Come join Teacher Tom on another adventure, where we learn Engineering, Space Technology, Robotics, & Exploration in the game Astroneer!

Working together in a private class server, we will explore new worlds, setup bases and colonies, gather resources, build rovers & shuttles, research new technologies, and Engineer our way around the Astroneer Solar System, unlocking Mysteries along the way.

The game of Astroneer is a "Sandbox" style game, meaning there are many different ways to play the game rather than a set few steps to take. It offers the opportunity to use and learn many sciences, including:

Electrical Engineering - Explore Power Generation & learn the pros & cons of Renewable Energies vs. Combustion Generators, setup power networks & battery banks, automatic device switching for power saving modes.

Natural Resource Management - Learn to manage the Gathering, Storage, and Budgeting of Natural Resources, and the Refining and Processing of them to create new Composite Resources for higher Technologies. This includes Investing materials to build better tools to speed up your resource production, and help keep what you've gathered organized everyone can find what they need, and see when we are running short.
Note - We will be discussing the natural & refined resources in the game, and how they are (mostly) real-life materials, and how we use them in real life as well.

Orientation, Navigation, & Pathfinding - Exploring new Planets & Moons is fun, but it can be easy to get lost. This is a great opportunity to learn Orientation skills, and how to mark your path behind you as you explore, so you can find your way home, and help others follow you.

All of these lessons will part of the overall themes of teamwork, and a big focus on how humans are already preparing to Explore & Colonize the Moon, Mars, & new Space Stations in real life, and how these skills will all be needed to make this goals possible.

Schedule of class weeks (with flexibility based on learner skills, progress, & side interests):
1 - Setup Starter Base & Begin Gathering Basic Resources (Resin, Compound, Graphite, Clay, & Soil) & becoming familiar with the game & controls.
2 - Further Explore the surface of Sylva (the start planet) & Start Exploring underground for other Minerals to start Smelting. Malachite for Copper, Laterite for Aluminum, Sphalerite for Zinc, Ammonium for Rocket Fuels, & Quartz for Glass)
3 - Prepare for Launch! We will finish other projects, and build our first Shuttle & pack supplies to launch to Desolo (Sylva's Moon) where we will begin to gather Wolframite and refining it into Tungsten.
4 - Colonizing a Moon. We will establish our new base on Desolo, gather Wolframite, refine it into Tungsten, and collect samples to research and unlock new technologies.
5 - After finishing up on Desolo, we will pack our Tungsten & research samples & head back to Sylva to upgrade our base, and unlock & explore some new technologies.
6 - With our new technologies, including a chemistry lab to combine & process our resources into new ones, we will build a bigger shuttle & pack up for a mission to a whole new planet, Vesania.
7 - On Vesania we will establish another field base, gather Lithium for batteries, Titanite for refining into Titanium, and more research samples for unlocking further technologies, like bigger batteries & larger renewable energy producers.
8 - After returning from Vesania, further upgrading our main base, and tidying up a bit, we will prepare for a new mission to Ice planet Glacio
9 - On Glacio we will gather Hematite, refine it into iron, and use the iron to unlock and build an Atmospheric Condenser. With this, we can gather Argon, use it & Carbon to process the Iron into Steel, and unlock further technologies.
10 - Heading back to home base again for further upgrading, unlocking, and organizing, we will prepare to conquer the hardest planet, Atrox. On this dangerous planet we will be pulling resources from thin-air (using our atmospheric condenser), building a stock of Helium, Methane, & Sulfur Gases for use in our Chemistry Lab. 
11 & 12 - We will use our new technologies to explore anything we missed, and possibly discover some of the odd mysteries found along the way.

All of this will be filled with discussion about how these things are similar or different to things both on Earth, and in space around us.