To finish up What’s out there? for Earth and Cosmos, students have been bringing together their mathematics and science understandings to model NASA’s double asteroid redirect test using Sphero robots. This has seen the students mathematically and digitally explore concepts of mass, velocity and volume of a complex composite shape in the form of Comet 67P, considering how its chemical composition might affect the force of impact.
They extended this to consider how launching DART to intercept this asteroid needed to be calculated mathematically, analysing the distance from Earth, the relative diameters of Earth and the comet itself, and the degree of angle that would be required to prevent a collision. Students coded a Sphero robot to intersect with the trajectory of the asteroid (another Sphero robot) and knock it off course, summarising their calculations in a Mission report as Katherine Johnson did for NASA for the launch and return of John Glenn in the Friendship 7 capsule. This concluded with an analysis of algorithms written in real and artificial language formats (aka verbal or written instructions vs coded instructions) and considered the impact of how the audience and/or context might change the stylistic features of these texts to arrive at the same purpose.
Moving into Term 4, Earth and Cosmos launches into How do we get there?. This module is primarily focussed on a mathematics and science integrated investigation to explore soft landing technologies and rates of change of the capsule’s motion.
