Spaceflight Academy - Gold Coast

Recently we were lucky enough to be invited along to the brand new Space Flight Academy which is about to open to the public here on the Gold Coast

If you have children that aspire to be an astronaut, a pilot or to work in the field of space flight in any way then you really need to get them down to the Space Flight Academy.

Upstairs you will find the lecture room, which would hold up to 40 people seated. Here you will be given an introductory run down on the simulators that are housed below on the ground level.

Space Flight Academy is recommended for children 11 and over. And rightly so, this is not kids party stuff, this is a serious space flight learning experience.

Here the kids are being trained on how to use the fighter jet controls.

Behind the lecture space is a second smaller class room area, where the academy has plans to hold high school level science classes, in topics such as aerodynamics and rocketry.

Our group was split in two, with one half heading straight into the fighter jet simulators.

This experience was much harder and way more involved than the kids every imagined. They all really enjoyed themselves, although it is something that you want to be coming back for again and again so you can perfect your skills.

The other half of the group were preparing to send some of their crew members into space. So some of them entered and worked in Mission Control, which is completely decked out like an actual control room and works in a similar fashion to one. Those working in the control room watch the space flight and converse with the astronauts during the flight.

The simulator in which the cadets use to train and head into to space with.

Their first briefing, of all the goings on inside the simulator. As you can see they are fully equipped with uniforms, and helmets which gives them radio access to Mission Control.

All smiles after his first successful space launch!

Around the room is other space themed paraphernalia with some of them being available for visitors to sit inside and take a closer look around.

I really would not like to be traveling through space in this little thing. Those are some very brave people!

Overall this was a fabulous experience and we were extremely chuffed to be one of the very first groups to go through the centre. Well done to the Space Flight Academy for making this happen. It will be such an asset to the Gold Coast area.

Happy Homeschooling,
Kylie

The Dish

CSIRO's Parkes radio telescope is a 64 metre diameter parabolic dish used for radio astronomy.

Australia’s famous Dish, that played a role during ‘Man’s Walk On The Moon’ expedition is very well known to us down under and even has a movie made about it.

In all honesty though, I felt that we could possibly be driving hundreds of miles to see this thing and simply wind up very disappointed.



The drive from Jenolan to Parkes was quite spectacular though, with bright yellow canola farms as far as the eye can see, certainly makes for some pretty colourful scenery.



Can you see where we are headed? This thing really appears to be in the middle of no where.



There it is! Yay! And there is a Visitors Discovery Centre attached, even better.



Out front are two largish white dishes facing each other a couple of hundred metres apart.



Whispering Dishes, so much fun. Simply turn and face the dish, speak into it quietly and your friend standing at the other dish can hear you perfectly. The kids could’ve played here for hours. This experience alone was nearly worth the drive to Parkes, it blew their minds!



Inside the visitor’s centre we are instantly met with large scale informational boards and their souvenir store, which sells all manner of ‘sciencey’ things.



Detailed information about the role The Dish played in the Apollo 11 Mission gives Lego Lover a better understanding.



Little Surfer Dude loved this interactive dish model, that he could turn as much as he wished.



The visitor’s centre is chocked full of information, all of which is very well presented. Scattered throughout the room are also a few smaller interactive activities to keep younger children entertained.



Entry to the visitors centre is free. They do offer a 30 minute 3D documentary which we found interesting.($20 family) It showed  Mars exploration and gave us a much closer look at the ‘little things’ in outer space – comets and asteroids.

The documentary did not hold the interest of our younger two, though Lego Lover (10) thoroughly enjoyed it.



Outside we spent a considerable amount of time just watching the dish being maneuvered in all myriad of directions.

One of the guides informed us that this treat simply doesn’t happy every day.




So we were pretty lucky to be able to take photographs of the dish from many different angles.



The Dish Cafe, situated just outside from the visitors centre prepared us a lovely lunch too.

Blast Off: Space Vocabulary Word Printable Activities

I decided to capitalise somewhat on the huge amount of interest our space unit is generating to work on some spelling and vocbulary items. If you are using the Lab of Mr Q's Earth Science Curriculum then these printables will fit right in.

The vocabulary words covered in these printable activities are:

• Astronomy
• Telescope
• Universe
• Galaxy
• Milky Way
• Stars
• Comet
• Sun

Spelling Mats

All About Spelling Tiles fit onto these mats with ease. Since we use AAS and have the tiles out all of the time it just made sense for me to make these spelling mats suitable to use with the AAS Letter Tiles.

My plan for these is to laminate them and use a baking tray. That way I am not wasting too much printer ink and I can file them away for future use. My guess is that they will be used at least 3 - 6 more times over the years to come.

>>> Download the Spelling Mats here <<<

Vocabulary Match Up Cards

These will printed and laminated and used for matching the definition to the vocab words. My aim is for the children to know all of these definitions, but to be able to retell them in their own words, not necessarily to parrot these back verbatim.

>>> Download Vocabulary Match Up Cards here <<<

Copywork Pages

There are two sets of copywork pages in this file. Since I have two children at quite different levels this will meet both of their needs.

The first set is simply the vocabulary word and the beginning sound, with a place to draw a picture.

The second set also includes the definitions from the vocabulary match up cards above. The line spacing on the second set is slightly smaller, to cater for the older child.

>>> Download Copywork Pages here <<<

I hope you can put these printables to good use.

Blast Off - Paper Plate Alien Spaceships

I wanted to start off our Space Unit with something fun and simple, but would grab everyone's attention and this definitely did the trick.

Such an easy craft to put together. I simply picked up a couple of different sized packs of paper plates and bowls from the supermarket. Layed out paints and an array of collage items and let the kids go at it.

Whilst they created we listened to a couple of audio stories and I read some of our introductory space themed picture books (I'll try to review those down the track).

After the paint and glue dried, we pushed a hole through what would become the top of the spaceship and threaded in a long piece of fishing line.

We decided the easiest and quickest way to attach the bottom was to staple the pieces together on the smaller ships and to sticky tape the odd shaped ones, like this one above here.

They look super groovy flying through our little universe in the corner of our room. Plus it has certainly sparked the kids curiosity, they've done nothing but talk space since we began!!

Blast Off - We're Heading Into Space

We thought it was about time we got in our rockets and blasted our 

way into outer space.  We've got lots to read, things to watch and activities to do we 

may never want to return back home.

Mr Q is helping us along our journey. 

He's providing the guidebook, reminding us of things we need to 

be on the lookout for on our travels.

This is what the kids awoke to the other morning. A myriad of books, space related items 

and things to do. I hung a blank canvas for them to fill with all things 'spacey' as we travel 

to various destinations throughout the universe.