Theory
Name what you will observe in familiar language. Stage intent: match warning.
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
Find out what went wrong.
This mission came home with almost nothing. The spacecraft was healthy at launch, the payload worked, and the ground station was listening - and still, hardly any data arrived. Your team has the mission readings. Work out what happened.
Pilot lesson
What to say at Grade 6
These prompts come from the academic layer, so they change with the depth you selected.
Prediction
Predict a simple trend (higher/lower, sooner/later) before running the Twin.
Running the Twin
Run the Twin once and describe what you see. Runtime remains the frozen Twin; this plan does not execute physics.
Checkpoint
Check that your observation matches the mission question in simple words.
Analysis
Explain the trend without using hidden hashes or professional jargon. Evidence intent: fault evidence chain + diagnosis + recovery plan/test result.
Engineering decision
Choose a simple next action and say why it is safer or clearer.
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 spacecraft battery falls very low. What does a well-designed spacecraft do?
- ✓ Shut down what it can to protect itself
- · Keep working exactly as before
- · Send its data faster to save time
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 often blame storage. The readings show storage was never the problem - press them back to the battery.
- The improved policy exists in the runtime and is deliberately not shown. Diagnosing is the mission; do not hand over the answer.
- Ask for one change, not a list. Naming the decisive change is the skill.
Can the learner trace battery to safe mode to lost downlink, and name a single decisive change?
Hold this line
- These mission readings are produced by a model. No real mission was flown.
- This is a teaching operations run and is not an operational assurance result.
- This lesson does not establish how a real mission would be recovered.
Home mission
Home mission: the flat phone
Think of a time a phone went flat before you could send something. Write down what was being used up, what warned you, and what one habit would have prevented it. Then say which of those three a spacecraft engineer would build into the rules.
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.