Elite Educational

Lowe1978 · Oct 30, 2016

So with half term coming to an end my eldest (who's 9) lets slip that he's not done his homework he's supposed to have done over the break. I take a look and he's to prepare a presentation on either Vikings or... space. No brainer eh?

We fire up Elite Dangerous and take a visit to Sol, and start at Mercury. We land on the surface and have a drive around one of the craters, taking lots of pictures. Next up we do a flyby of the Moon and Earth before taking some pictures of Jupiter and Saturn.

I can honestly say that he's learned more about space and the solar system in general in the last hour or so than he would have from watching videos or reading Wikipedia alone. It's been absolutely brilliant seeing various pennies drop as he beings to appreciate the shear scale of the distances involved and how big the Sun is. Thank you Frontier.

MassiveD · Oct 30, 2016

Lowe1978 said:
So with half term coming to an end my eldest (who's 9) lets slip that he's not done his homework he's supposed to have done over the break. I take a look and he's to prepare a presentation on either Vikings or... space. No brainer eh? We fire up Elite Dangerous and take a visit to Sol, and start at Mercury. We land on the surface and have a drive around one of the craters, taking lots of pictures. Next up we do a flyby of the Moon and Earth before taking some pictures of Jupiter and Saturn.

I can honestly say that he's learned more about space and the solar system in general in the last hour or so than he would have from watching videos or reading Wikipedia alone. It's been absolutely brilliant seeing various pennies drop as he beings to appreciate the shear scale of the distances involved and how big the Sun is. Thank you Frontier.

Briliant! +rep

tanman · Oct 30, 2016

Lowe1978 said:
So with half term coming to an end my eldest (who's 9) lets slip that he's not done his homework he's supposed to have done over the break. I take a look and he's to prepare a presentation on either Vikings or... space. No brainer eh? We fire up Elite Dangerous and take a visit to Sol, and start at Mercury. We land on the surface and have a drive around one of the craters, taking lots of pictures. Next up we do a flyby of the Moon and Earth before taking some pictures of Jupiter and Saturn.

I can honestly say that he's learned more about space and the solar system in general in the last hour or so than he would have from watching videos or reading Wikipedia alone. It's been absolutely brilliant seeing various pennies drop as he beings to appreciate the shear scale of the distances involved and how big the Sun is. Thank you Frontier.

buy him a good telescope.

DaveB · Oct 30, 2016

tanman said:
buy him a good telescope.

Or use him as an excuse to convince She Who Must Be Obeyed to let go of the purse strings and buy YOURSELF one, which he can use occasionally

Lowe1978 · Oct 30, 2016

DaveB said:
Or use him as an excuse to convince She Who Must Be Obeyed to let go of the purse strings and buy YOURSELF one, which he can use occasionally

I like your thinking

Mohrgan · Oct 30, 2016

What an awesome story. If the need for info on Vikings ever comes up again, let me know. I am kind of an enthusiast of that time in history. o7

Ashnak · Oct 30, 2016

And if his teacher complains about "computer games" not being a valid resource for serious school homework, you can always refer them to this Reddit thread (does Reddit have threads? No idea what they're called).

MassiveD · Oct 30, 2016

Ashnak said:
And if his teacher complains about "computer games" not being a valid resource for serious school homework, you can always refer them to this Reddit thread (does Reddit have threads? No idea what they're called).

no f*eaking way O.O

Also just in case you guys didn't know:

[video=youtube;eSvdINKhOwU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSvdINKhOwU[/video]