Hello all,
Several of us AMSATers in North Texas will again be representing AMSAT at the annual "Moon Day" at the frontiers of Flight Museum at Dallas Love Field this coming July 16. "Moon Day" is a celebration of spaceflight past/present and future and is also a very large STEM fair with exhibits from many different scientific and Engineering organizations. Many young people including Boy and Girl Scouts are in attendance.
Since there is such a large youth component to this event, I have been looking for some fun ways to demonstrate satellites and orbital mechanics to the people who drop by the booth/table. There is a special STEM patch that they can earn by visiting different displays and asking questions/filling out a worksheet. I am looking for simple but creative/fun ways to demonstrate orbital mechanics and also how a satellite like our Fox birds work. I plan to build a big poster with images of different types of orbits, and have already been given an idea on how to demonstrate the different between a geostationary/synchronous orbit and a LEO but would like some more ideas.
If any of you have done some similar outreaches and would like to share ideas, please reply on list or off. I would appreciate it much.
Tom Schuessler, N5HYP