Lift off! Rocket launches and the team behind them

This lesson for students aged 7-11 is about a rocket launch and the team that it takes to send a rocket to space. They are based on video clips of the CHRISTMAS LECTURES from the Royal Institution, the UK's iconic science TV series.

To use the resource, you'll need the PowerPoint presentation to show to your class, alongside the video clips, and the Teachers Guide to help you prepare.

Lesson outline
Step 1: The lesson starts as a short immersive experience
The classroom tone is set to provoke imaginative consideration of what it might be like to be an astronaut on the launch pad through role play, then hearing from real life astronauts about their experiences of launch.

Step 2: Developing awareness through picture & text matching
Pupils are introduced to the dangers of a launch by matching statements about some of the dangerous aspects of a rocket launch to images of familiar objects and how they might be affected by a rocket launch.

Step 3: The main section of the lesson involves an investigation in role as a safety engineer
Pupils investigate making changes to a simple toy pushchair to improve the safety of the passenger, similar to a rocket engineer thinking of the safety of astronauts during a rocket launch.

Step 4: Lesson plenary takes a fun activity using SPACE as an acronym
Pupils try to think of the roles involved in a space mission by making team badges.

Video links
What's a rocket launch like? https://youtu.be/LU42O8zHkEg
The Sokol Space suit https://youtu.be/5d7huFWyDMU

Objectives
Children will be able to work scientifically by:
- Asking questions and using different types of enquiry
- Setting up simple practical enquiries, comparative and fair tests
Children will learn:
- The interdisciplinary working of scientific teams
Cross-curricular opportunities:
- Development of empathetic responses to the circumstances of others


This resource is part of Tim Peake's Principia mission education programme, supported by the UK Space Agency and ESA.