The Golden Record has a collection of songs, sounds, greetings and images of Earth. So, each student chose a song, sound, greeting and picture to represent them. They put all of this information on a website that they created. Next year, we’re thinking it would be a good fit at the beginning of the year. It allows you to learn more about your students, so it would be an awesome getting to know you activity. It is also a great way to embed digital skills with content, especially since our 6th grade students are going 1:1 with Chromebooks next year. Students used Google Suite products (Google Classroom, Google Slides, Google Drive, Google Docs and Google Sites) to share their information. If your school doesn’t use Google products, there are other ways, but Google is the most user friendly. We used the Science Learning through Engineering Design (SLED) structure, mentioned in previous blog posts. The great thing about the SLED structure is that it has both an individual component and team component, so students get to share their voice, but also need to learn how to collaborate with others for a successful product. It’s not just a science project. It also involves language arts, social studies, technology and engineering standards. It is a very student-driven project. We were guides and facilitators. We would begin each day with a recap of what we’d done the previous day and what student tasks needed to be completed. Mission ObjectivesHere are the objectives that students were working on achieving by the end of the project. Content and language objectives are part of the SIOP Model, which is to help educators meet the needs of English Language Learners. I've also found that it's a great way to begin a lesson and allows for consistency. I have different students read the objectives. When planning a lesson, it helps me pinpoint what exactly I want the kiddos to do. I think it also helps the kiddos be in the know. For big projects, I write a set of objectives that I want the students to meet by the end of the project. I don't write separate ones each day. Content Objectives: (What are we going to learn about?)
Day 1> Design brief - Paragraph summary of background information related to the challenge. After students read the design brief, they are able to identify the following elements listed below. > Identification - Problem, Goal, Client, End-user, Criteria, Constraints > Individual Design Chart - 3 potential options for each category (song, sound, picture and greeting) and reason for each option. If you run out of class time for students to work on this, it would be a good homework assignment. It's all about them and their opinions, so it's not something that they need explanation or much support. Day 2> Finish Individual Chart, if needed > Team Brainstorm - The focus was on sharing ALL of their options for ONLY one of the four categories (image, song, sound OR greeting) from their Individual Chart. We told students to choose a category that they were having a hard time narrowing down to one option and would benefit from feedback. Each student had uninterrupted time to share their options from their chosen category. This was followed by warm and cool feedback statements from group members. > Create Google Site -> Each lab group created one Google Site. Each group member got one page on the group site. Students had to create a descriptive title. Add ALL group members as collaborators. Add one page/student in the group. Day 3> Work Time - Individual Design Tasks Students worked through a checklist and had specific components for each category (picture, song, sound and greeting). Students were able to view Screencastify video demonstrations to help them with these tasks, if needed. Day 4> Work Time - Individual Design Tasks continued Day 5The Documentary is available to purchase on the PBS website or you can watch it on Netflix, Amazon or iTunes. We did not have time to watch the documentary, but it is a great resource. It is ~97 minutes long. **Depending on the age of your students, be aware that there are images of the human body and reproductive system at minute 9 and minute . It would be good to watch before the unit, during the unit (15 mins/day) or afterwards as a wrap-up activity. > Reflection - Journal Entry Questions > Web Design Reveal - Students had their website pages up on their Chromebook screens. Students rotated to another group member's seat and reviewed their website page. They were able to listen to the song chosen. Students shared warm and cool feedback on post-its. Warm and cool feedback is something we'd working on before. Warm feedback is a statement that starts with I like how... and provides positive observations of the work . Cool feedback is a statement that starts with I wonder if... and provide ideas for improvement. The best part of the project was reading student reflection after the project. Students answered questions in a Google Form. Some questions were rating scales, but we got the most information from were the open ended questions. I was so impressed with the thought and consideration that they put into their answers: - Before this design challenge I... - After this design challenge I... - How would you describe this project/what you learned/were able to do? Here are some student statements to answer the last question. "This project was definitely one of my favorites this year. I loved how you got to mix your personal life with a awesome space project. I learned how to use google sites, and I learned space and many other things can tie to you in many ways." The logbook, video demonstration links and The Farthest- Voyager in Space Documentary questions will be added to my TPT store.
Peace, love and space exploration, - CAPCOM Conrad
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Probably not, but with the crazy weather Indiana has been having, you can sled on Earth in April! Last summer I attended the Science Learning through Engineering Design (SLED) Summer Institute. SLED is a Purdue University program funded by an NSF Math Science Partnership and is a true collaboration among several schools and departments. It was a great hands-on experience and I took a lot from it; including how to set-up and use a notebook, vocabulary and the overall SLED structure. SLED is targeted for 3rd-6th grade students, but I definitely think it can be used in other grade levels. SLED has curriculum available for many different science and engineering standards. The curriculum available is great, but what I find the most value in, is the structure and questioning. The structure is simple, yet powerful. The best part is how meaningful and interactive it is for the students. I've been able to see this firsthand. The collaboration and conversations students have with each other is awesome!! SLED allows each student to be individually involved in their learning while also working with their peers. Students have to make choices and defend their decisions. The structure and terminology remains consistent regardless of content or standards being covered. I have been able to co-plan 2 units with my awesome coworker Jaime using the SLED structure and incorporate space exploration! The first unit was Lunar Landers about a month ago and the second unit is next week. It's all about the Voyager Spacecraft and the Golden Record! Stay tuned for updates on that. We're really excited about it!! Lunar LanderThe Lunar Lander lesson we modified was a NASA PBS Design Squad Challenge called Touchdown. It is one of six space-themed engineering design challenges in the On the Moon Activity Guide. Our modifications included putting the activity in the SLED structure, utilizing the LAUNCH Cycle (Design Thinking Framework) and Innovator's Compass. Exploring Beyond (2:36) - NASA Johnson This is a great video to get kiddos hooked. I saw it for the first time at a Space Center U Teacher Professional Development at Space Center Houston last summer. SLED STructure1) Design brief - Create a short story that gives meaning, purpose and connection to the activity. Students read a couple paragraphs to determine background information. 2) Identification - Using the design brief, students identify the following & record it.
