Fourth Grade Designs Spacecrafts As Part of Aerospace Engineering Unit

Fourth grade has been designing spacecrafts as part of their aerospace engineering unit. To encourage students to “think like engineers”, each group was assigned a planet and had to design a spacecraft to make the journey. Students brainstormed factors they needed to consider: distance from Earth, temperature, atmosphere, and general environment of the planet. As the students planned their spacecrafts, it was great to hear them discuss  and include things they had seen at their Kennedy Space Center trip. The students wrapped up the activity by writing paragraphs and presenting their spacecrafts to the class. They are moving from hypothetical designs to real life designs as students begin to test and design parachutes that are part of the spacecrafts.