Going into Space

Exploring equipment ideas

In this post we’ll be looking at some sensory equipment that can help transport pupils into space.

Our workshops make use of a range of equipment to help create sounds, lights, images and effects. These help transport children to new places and think about how they might describe them in a written story.

Equipment

In the sections below I’ll be outlining the gear chosen for our space theme session. Not all of this equipment will necessarily be used during the workshop, but forms part of the equipment we think could be effectively used in a classroom.

Space works best if you can have a really good blackout and as with any lighting effect, these will be most effective in that setting.

Please not that the links provided are generally to online stores where you can purchase the lights mentioned. We do not recommend any specific suppliers and these are provide as indicative links only.

Disco Star

This is an all-in-one mirror-ball style lighting effect with no external moving parts. It creates spots of coloured lights around the room which move.

It can be great for space adventures where the points can represent space travel or new and exotic planets to visit.

Once the light is plugged in it will come on within a few seconds. The controls are via small dip switches on the side so you can set colour, speed and even activate a sound responsive mode.

More expensive effects like this exist which allow you to have more nuanced colour variation and greater control over speed etc, but they tend to be much more complicated to setup.

An internet search for ‘Showtec DiscoStar’ will bring up UK sellers. Ours came from Bax Shop and cost around £50: https://www.bax-shop.co.uk/led-light-effect/showtec-disco-star-led-effect

UV

An ultra violet or blacklight effect is often seen in space movies to give an ethereal glow to sections of a space ship. UV light has an interesting effect on anything white and you can also purchase lots of small UV reactive objects online.

Again, there are a plethora of different UV lights available and the type you select is going to depend on how you intend to use it in the workshop. We used an LED PAR light, which is a small, flat-ish light effect with a built in stand. This particular model is fairly low powered so isn’t going to illuminate the whole classroom, but will create a nice small area of UV space. Settings on the back can be altered to make it flash (not advised) and change the brightness.

The light comes on instantly when turned on at the mains and retains all the settings when not in use.

CAMEO UV Par – Unfortunately the model we use has already been discontinued! A nice alternative is the Equinox UV Mini Batten which has no settings to change.