CubeSat Club

A CubeSat is a miniature spacecraft with a volume of 1 liter and has a mass no greater than 1 kg. California Polytechnic State University and Stanford University developed the CubeSat specifications to help universities worldwide to perform space science and exploration. CubeSats provide an opportunity for students to learn about satellites and engineering. To date CubeSat programs have resided in the universities. This program's goal is to allow junior high and high school students to work on a CubeSat project. These are the ages when children make career decisions and this project may help students decide to pursue careers in technical fields.

CubeSat design reviews will be conducted by the students and open to the public. This will help make the project a community project and give the students an opportunity to show their work to their friends and families.

CA 6th grade girl in the Princeton Charter School, when told about the proposed program, said working on CubeSats would be "awesome." A 10th grade home schooled student said working on a CubeSat would be "Very cool!" The goal of the club is to design and build a CubeSat with a scientific payload that will fly within 3 years. The club will be supported by scientists and engineers from Princeton Satellite Systems, Princeton University, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and retirees from GE Astro Space. The club will look for a 3 year commitment from students although juniors and seniors at the high school will be welcome. The club will run through the full year and include summer activities. The first year will be spent familiarizing the students with spacecraft design. This will include lectures by spacecraft engineers and hands-on work with design tools. The second year will involve the manufacturing of the CubeSat. The third year will involve CubeSat testing and launch. The first year schedule is given in detail in the next section. Each club meeting will last 60 minutes. The first few lectures will give students the background they need in spacecraft design, analysis and dynamics. Lectures will be given by experienced engineers for each subsystem. The students will begin to familiarize themselves with the design tools starting with the first meeting. Each meeting will focus on giving students hands-on experience with engineering.

This club would serve as a model to other schools that want to establish engineering clubs to build any kind of complex system. The same concept could be applied to solar power systems, electric vehicles, wind turbines and many other systems. .

Learning Algebra

Why is everyone so afraid of algebra, trigonometry and calculus? We contend it is because it is taught as "math" instead of being taught as a way to solve interesting problems. After all, math was invented mostly to solve scientific and engineering problems. To test our theory we are writing a book that teaches algebra, trigonmetry and calculus through physical examples. If you read our book you'll learn physics and math! You can download the book here for free! It is a work in progress so feel free to send us comments and suggestions. We are currently testing it with our own children and children of friends.

Send your comments or questions to algebra at psatellite.com.

The book (requires Adobe Acrobat):

Learning Algebra, Trigonometry and Calculus through Physics for Fourth Through Eighth Graders

Here is a short note on velocity problems:

Velocity problems.

Here is a short note on digit problems:

Digit problems.

Counting probability is always fun:

Counting probability.

Linear equations with inequalities:

Inequalities.

Absolute value problems in one dimension:

Absolute value problems.

Engineering

All children like gadgets. They are interested in cars, rockets, aircraft and many other devices. PSS has developed talks that allow elementary school students to try their hands at designing cars and rockets. These talks teach some physics, engineering and math. They also teach children how to work cooperatively in groups.

Kid Motors (requires Adobe Acrobat). Students are organized into 4 design teams as part of an imaginary automobile company.:

Kid Motors

You are a Rocket Scientist (requires Adobe Acrobat). Students select a payload to put into orbit and design a rocket. (Simulating the rocket requires MATLAB.):

You are a Rocket Scientist