These colorful, crunchy, chocolate candies are even enjoyed by astronauts. However, like many things, there is a slight modification compared to Earth. These sweet treats are more accurately referred to as candy coated chocolates. They are vacuum sealed and labelled before being sent to space.
Now that you're hungry for a snack, I'm going to take this post in a different direction. It's not about candy, but it is about fun. M & M's actually stands for mission patches and moon shoes! These are two activities that are a sure to be a hit with many of your students!
Mission PatchesFun fact: While space exploration has made mission patches popular, it's not where they started. Mission patches were used in the military long before. They made their entrance to the space exploration world as many of the first NASA astronauts had military backgrounds. In fact, the first actual mission patch was for Gemini 5 designed by astronaut Gordon Cooper. Mission patches have been created to commemorate previous missions, but are not actually official patches. Can you imagine if your job was to design mission patches? How could would that be! It is an actual job by the way!
There are many lesson plans written for mission patch creation this because there are numerous ways that you can incorporate this activity with your students, family or even colleagues. It would be a great beginning of the year activity to help get to know your students better, by allowing them to express themselves with a personal patch. It could even help build your classroom community by creating a collective patch. Each student or team could create their version and vote on the one that best represents the class. It's also an opportunity to incorporate art and creativity into your class or collaborate with your art teacher! You can lead a VTS discussion while exploring the variety of mission patches that exist.
There are so many options for the final product depending on your students and your purpose. I've done this with different groups and each iteration was slightly different. With my 5th graders, we had a Mission Patch design challenge as part of our Earth and Space Unit. We provided students with criteria and constraints, but encouraged creativity. We chose two students to have their patches 3D printed. The Robotics & Design teacher at our school traced their drawings, scanned and then 3D printed them.
When I was teaching at the GERI Super Saturday program at Purdue and working with our school extracurricular all-girls STEAM Team, kiddos created buttons.
- First they traced the circle on paper to make sure their design would fit. Depending on the age of your students or amount of time, you could give them a paper with the templates already there. * I encouraged them to trace a few circles, so that they had space to sketch out different options in pencil and practice. - Then, they created their final version that was cutout and put inside the button. Note: When purchasing, there were different options for the backs; a pin or a keychain. The kiddos could wear these or put them on their backpack or lunchbox, etc. They also come in a variety of sizes. I bought a pack at Hobby Lobby, but you can find them on Amazon.
I also seem to have a lot of name tag lanyards with name tag pouches from conferences and professional developments I've attended. So, a few weeks ago, my niece and nephews designed mission patches with their names to fit in the plastic.
Your mission patch can be a drawing on paper or fabric, printed on a piece of cardstock, banner or fabric, purely a digital file, 3D printed or even become a sticker! Making a shrinky dink mission patch would be pretty awesome too! Paper versions could be laminated and become bag tags. If you have a Cricuit or Silhouette machine at your disposal, you could really expand your options.
Physical
Designing Digitally
Printing
I've found it's great to provide students with real examples. I like learning about the symbolism represented by each patch. I would recommend the Mission Patch Handbook. The handbook has Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and Space Shuttle mission patches and information about the mission. There is also a corresponding poster that is a great reference. My poster is hanging up at school.
The book, poster and even physical patches are available from the Space Center Houston gift shop, SpaceTrader.
Below is a Wakelet collection of resources to support you as you teach your students more about mission patches including video clips, articles, a podcast, and printable options for the lesson.
Moon Shoes
Not quite what the astronauts are wearing on spacewalks, but a fun way to feel microgravity on Earth. I remember wearing these as a kid at camp or daycare and was happy to discover that they are still around! I ordered mine on Amazon.
I've used them as a station where students wear them and then describe what it was like by writing it down or recording a Flipgrid. Depending on the weight of the person, you may need to add or get rid of bands. You could even do an experiment to see if students notice a difference between having fewer or more bands. Challenge students to come up with a word that describes the experience without using a word that someone else has used. This could be done in a variety of formats; a collective graffiti wall, Word Cloud in Mentimeter or fill in a Jamboard (Google Product) or Padlet (virtual bulletin board).
I've also had students walk a specified distance and use unifix cubes to build a single 10 cube tall tower. Then, I had them repeat the process wearing moon shoes. Both were timed and students compared their results (with and without moon shoes). Students could even create a their own moon shoe print! Whatever you decide to do, they are an absolute blast!
Whether you're planning for the next school year, helping with summer events or want to do something fun with your kids, hope you can try these out. Mission patches can even be done as a virtual assignment, in case you're in need of those.
Peace, love and space exploration,
- CAPCOM Conrad
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AuthorApollo 13 fan. Educator. Lifelong Learner. Third generation Boilermaker. Space Exploration Enthusiast. Collaborator. Click Subscribe to stay updated!Archives
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