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People And SpacePeople-And-Space

  • Subject: Space Science
  • |
  • Grade(s): K-5
  • |
  • Duration: One class period

Lesson Plan Sections

 


Students will understand the following:
1. For preservation of food and space-saving storage, astronauts on space missions eat dehydrated foods.
2. Dehydrationmeans “removal of water.”
3. Dehydrated foods can be consumed by mixing the food with saliva from the eater’s mouth or by adding water.

 


You may want enough of the following ingredients so that each student in your class can sample all foods, or you may want small amounts of each food for volunteer tasters only.
• Dehydrated foods—for example, dehydrated bananas and figs, dehydrated peanuts, beef jerky, dehydrated instant pudding, Tang or other dehydrated fruit crystals, dehydrated ice cream
• Plastic sandwich bags
• Straws
• Scissors
• Water


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speaker    freefall
Definition:Motion experienced by an object when being affected by the gravitational pull of a planet and no other significant forces.
Context:Because astronauts orbiting the Earth in the Space Shuttle are in gravitational freefall toward the Earth, they experience the illusion of weightlessness.
speaker    microgravity
Definition:A condition of real or apparent reduced gravity experienced on orbiting space vehicles.
Context:Orbiting astronauts experience microgravity conditions partly because they are farther away from the Earth, and mostly because they are in a state of freefall as they orbit the Earth.
speaker dehydrate
Definition:The act of removing water from food to preserve it.
Context:The astronauts’ supply of fresh vegetables will be dehydrated so that they will not go bad during the long stay on the Space Station.
speaker rehydrate
Definition:The act of restoring water to preserved food that has been dehydrated.
Context:Dehydrated, preserved food isn’t very tasty, so astronauts will rehydrate their dried food as needed during their stay on the Space Station.

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