Week 1: Introductions; Course Fundamentals; Scientific Inquiry Activity Part I; Program Overview; Scientific and Engineering Design Notebook set-up; Introduction to Science, Math and Engineering Relationships
Week 2: Scientific Inquiry Activity Part 2; Systems Thinking and Diagramming; Science Communication, It IS Rocket Science - Part 1 (space environment and conditions, introduction to launch vehicle)
Week 3: It IS Rocket Science - Part II (payload properties and configuration, understanding launch conditions, vehicle performance and payload relationships); It IS Rocket Science - Part III (variable identification): Launch! game activity- part I
Week 4: Launch! game activity - part II; Fun with Hypotheses (yes, you read that right!); designing "weird" experiments; Introduction to research methods and techniques; exploration of experiment design topics; Knowledge assessment
Week 5: Big Balloons = Big Science, Part I (near space environment and conditions, layers and properties of Earth's atmosphere); vehicle characteristics, capabilities and flight profile; Big Balloons = Big Science, Part II; experiment design concepts; virtual ballooning; basic fluid mechanics
Week 6: Experiment Design; Rocket and Balloon mission requirements and constraints influence on experiment design; Ready for Research!; Intent to Fly Form (IFF) preparation and review; Preliminary experiment design
Week 7: Submit Intent to Fly Form; IFF Revisions; Research and experiment design; Application for Spaceflight Overview; Question and Answer Discussions; Elements of Scientific/Technical drawing; Application for Spaceflight Review
Week 8: Completion of Application for Spaceflight: Experiment Proposal and Scientific/Technical Diagram; Submit final draft of Application for Spaceflight for review and evaluation (Preliminary Design Review).
Week 9: Individual meetings to discuss Application for Spaceflight evaluation and feedback. This meeting is the final stage of the Preliminary Design Review. Submit final Application for Spaceflight to the Cubes in Space program.