Lessons from Space-3 (LES-3)............................................................................................................
Research Area: Educational Demonstrations
Expedition(s): 19- 22
Principal Investigator: ● C. Olivotto, ESA HSO Promotion Office, Noordwijk,
Netherlands
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
The Lesson-3 educational activity includes a live link between primary school students with ESA
astronaut Frank De Winne who gives a lesson about life on the International Space Station (ISS),
which includes demonstrations of various water properties.
RESULTS
A live link activity took place between ESA
astronaut Frank De Winne on the ISS and
nearly 300 Belgian schoolchildren on
October 6, 2009. The kits were distributed
to many other schools. The children, aged
10-12 years old, gathered at the Free
University in Brussels for a day of activities
dedicated to learning about life on the ISS.
The students asked De Winne questions
directly such as “How do the astronauts
wash themselves?”; “How do they brush
their teeth”; “What and how do they eat?”
and “How do they keep fit and healthy?”Organized with the Belgian European Space Education Resource Office (ESERO), in collaboration
with the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office, the ministries of education of the Flemish
Region, the French-speaking and German-speaking communities in Belgium, UNICEF Belgium
and ESA’s Directorate of Human Spaceflight, the emphasis of the ISS Day was water scarcity in
space and on Earth. This theme tied in with De Winne's role as UNICEF ambassador and his
support for their Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WaSH) campaign.
Water is vital for the health of people on Earth and in space and the day's activities encouraged
children to make the link between the problems of water management in space and the
problems facing millions of people on Earth. The live link was the finale of the day, during which
De Winne performed 3 simple demonstrations to show how water behaves in space before
answering the children’s questions.
The recording of the demonstration was used to produce ESA multimedia educational material
for upper primary school teachers and their students aged 10-12.
This investigation is complete; however, no publications are expected.
De Winne performs demonstration with water. ESA
image.