Suited for Spacewalking: A Teacher's Guide with Activities for Technology Education, Mathematics, and Science.

Space walking has captured the imagination of generations of children and adults since science fiction authors first placed their characters on the moon. The guide begins with brief discussions of the space environment, the history of space walking, NASA's current spacesuit, and work that astronauts do during spacewalks. These are followed by a technology education design brief that challenges students to design and build a spacesuit prototype for an extra-terrestrial environment no human has ever visited before. In the process of doing this, students will have to investigate the properties of that environment and determine what protective measures must be taken to permit a future explorer to work there safely. Once accomplished, students choose materials and technologies that can be used for constructing and testing the prototype. The design brief is followed by Teacher Tech Briefs that provide a source of ideas on how to build a spacesuit test apparatus and by Exploration Briefs that provide activity frameworks to help students understand important topics in spacesuit design. The guide concludes with a glossary of terms, a suggested reading list, NASA educational resources including electronic resources, and an evaluation questionnaire. (Contains 12 references.) (ASK)