Kerbal Space Program School Winterem

[mikecorp11]

Every year, my school has something called Winterems. For 1 week, we do things relating to this topic. And this year, we managed to get a Kerbal Space Program Winterem. Our school will do some fundraising before hand. We'll probably go to an observatory and see a Space Shuttle. On Wednesday, we'll actually start playing Kerbal, and probably go home early. Thursday and Friday we will stay at school overnight and play a lot of Kerbal. I was wondering if anybody had any advice or tips on how our school could make this successful.

Perhaps goals we could set or objectives to meet. Also, fundraising ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

mikecorp11

[WillHop]

First of all, I wish I was at your school, that sounds amazing. I think for those who haven't played KSP, a reasonable challenge would be successful Mun mission by the end of the week. For those who can play it well, i'm not so sure..

[Rage097]

All my thoughts are summed up in the post above.

[FITorion]

Try to recreate the Historical flights. That will make learning History fun too.

Make it to space.

Make it to orbit.

Make it to orbit around the Mun.

Do an orbital rendezvous.

Land on the Mun.

Return from the Mun.

Then let them go wild.

Build a space station.

Go to another planet.

Drive a rover around on another planet or Moon.

[Whackjob]

"And remember, kids! Failure is ALWAYS an option!"

[RQuinny]

The post above should be shown at the start of the event so the kids don't get discouraged when there amazing creations inevitable blow up. Maybe a race to the Mun or Minmus, see who can get there the fastest from launch? All the luck in the Kerbin to your school and hope you have a great and educational time with KSP.

[Goldham]

"And remember, kids! Failure is ALWAYS an option!"

Snippty Snip

Damnit Whackjob I just decided I want Mythbusters to do some KSP related Myth.

[Specialist290]

First off, welcome to the forums!

Wish I had gone to a school that did something like that when I was younger. Then again, KSP wasn't around back then... But still, sounds like a really cool experience.

As for mission structure: I'm seconding the idea of basing the order of the missions off of a simplified version of NASA's flight plans. You could separate each set of missions into sets of broad programs like this:

1. Mercury Program: Getting rockets into space and into orbit, getting a manned craft into orbit and returning it safely.

2. Gemini Program: Learning maneuvers to change orbits, rendezvousing and docking two spacecraft in orbit.

3. Apollo Program: "We choose to go to the Mun before the end of the week and do the other things..."

Last year, another teacher got some attention for using Kerbal Space Program in his AP Physics course. He chose to structure it by dividing his class into "companies" and giving them "contracts" and a budget to manage, as well as rewards for achieving certain milestones. You can find his course description for that segment here, as well as a discussion thread on these forums he held with the community. You could take some of his ideas and integrate them into your own plans, depending on how you decide to run it.

Additionally, feel free to refer to the Drawing Board (linked in my signature) for links to a wealth of information about the game itself, including tutorials, informative charts, and other player aids.

I've also got a few ideas for practical exercises (like math problems) the students can try outside of the game, but I'd need to know what level of schooling they're at in order to proceed. Don't want to try to introduce the delta-v equation to a bunch of elementary school students who have never even seen an algebra equation yet, after all

[mikecorp11]

Sorry i forgot to include that, it will be grades 7-9.

[mikecorp11]

between pre algebra and geometry