challenging - day!
If your family is traveling in the Southern California area this summer, this museum is full of hands-on fun for kids of all ages. Well worth a stop.
Posted by: Liz Nealon
