Educational Outreach
Inspiring the Next Generation
Our educational outreach program is a key part of our mission at AlbertaSat, and it’s something we’re proud to call our own. Many students over AlbertaSat’s history have worked hard to make this program what it is today, and we continue to develop programming for more grades and to improve the sessions we’ve been doing for years.
CubeSats like Ex-Alta 1 and Ex-Alta 2 offer learning opportunities at all age levels. To inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers, we offer hands-on multidisciplinary sessions for students in grades K-12. All of our sessions cover learning outcomes from the Alberta Education curriculum, are completely free and are run by trained members of AlbertaSat. We cover a variety of topics including CubeSats, northern lights, coding and circuitry.
Programming:
| Session Name | Lesson | Students will... | Curriculum Aligned Grade | Available for: |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Learn about the causes of the northern lights (solar flares and their effects on Earth's magnetic fields), and about Ex-Alta 1, our satellite which studied these properties. | ... Draw the northern lights with watercolour pencils. | K | K, 1, 2, 3 | |
| Learn about all the planets in our solar system and about the satellites we have built. | ... Construct a planetary mobile using modelling clay, string, and sticks. | 1 | K, 1, 2, 3 | |
| Learn about all the essential components of a cube satellite. | ... Design their own satellite with a unique payload and draw it on Engineering paper. They will then be able to pitch their design to our members who will be role-playing as a Canadian Space Agency Funding committee. | 2 | K, 1, 2, 3, 4 | |
Learn about our cube satellite structure which was designed and built in-house and named Icarus after the Greek God who flew too close to the sun. | ... Work in small teams to build their own cube satellite structure using given materials and then stress test the frame, mimicking the process our own student team uses. | 3 | 3, 4, 5, 6 | |
| Learn about all the essential components of a cube satellite. | ... Fold and glue a 2D shape into a rectangular prism, then use a variety of materials to construct their model. They will then be able to pitch their design to our members who will be role-playing as a Canadian Space Agency Funding committee. | 4 | 4, 5, 6 | |
Learn about the basics of an electrical circuit and get introduced to all the electronics inside our cube satellites. | ... Create a work of art using markers and pencil crayons which incorporates an LED. The backside of their page will have a working circuit deposited using glue and foil to act as a pseudo-PCB. | 5 | 4, 5, 6, 7 | |
| Learn about our second satellite, Ex-Alta 2, which will be taking images of the Earth to be used for wildfire sciences. Students will learn about many wildfire properties and how they affect society. | ... Perform an analysis as ''wildfire scientists" on hypothetical compiled data from our second satellite, Ex-Alta 2. | 6 | 4, 5, 6, 7 | |
Learn the basics of logic statements and coding as well as their applications within our satellite. | ... Create a playable asteroid game using the Scratch coding language. | 7 | 5, 6, 7, 8 | |
| Learn about all the technical subsystems within our satellites. | ... Design a cube satellite to scale using drafting techniques with views of all the sides and the inside. | 8 | 7, 8, 9, 10 | |
Learn about the applications that 3D modelling has for space scientists and engineers. | ... Create a model rocket design using the TinkerCAD program. | 9 | 8, 9, 10 | |
| Learn how satellites create power, and how to prototype electronic circuits. | ... Using a breadboard, create several solar circuits with increasing complexity. | 9 | 7, 8, 9, 10 | |
| Individualized Sessions | For grades 10-12 we are happy to work with you to cater sessions specifically for your needs. | In the past we have taught programming in C and Python, 3D modelling in SolidWorks, wildfire sciences and optics, and provided in-depth lessons about our satellites' subsystems. | 10, 11, 12 | 10, 11, 12 |
