Orbital Mission Bundle: Year-Long Middle School STEM & Engineering Curriculum

Need a year-long space STEM unit for your STEM classroom or engineering elective course? This Orbital Mission bundle includes engineering design challenges building up to a capstone project of building the next orbital station!

Curriculum Overview: 3 Stages of STEM

Transform your classroom into a team of astronauts on an epic space adventure! This STEM curriculum begins with Stage 1 team challenges that build teamwork and communication skills. Mission Control then guides your class through Stage 2 engineering design challenges, with each unit a progressively more complex design challenge as students arrive at and explore an orbital station. The final phase is to tackle the Stage 3 Design the Next Orbital Station project.

Units are aligned to science and math standards, along with a different career focus. Each session has an instructional video led by an engineer, editable handouts, and a complete teacher's guide.

Stage 1 - Astronaut Training Badges

This packet includes 18 icebreakers and team-building activities around the theme of space exploration and training like an astronaut! These Stage 1 STEM activities are perfect back-to-school activities and build the 4Cs of STEM.

Stage 2 - Engineering Design Challenges

Students apply math and science to solve an engineering problem related to living, working, to traveling to an orbital station! Each lesson includes a teacher guide, instructional slides, and editable student handouts:

1. Meet the Crew: Mission Patch + Sparks

2. Astronaut Health: Heart Rate Health + Exercise Equipment Design Challenge

3. Get to Orbit: Straw Rocket Engineering Challenge

4. Emergency in Space: Space Docking Team Activity + Robot Tool Challenge

5. Working in Space: Design an Experiment in Space

6. Eating in Space: Plan a Menu for Space

7. Returning Home: Heat Shield Challenge

8. Mission Celebration

These activities are provided as a complete "Orbital Mission" unit that follows a storyline led by Astronaut Alex!

Stage 3: Design the Next Orbital Station Project
The final phase is to design and build a long-term settlement in space! NASA is retiring the International Space Station, and your students have been selected to design the next orbital habitat! Students work in teams to complete the ultimate project-based learning STEM experience: designing and building a model of a new manned orbital space station. This is a perfect showcase or capstone STEM project. Students will apply scientific concepts, math skills, critical thinking, research, and engineering design to plan a long-term orbital station. Students will need to consider questions like: How will astronauts get food and water? How will we power the station? What are the dangers of space? How will the human body react to microgravity? Where will we sleep?