Drawing upon what you know about the International Space Station, create the blueprints for your own space station. What facilities might astronauts need to conduct research, maintain their health and allow other spacecraft to dock at the station? Provide an essay along with the blueprints, explaining each facility's inclusion in the space station. Students may, for example, include an exercise facility, since astronauts must exercise two hours each day to fight back against the negative health effects of a low-gravity environment.
Encourage students to write a letter to a specific member of the International Space Station, or to the members of the space station in general. Encourage students to ask questions about daily life on the space station, or how astronauts communicate with family members and friends from space. Ask students to use newspapers, the Internet or other research materials under the guidance of an older sibling or parent to find the answers to their questions.
Students can enhance creative writing skills through the use of a daily diary. Taking what students have learned about the International Space Station, encourage pupils to write a daily account of what life in space might be like. Given the location of the space station, what might they see in space? What might Earth look like from the space station? How would astronauts eat, sleep or communicate with one another? What might it feel like to be in a low-gravity environment? What items would students bring to the space station? Encourage students to write the journal for a week.
A poster depicting students' drawings of the space station can decorate school hallways. Ask children to create a poster of the space station. Write facts about the space station on the poster, such as the names of astronauts currently on the space station, which countries the astronauts are from and how long an astronaut typically serves aboard the space station.