The Curriculum Guide includes activities that explore wireless technology, career paths, non-verbal communication, Ohm’s law, and building a crystal radio receiver.
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The ARRL Education & Technology Program Radio Lab Handbook includes lessons on Communications Electronics, Transmitting and Receiving Devices, and Wireless Phenomena. 
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Find kits and projects to instruct basic electronics, demonstrate wave forms and modulation, conduct a radio direction finding activity, build a seismometer, to name a few.
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Teachers can request course material from the Teachers Institute on CD-ROM. Please contact our ETP Coordinator, Nathan McCray at nmccray@arrl.org to discuss your needs.

Our newsletters often include stories and comments from teachers about how they are integrating amateur radio and ETP resources in their classrooms. Their experiences may provide ideas and inspiration for you.
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The XFM-1 is an FM tracking transmitter which you can find at:http://www.jbgizmo.com/page30.htm 

You can get a kit with your clubs call sign or your call sign pre-programmed from Jerry’s site. This actually gives you three projects: 1) Building the transmitter 2) Building the rocket to carry it and 3) Building the antenna for tracking. We ordered two and built one. So far we have not needed the back up!  One tip though, the plans call for a bent paperclip as the battery hold down. Make sure you really solder this bugger. The force of lift off is enough to break it free if you don’t do a good job!

This tracker will fit in the ½” body tube of the Estes “educator pack” rockets.  These are inexpensive fairly low altitude (500 feet or less) rockets which can be launched on the space of a softball field.  Check with the school before you do this. As it turns out the fifth grade classes build and launch these small rockets as part of their “hands-on” science program. Your school may have a similar program, if you contact the teacher and see if you can get involved with a demonstration.  Done properly, like anything else, this is a very safe thing to do. There is more danger from someone getting poked with the tracking antenna (if you use a beam) than there is from the rocket launch, but safety must rule the day and you don’t want to violate any school rules.  You can check with the NAR (National Association of model Rocketry) on line at www.nar.org  where they have space requirements (the bigger the engine, the more space you need) as well as safety rules.

There are many opportunities with this project, in our case the rocket became known as the “Boulder Hill Sputnik” since the transmitter beeps much like the first satellite. It was shown to parents at open house, displayed in a cabinet with other radio equipment for the rest of the school to see as part of our ARISS QSO build up and it even made it to a Board of Education Meeting where an ARISS status report was given. But, did it ever fly?  You bet it did.  During the first launch the battery hold down broke on assent and it stopped transmitting just before the parachute ejection charge. After repairs the second launch was successful, we used a larger rocket with a D engine and estimated an altitude of 800 feet.  Tracking was flawless. The signal was clearly heard on our HT.  After three more flights we retired our sputnik and moved on to other projects, but in the future we hope to add a device which will transmit temperature and altitude to a simple ground station.   This was fun with 4^th and 5^th graders but would really be great for junior high and high school.  You can find all sorts of help on the web for model rockets and various calculations you can do.  

The tracker operates on 2 meter FM so an HT will work well for this try different antennas and have fun. If you are working at the 4^th – 6^th grade level, I suggest keeping it simple, we found that many things which we did as kids still hold an interest today, model rockets, Morse code, old ways of having fun that not many kids run into in today’s world. It all becomes new again.

from John Spasojevich AG9D

Need help introducing ARISS and Satellite communications to your students?  Here are several resources to help get you started.  

Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS): Learn more about our partnership with NASA to offer amateur radio contacts with astronauts aboard the ISS.

Images courtesy of Matt Severin N8MS
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