Theory
State what you will compare between two runs. Stage intent: compare quality.
For teachers
Prepare a mission
Everything you need to run the lesson: the prompts for this academic depth, the diagnostic answer key, the misconceptions to watch for, and the truth boundary to hold.
Choose the mission and depth
Take the picture. Get it home.
A camera that sees more detail makes bigger pictures, and a spacecraft can only send home so much before the pass ends. Your team will fly the same observation with two cameras and work out which one actually delivers more to the ground.
Pilot lesson
What to say at Grade 7
These prompts come from the academic layer, so they change with the depth you selected.
Prediction
Predict which run will differ and in which direction.
Running the Twin
Run a baseline and a comparison on the Twin. Runtime remains the frozen Twin; this plan does not execute physics.
Checkpoint
Record the difference you observed.
Analysis
Identify what changed and what stayed the same. Evidence intent: payload/image/data-quality report + selection/trade rationale.
Engineering decision
Recommend which option better meets the classroom criterion.
Limitation
Name at least one frozen-model limitation that this experiment cannot answer.
Provenance
Keep simulated, simulated_sensor, estimator_state, derived, reference, and measured distinct. Never label simulated as measured.
Diagnostic answer key
A camera is changed for one that sees finer detail. What happens to the size of each picture?
- ✓ It gets bigger, because there is more information in it
- · It stays the same
- · It gets smaller
Timing
One session. Adjust freely — the sequence matters more than the clock.
| When | Stage | What you are doing |
|---|---|---|
| 0–10 min | Mission brief and outcomes | Set the mission question and the success criterion. |
| 10–20 | Diagnostic | Surface prior ideas. No score — this is for you, not them. |
| 20–35 | Visual theory | Work the concept visual. Ask for the idea in their own words. |
| 35–45 | Prediction | Every learner commits in writing before any run. |
| 45–60 | Twin investigation | Baseline first, then the candidate case. |
| 60–70 | Evidence and decision | Compare, choose, and state one limitation. |
| 70–80 | Assessment and result | Formative only. Collect the written reasoning. |
| Home | Home mission | Software-only extension. No hardware, no account. |
Facilitation and the truth boundary
While they work
- Learners reliably choose the sharper camera on detail alone. Push them to the delivered figure.
- The downlink budget is identical in both runs. That constraint is the mission.
- Keep captured and delivered separate: a picture taken is not a picture received.
Can the learner distinguish what was captured from what reached the ground, and choose on the latter?
Hold this line
- These results are produced by a model. No real image was captured and no real downlink took place.
- The cameras are teaching profiles, not real instrument designs.
- This lesson does not establish how any real payload would perform in orbit.
Home mission
Home mission: what fits
Find two photos on a device and check their file sizes. Work out how many of each you could send over a connection that allowed only 10 MB. Write one sentence on what you would give up to send more of them.
Tell us what did not work
Ten questions, answered locally. Nothing is submitted or tracked — you download the file and send it if you want to.
Informal educator feedback
This local-first form contains the ten approved pilot-review questions. It does not submit, track, or store data remotely. Optional name/contact should be handled outside this form only if a reviewer volunteers it.