SpaceIL Educational Mission – Inspiring, Modeling, Connecting
- Paper number
IAC-15,E1,7,5,x30053
- Author
Dr. Ayelet Weizman, SpaceIL, Israel
- Year
2015
- Abstract
SpaceIL is an Israeli nonprofit competing at the Google Lunar XPRIZE: an international Moon Race. SpaceIL is committed to using the potential prize money ($20 million) from the Google Lunar XPRIZE competition to promote science and STEM education in Israel, and to ensure that Israel will continue to live up to its reputation for excellence in these fields. Through the innovative project of building a spacecraft, SpaceIL aspires to create an Israeli "Apollo effect” - like in the 1970s in the US: Inspire the next generation in Israel to think differently about Science, Engineering, Technology, and Math. For Israel, STEM education is not only important as a subject matter, but it is part of the gateway for the nation’s future. SpaceIL sees its educational mission in using the challenging mission of reaching the Moon to provide not only sources for formal and informal activities based on science and technological challenges, and innovative ways to overcome them, but also an example for Israeli teenagers for innovative ways to pursue their dreams and aspirations through science and technology. In order to achieve the educational mission, SpaceIL has developed several educational models to reach different types of audience, aspiring to influence their life-long decisions and scientific literacy. These models are based on the idea of leveraging the space mission through Modeling in terms of people (role models) as well as activities (problem solving and dealing with groundbreaking challenges), and values (innovation, cooperation, not for profit activities) for young people. The following are some of SpaceIL’s educational activities: 1. An online platform to connect school students with engineers and scientists as role models. 2. Implementing real technological and physical challenges from SpaceIL's Moon mission as a base for school inquiry and design-based projects that are incorporated into the science curriculum in Israel. 3. Workshops for teachers and families related to the scientific experiment of SpaceIL’s mission, explaining how the spacecraft will collect data and conduct measurements on the Moon, to benefit the scientific knowledge of the next generation. 4. A community of volunteers that reach all types of audience in the country, give lectures and tell SpaceIL’s story. By implementing these models, SpaceIL is leveraging its inspiring Moon mission to creating a national movement around the spacecraft, and connecting people to science as a national asset.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-15,E1,7,5,x30053.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
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