The ISS Education Programme is an ESA initiative which is already supported by several organisations and exceptional individuals who want to make a difference in the world of education.
The development of this education kit goes back to 2001, when ESA organised a conference for European teachers, TEACH SPACE 2001. The main objective of the conference was for ESA to understand what could be done to support European educators in their important and challenging work. One of the conclusions of the conference was that teachers need simple, practical, and modular material that can be applied to their lessons and is based on existing European curricula.
Five chapters use various aspects of ISS (the international space station) to present inter-disciplinary exercises common to European curricula. The text describes what the ISS is, how it is being built, what it is like to live and work on board, and what future voyages will be like.
There are not only text and explanations about the International Space Station, but also related inter-disciplinary exercises, a teacher's guide and a glossary.
Use the link to ESA ISS website to download in pdf-format the ISS Education Kit in your preferred language.
ISS Education Kit on the web
The online version of the "ISS Educational Kit" is available in English. The "ISS Education Kit on the web" is based around the same content as the printed version, and making use of the extra possibilities offered by the Internet, includes interactive exercises and multimedia features. The ISS Education kit is divided into five chapters:
1. What is the International Space Station?
2. Building the International Space Station
3. Living on board the International Space Station
4. Working on board the International Space Station
5. Future Voyages The five chapters can be accessed directly via the "Select topic" tab . Click on a chapter heading in the left-hand menu to open a general introduction about the topic. The chapter's exercise units are also revealed in the left-hand menu, click on one of the exercise units to access this content. Pages within the "ISS Education Kit on the web" have the same basic structure - up to three tabs can appear along the top of the page – "Read about it", "Try it", and "Teach it".
"Teach it" tab
In order to help teachers get the most out of using the ISS Education Kit on the web, the "Teach it" notes provide a short description of the exercise, classroom objectives, as well as a list of web references for further information and ideas.
For each of the interactive exercises and classroom activities included on the "Try it" tab, there is a corresponding entry on the grey "Teach it" tab. If there are no interactive exercises or classroom activities for a given exercise unit, there will be no "Teach it" tab available. The "Teach it" notes also include an indication of the difficulty level of each exercise. Three levels of difficulty have been identified. Use the link "ISS Educational Kit on the web" to get started with the interactive exercises, multimedia features and classroom activities.
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