Theory
State the engineering choice you must justify. Stage intent: justify an attitude strategy using energy evidence.
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
Point the spacecraft. Change the power.
Your spacecraft runs on sunlight. Its solar panels only make electricity when light reaches them, and how much reaches them depends on which way the spacecraft is facing. Your team will test two ways of pointing it, compare what the Twin produces, and recommend one — saying clearly what your evidence does and does not prove.
Pilot lesson
What to say at Grade 8
These prompts come from the academic layer, so they change with the depth you selected.
Prediction
Predict which option better satisfies the named criterion.
Running the Twin
Use the Twin to gather comparison evidence for your justification. Runtime remains the frozen Twin; this plan does not execute physics.
Checkpoint
Check that your evidence actually supports the criterion.
Analysis
Justify the choice and name at least one model limitation. Evidence intent: solar/SOC comparison + coupling limitation statement.
Engineering decision
Select and defend an engineering option for this mission question.
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 solar panel turns away from the Sun. What changes?
- ✓ Less light arrives straight on, so it makes less electricity
- · The Sun gets dimmer
- · Nothing changes, because the Sun is still shining
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
- Keep the comparison inside the supplied presets.
- Ask learners to name provenance before they make a claim.
- Do not allow the accepted coupling to be described as a complete spacecraft or measured result.
Can the learner support an energy recommendation and state the reference-geometry limitation?
Hold this line
- The energy and battery numbers are produced by a model. Nothing here was measured on a real spacecraft.
- The incidence figure is calculated from the model's geometry, not observed.
- This lesson does not show how a whole real spacecraft would perform, and it is not evidence that a design is ready to fly.
Home mission
Home mission: find the angle
Draw a solar panel twice: once facing the Sun straight on, once turned away. Label which one you think collects more light. Then write one question you would want answered before trusting this model for a real mission.
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.