Mission to stars: A Science and Technology educational project on astronomy, spatial missions and scientific research

In Science Education, students must develop scientific skills, that are specified as a part of the scientific disciplines in the Spanish Secondary Education (12-16 years old) Syllabus as "Research Project". Inquiry-Based Science Education and Project-Based Learning are candidate methodological approaches to these goals. We have designed and applied a "Research Project" activity in the context of Astronomy teaching at the 1st year of the Compulsory Secondary Education. Students planify a spatial mission, designing experiments, identifying and locating celestial bodies and their distances, constructing a 3D model of an orbital telescope, its budget and its automated computer routines. The project is described together with the obtained results, including a survey, a test and the students' productions. Students' conceptions on the structure of the Universe are analyzed and didactic frames for the development of Inquiry Projects are proposed.