Science Week - "Space Junk"
16 August 2019
One highlight of Science Week 2019 at Ecolinc was a day dedicated to raising awareness of the environmental issues surrounding Space Junk. An outstanding keynote was delivered by the Head of the RMIT Space Research Centre, Professor Zhang setting the stage for a day of problem solving that included the development and selection of equipment and personnel to man a recycling station on the moon, and the design and creation of a space glove. Each team’s space glove underwent a series of quality control tests. The winning design came from one of the Dandenong HS teams.
A virtual reality excursion to the International Space Station also had students enthralled. School based teams had been invited to prepare a scientific poster that represented an innovative solution to the issue of Space Junk. These solutions were presented to judges with Dandenong HS team taking out first prize, followed by Donald HS and third place was awarded to a second team from Dandenong HS. Evaluations indicated that students had gained a deep understanding of the issue that Space Junk poses to our global environment and the potentially vast future impacts.