ARISS contact planned for school in Poland Tuesday, December 8, 2015

ARISS contact planned for school in Poland

Tuesday, December 8, 2015 at approximately 8.15 UTC, which is 9.15 CEWT, an ARISS contact is planned for Konstanty Ildefons Gałczynski Junior High School in Swietajno, Poland. Amateur radio station LU1CGB, located in Argentina, will operate the contact. The ARISS HAM radio station NA1SS on the board of the International Space Station will be operated by Kjell Lindgren KO5MOS.

Konstanty Ildefons Gałczynski Junior High School in Swiętajno is attended by approximately 170 pupils, aged 13-15. The school is situated in the picturesque Land of Thousand Lakes in Szczytno County (Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, in the northeastern part of Poland). The school counts seven grades and  employs twenty well-qualified teachers. Mazurian Amateur Radio Club SP4YWM has been established in the school; seventeen school members (among which there are three primary school pupils and one pre-school girl, all from Swietajno) run the Club.

To prepare for the amateur radio contact with the ISS, the students – under  guidance of their teachers - improved their English and  got familiar with the life and work on the ISS. They had a great opportunity to learn everyday English in order to ask an astronaut questions during the ISS contact. They also studied specialized science language and visited space agencies pages. The students learned geography with the use of modern technologies and photographed the Earth from the ISS (EarthKAM). The school cooperated with the Olsztyn Planetarium to organize an observation. The planetarium visited Swietajno, supporting one of the school events. Consequently, the Astronomical Mobile Laboratory called Astrolabium was at the school’s disposal. Last year, the ARISS participants from Swietajno attended the 4th Polish-Wide Conference of ARISS Contributors and Supporters, which took place in the central part of Poland. They focused on interesting topics concerning the ISS and learned how other Polish schools had prepared for ARISS contacts in the past.

The pupils also performed an experiment in near space as a part of the miniSAT balloon project. They sent peas, bubble wrap and a watch to near space at the altitude of about 30 000 meters. The conditions in near space  differ significantly from those on the surface of the Earth: the atmospheric pressure is much lower, UV radiation is higher and the temperature is below zero degrees Celsius. Experimenters from all over Poland, including the pupils from Swiętajno, took part in the event. The balloon was marked “CP26”. The near space experiment was made possible thanks to HAM radio operators and other volunteers from a non-governmental organization called Copernicus Project Foundation (near Torun, Poland). Their two flagship projects are MiniSAT and Near Space Program in Poland. Since 2005, they have organized over 30 balloon flights to  near space.

In March 2013, the school started public relations activities related to the HAM radio contact between an astronaut on the International Space Station and students from Konstanty Ildefons Gałczynski School. The ARISS program in Swiętajno was officially inaugurated and the presentation was covered by TVP Olsztyn, Radio Olsztyn and other local mass media. As a follow up of the EarthKAM program, an exhibition of the photographs taken by the students was organized during the inauguration. Before that, Swiętajno primary school pupils (ages 5 to 12) had been invited to participate to the preparations of the ARISS contact. As a result, some of them are going to ask questions to the astronaut, together with their older friends from the junior high school.

The ARISS contact will be conducted in English.
It  will probably be broadcast on  EchoLink AMSAT (node 101 377), as well as on
http://ariss.pzk.org.pl/live

Students will ask as many of the following questions as time allows.

1. Kasia (5): Can you eat ice cream on the ISS?
2. Ola (8): How often do you observe the Earth and try to find your house?
3. Oliwia (8): How long can an astronaut stay on the ISS?
4. Natalia (8): How old must be a person to become an astronaut?
5. Julka S. (15): Can you stop or change the direction of the ISS flight?
6. Kinga (15): How do you spend your free time in space?
7. Julia K. (15): What time zone is used on the International Space Station?
8. Magda (15): Do you sometimes have a party on the ISS?
9. Mateusz (15): Can an astronaut catch a cold or flu on the ISS?
10. Cezary (15): What was your most difficult task in space?
11. Klaudia (14): What is the most impressive thing you’ve seen from space?
12. Roksana (14): Can you see New Year’s Eve fireworks from space?
13. Emilia (13): How long does it take to get from Earth to the space station?
14. Kornel (15): What do you miss most from Earth you don’t have in space?
15. Martyna (13): Do you do the laundry on the ISS to clean your clothes?
16. Zuzanna R. (13): Have you ever seen any unidentified flying objects?
17. Zuzanna D. (13): Can you take your pet to the International Space Station?

ARISS offers an opportunity for students to experience the excitement of Amateur Radio by talking directly with crewmembers onboard the International Space Station. Teachers, parents and communities see, first hand, how Amateur Radio and crewmembers on ISS can energize youngsters' interest in science, technology and learning.

73,
Armand Budzianowski
ARISS mentor
SOURCE DIRECTE : ARISS
from : f6agv (@) free.fr