Story Prompts - Grades 2-4
Story Starter #1
Dr. Laurel Clark had an eight-year-old son who was waiting for her to come home. If you could write a card to him, what would you say?
Story Starter #2 There are many pieces of the shuttle, which have fallen. If you were out walking and found a piece, what would you do?
Story Starter #3 Only the very best people get to be astronauts. Many are thought of as heroes. If you could take a ride on a space shuttle some day, do you think you would want to?
Story Starter #4 Being in space is very different than it is here on earth. What do you think it is like up there in the space shuttle?
Story Starter #7
Seven astronauts died Saturday. Their aircraft, the Columbia, exploded in the air. It was about to land and something went wrong. Some of the astronauts had children your age. If you could talk to one of the children, what would you say?
Story Starter #8
Colonel Ilan Ramon was an astronaut. He was the first astronaut from Israel. His mother lived during a very bad time for Jewish people called the Holocaust. Colonel Ramon took a picture drawn by a young Jewish Czech boy with him on the trip into space. He took the picture to honor the people who died in the Holocaust. If you could send something with an astronaut, what would you send? Why?
Story Starter #9
Colonel Michael P. Anderson, the mission's Payload Commander and the first African-American in space, said he had wanted to travel in space ever since he first watched Star Trek and Lost in Space. Do you think television programs influence your thinking? Why or why not?
Story Starter #10
The United States suffered a great tragedy this weekend when the space shuttle Columbia exploded over central Texas before its scheduled landing at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. All seven astronauts on board were killed. When I watched the news on TV telling about this horrible accident, I could see the pain and shock on the faces of the reporters and NASA experts who sadly searched for words to explain what might have caused this horrible accident. I feel ______________ about what happened because ....
Story Starter #11
Saturday, February 1, 2003, was a tragic day for the United States space program. Seven astronauts lost their lives when something went wrong as the Space Shuttle Columbia was coming back to Earth from space. These five men and two women worked very hard for months, and sometimes, years, to get prepared to travel in space. Being an astronaut was a dream that many, if not all, of these seven astronauts had since they were young. Write a story to describe what you want to be when you grow up and what you think you will enjoy about it.
Story Starter #12
The sun was shining. Cartoons were on TV. It was the start of a good day! Then a rocket blew up, and everything changed. ...
Story Prompts - Grades 4-9
Story Starter #1 When Dr. Laurel Clark went up in the space shuttle Columbia, she expected it to not only be fun, but to be the experience of a lifetime. Do you think she would still have agreed with her initial thoughts by the time they were ready to come home? Why?
Story Starter #2 When a disaster happens in the space program, some people say that we should never have been up there in the first place. What do you think of that idea?
Story Starter #3 Battery technologies, global positioning satellite technology, digital television, cell phones, and the computers we all use today are a direct or indirect result of the space program. Where do you think our technology would be today without it?
Story Starter #4 Sometimes we forget how dangerous it is to go up into space. The three disasters that have happened to the space program help to remind us of this. If you had a dream to be an astronaut, would those dangers stop you from trying to pursue that dream?
Story Starter #5
The Space Shuttle Columbia was important to our explorations in space because....
Story Starter #6
I will always remember what I was doing on the day that the Space Shuttle Columbia did not return to earth. On the morning of February 1, 2003, I was....
Story Starter #7
Dr. Kalpana Chawla, a Mission Specialist on the Columbia, was told in her native India that being an engineer was not a respectable career for a woman. Her determination to be an engineer took her through college, to the United States, and into the space program. What do you think her example means to young women in India and in the whole world?
Story Starter #8
Saturday, February 1, 2003, was a tragic day for the United States space program. Seven astronauts lost their lives when something went wrong as the Space Shuttle Columbia was re-entering the Earth's atmosphere from space. The Space Shuttle started coming apart about 200,000 feet above Texas. These astronauts were selected from different cultures, races, and religious backgrounds - one was born in India and one lived in Israel. The mission in which these astronauts were on shows how our world can come together to achieve a single goal. Write a story to describe one or several other ways in which you think our world could come together to achieve a common goal.
Story Starter #9
The seven astronauts were almost home. They had completed a 16-day mission. Their families were waiting for them. It should have been a great day, but it turned into a tragedy. I wonder how those families will cope with all the news coverage. It must make the grieving harder. I think ...
