Tortugas Espaciales - Space Apps Challenge

Tortugas Espaciales| Create a Mascot

Create a Mascot

The world is full of scientific information that can help us make informed decisions and take action. However, that information is not always accessible to young learners. Your challenge is to create a mascot that can help make learning about Earth and space science more fun and welcoming for younger audiences.

“KITIU”,FOR THE NOW AND THE FUTURE

Summary

We are convinced that knowledge is power, that children and young people are the now and the future of the Earth, so through our project we seek to reach them, this generation that does not yet have the pleasure of discovering what a starry night can offer them and the importance of environmental care. We want children to learn more about Earth and Space Sciences, to develop their imagination and creativity, and to dream because Kitiu, besides teaching, also helps them to get excited and educated in the wonderful Science of Space.

How We Addressed This Challenge

We developed a robot, very friendly and fun. Kitiu is multifunctional, it moves by means of a big propeller which it keeps when it starts transmitting information. It has a wheel on the bottom, which helps it to move around when it is on dry land. It also has articulated arms that serve as pincers. The purpose of its arms is to collect recyclable waste, and to teach children how to use these resources.

We believe that this is very important, because in addition to teaching and instructing the world of space science and environmental care of our Earth. Kitiu, through the projections of her metal eyes, gives information in real time about NASA, astronomy, space science, also data about what is happening on Earth, climate changes, which have brought as consequences many negative factors to the environment, so Kitiu teaches children how to take care of the Earth, in various ways such as planting, the importance of recycling, reusing, and can also make free meetings of leaders, be they scientists, astronauts, teachers, among others. With this we hope to get children and also their parents to have fun learning about space and the Earth.

How We Developed This Project

We have witnessed how children lack the knowledge and miss out on these incredible astronomical events. In addition, on many occasions in schools, they feel obliged to carry out environmental care projects, so they are not very satisfied with planting a plant, and they find it boring. We are very excited about this opportunity, since children with Kitiu will be able to embark on this journey of space discovery, when observing the celestial bodies, stars, it will awaken in them the curiosity to continue investigating doing it in a fun way.

They will also be excited about having a home garden, recycling plastic bottles, and taking care of their Earth because their future depends on this, otherwise the next generation would be affected by pollution. Furthermore, the other reason why we chose this project is because the Kitiu robot also helps you not to abandon your dreams, because there are few children who dream of going to space (and those who once dreamed, gave up on them), but many times When adults think that it is difficult, they make the child give up, so Kitiu excites the infant not to abandon them. Our focus is the little ones since we know that all children are curious and full of creativity, that is why we want to motivate them to share ideas, investigate, and learn to be heard by sharing that knowledge with others.

We have not used any coding language, only sheets, pencil and our creativity. We draw Kitiu, he has a cylindrical body, his head is half a sphere and he moves with a large helix, followed by that we paint him with tempera and watercolor. To tell the truth, it was difficult, because we weren't quite sure what to do, and there were a lot of sketches. We didn't have a clear idea of what to create, until we did it.

How We Used Space Agency Data in This Project

The data provided by NASA, CSA, in addition to NASA's Globe Cloud; played an important role in the development of Kitiu, since the images that they provided us with were the reason why we developed Kitiu. We did this by researching and observing in depth the images from NASA's libraries and CSA's image gallery, as a reference of the space missions, taking inspiration from the Rovers, the helicopter that flies over Mars and the satellites, to design a faster, different and multifunctional robot with a touch of modernity. Therefore, the base color of Kitiu is inspired by the white suits of the astronauts. And the light blue and green stripes are representations of the colors of the earth's nature referring to the theme of environmental care with the data from Globe.

Project Demo

Demo: https://drive.google.com/file/d/15WLiProlG0PIdvu_UNFFM9Gb5YzVAORO/view?usp=sharing

Document: https://docs.google.com/document/d/17EtJrJZ8ZQaGQUBap4getAKRaAS4khsXFFo_i7HecFw/edit?usp=sharing

Web Site: https://sites.google.com/view/kitiu/inicio

Data & Resources

Judging

This project was submitted for consideration during the Space Apps Judging process.