Columbia Spacelab is an advanced education program that enables children to learn and practice science through the world of space. The advanced pedagogy in the program is designed not only to encourage young students to major and excel in STEM, but to assist children in acquiring the needed skills for the changing realty in the 21st century. The program commemorates the lives of the 7 brave groundbreaking astronauts who led NASA’s Columbia STS-107 mission.
The Main objective of the project is to build and design an experiment to be sent to the International Space Station. Areas of exploration have previously included space research and scientific principles - both on earth and in space; the International Space Station (ISS); space shuttles, and more.
Columbia Spacelab is a ‘program-based learning’ process - the students themselves lead the missions. Approaching the solution for each mission, the teacher has almost little knowledge on the subject as the students do. This equal starting point is empowering for the students, as they see their teacher going through a similar learning process. In this journey towards the solution, the teacher serves as a mentor who introduces the practices and steers the students in the right direction, through methods such as research tools, discussions, reviews and feedback. The tools and work methods assist the children achieve their goal - build an experiment that would be sent to the ISS.
This practice - in which the pace and quality of progress in the program is totally dependent on the children, forces them to take responsibility, push their learning abilities to the limit, and think outside the box in order to complete the different tasks each mission requires. The Mission’s methodology is based on NASA Project Management approach and Israeli Air Force organisational culture. It speaks the language and introduces students to the most effective and innovative learning practices, research and project management tools. Abbreviations and terminologies are meant to inspire the students and simulates real research.
The skills the students will develop will focus on providing and receiving feedback, teamwork & collaboration, group & personal inquiry, creative thinking, problem solving, presentation and public speaking, and more. The program’s length is 4 months and includes teachers training. The program is designed for groups of 20 students in ages 14-15.
SST is represented by 22 students mainly from Astronomy Club. They are:
CHRISTIAN CADEN KWEK S1-03
POON ZHI LER (PAN ZHILE) S1-06
JOSHUA LIM JINGYONG S1-07
LEE REY-JIEN S1-07
LEE ZHENG TING, COLIN S1-07
KAYLA TAN KAI XINS 2-04
SKY LIM S2-05
OOI KAI YUAN NIGEL S2-06
TAN YING XUANS 2-03
IAN TAN YI ZHES 2-04
HARIHARAN RAVICHANTHIRAN S2-05
LIOW KAI MING GLENN S2-06
CAYDEN NG KEI CHUN S2-07
LEE ZHI XUAN AVILYN JOY S2-07
ANG WEI JIE S2-07
MOHAMAD DANIAL HADY BIN KHAIROMAN S2-07
JARRETT TAN YI JIE S3-05
MUHAMMAD ARASH BIN MAHADI S3-02
NG ZHEN XUAN, WAYNE S3-05
KARTHIKEYAN AAKARSHA KANNAN S3-06
KOO HONG BIN, DON S3-06
KITTI-AMPON CHIA DE EN S3-02
The team led by AAKARSHA, DON and DE EN led the team to the Singapore grand finals and achieved 3rd placing.
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