Investigations European Space Agency – Mission DVD Series (Video-1, Video-2, Video-3, DVD-4) Four
FOUR INVESTIGATIONS
Research Area: Educational Demonstrations
Expedition(s): 8, 9, 11, 13, 14
Principal Investigator(s): ● Netherlands (Video-1)
● Manuel Paiva, PhD, Universite Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels,
Beglium (Video-2)
● Sylvie Ijsselstein, European Space Agency, Education Office,
Noordwijk, Netherlands (Video-3 and DVD-4)
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
The DVD (previously known as Video) series of education activities focuses on demonstrating
science, mathematics, engineering, technology, and geography principles in a microgravity
environment. The activities involve video recording of the demonstrations to be used in
classrooms across the ESA member states. The DVD series is aimed at secondary school
students in levels 9-12.
RESULTS
During their missions, ESA astronauts
Pedro Duque, André Kuipers, Roberto
Vittori, and Thomas Reiter participated
in this DVD series by performing
experiments aboard the International
Space Station. Assisted by students on
the ground, all aspects of human
spaceflight and space in general were
touched upon in this series. Twenty
thousand prints of each DVD (1-4) have
been printed and distributed to
European schools. The DVD series is
also available on YouTube and has
several thousand views months after
publication. The DVD series is an ideal,
modern, and fast-paced modular film
series that can easily be used by teachers to suit their teaching needs. The DVDs cover topics of
Newton’s Laws, the effect of space on the body, chemistry of matter, and robotics.
The activities have involved more than 10,000 students, 500 teachers, and 500 schools from the
following European countries: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France,
Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Spain,
Sweden, Switzerland, and United Kingdom.
Pedro Duque is filmed by Alexander Kaleri for the educational
experiment that will demonstrate basic physical phenomena
featured in Mission 1 DVD: Newton in Space. ESA image.