Hear from deep space. Pupils learn how satellites transfer information back to Earth. They learn about three different ways to modulate radio waves and how a satellite sends information with only 0s and 1s. Using sound, class members mimic sending data by beating out the sequence of 1s and 0s to stand for a letter, sending entire messages by combining letters.

Concepts

satellite data, satellite images, satellites, radio waves, electromagnetic energy, binary code

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Additional Tags

science

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Instructional Ideas

• Have classmates code and decode message using binary code for each letter without sending the code
• Research how many bytes it takes to create an image

Classroom Considerations

• Requires some knowledge of electromagnetic waves

Pros

• Provides definitions of terms related to waves
• Contains links to use to find more information about the Deep Space Network

Cons

• None