4) Team Design - All teammates share individual designs and provide ONLY positive feedback. Best way to do this is to have a time limit (1 min) and review expectations for this process.
6) Test - Each team tests their design. *Determine how design will be tested BEFORE testing. 7) Communication - Share results
8) Improve and redesign Check out the Kiddos in ActionAssessment OptionsThis whole design challenge process is a performance assessment. A) Formative Assessment happens throughout this process with the logbook. - Observing student designs and asking them to explain the different features and why they chose them. - Listening in on team design brainstorms. It's a great way to evaluate team dynamic, group member's collaboration and students' abilities to persuade, defend and support their ideas. B) Summative Assessment - Checkpoints - Team Design Data - Did the design meet the requirements, constraints and solve the problem? - Science content -> How is the student able to explain? - Overall Evaluation Rubric - Redesign -> How did they makes changes to improve their design? Instead of using a notebook, we used the SLED structure to create a logbook for students to fill in. Each day we had mission checkpoints. After testing, students also answered journal entry questions to reflect on the process. Students recorded a FlipGrid video to describe their lunar landing from the astronaut's perspective. **I will be adding our logbook to my TPT store. Tech Tool: FlipgridThis awesome tech tool was also introduced to me at Space Center Houston last summer. It is FREE for educators! At first I wasn't sure how I would use it with my kiddos, but it's a great tool for your toolbox. It gives students another way to respond. You create a grid, give students the code and they can record their own video response to questions or prompts that you ask. Like many new tools, especially technology, I would highly recommend reviewing expectations, appropriate responses and commenting, etc. I tell my students that technology is a privilege and they need to use it correctly as an educational tool. *Note:It does requires a device with a camera to use. Settings/Options - Moderator - Allows you to view student videos BEFORE they are added to the grid. - Design - Allows students to add stickers - Reply capabilities - View, rate, comment and/or record a reply post - Rubric and evaluate them. - The free version allows a maximum of 90 second record time. Students love talking with peers, sharing their individual thoughts and ideas, responding to others and making videos, so why not allow them to harness this excitement educationally? I hope that you're able to use some, if not all, of this in your classroom! I've been very happily busy co-designing and teaching projects that I'm excited about. Therefore, I am behind on updating my TPT store with resources. It's a summer project, if not before.
Peace, love and space exploration, -CAPCOM Conrad My first project as a SEEC Crew member was the Hidden Figures Unit that I created over my Spring Break almost a year ago, which is hard to believe! I really enjoyed creating the unit and teaching it to my kiddos. I also saw the value and interest that my students took in it and enjoyed sharing the journey on my blog. When I created the unit, I just taught it to my homeroom students at first. I was not trying to keep it from others, but I wanted to wrap my head around it and see how it all worked before sharing it with others. It was like a pilot program and I made changes throughout the unit as I found more helpful resources. I've been excited to hear that other teachers have been sharing the Hidden Figures Young Readers Edition book with their kiddos too. A few teachers at my school are actually reading it with their kiddos right now. A couple weeks ago, a teacher asked if there was an audio recording of the book. I thought I had found a lot of the resources available and I have to admit that a recording was not something that I had ever searched for during this process! In case you're curious, an audiobook does exist. We thought that it be a great project for students though; creating their own version of an audiobook. We wanted it to be more than just a recording however. So, each group is assigned a chapter and they're focused on identifying the characters and key vocabulary. They will also write a chapter summary and create a wordle to represent the chapter. All of this information will be typed in Google Slides. Using the resources available to students, their Chromebooks, we decided the best tool for them to use was Screencastify. Tech Tool Feature: ScreencastifyScreencastify is an extension for Google Chrome. You can add it to Chrome for free by using the webstore. What's great about Screencastify is that it's easy to use and with the free version, you can record videos up to 10 minutes. I'll be honest, I found that out because I reached the limit! Screencastify allows you to record your voice over your desktop or if you have a webcam, you can also record a video. Since Screencastify is a Chrome extension, it creates a folder in your Google Drive and automatically stores all of your videos there! It acts like any other files in Google Drive, so you are able to share it too. I've been using it to record my desktop and create demonstration videos to teach students how to do something (like create an action plan in Google Sheets). It's a great way to meet the needs of your visual and auditory learners. They are able to watch the video at their own pace and pause it, if need be. It allows students who have been absent to catch up and allows teachers to save their voice from repeated directions. Book Shout OUtA Hidden Figures picture book was released in January and it's great! It's by the same author (Margot Lee Shetterly) and is titled Hidden Figures: The True Story of Four Black Women in the Space Race. It's a good way to build background for students before reading the Young Readers Edition, as a way to share the story with younger students or you don't have time to tackle the Young Readers Edition. I would highly recommend it. The illustrations by Laura Freeman are eye-catching and full of color and the book is informative and entertaining. You may know that Scott Kelly has a book for lifelong learners called Endurance: A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery. I haven't read it because I'm currently engrossed with Riding Rockets - The Outrageous Tales of a Space Shuttle Astronaut by: Astronaut Mike Mullane . You may not know that Scott Kelly also has a picture book called My Journey to the Stars. It's a great combination of illustrations by Andre Ceolin and pictures that connect with a younger audience. In the book, Scott talks about events as a kid and his life as an astronaut. See what he says about the book, in his own words below. The students are in the midst of this Hidden Figures Podcast Project. As they progress, I'll be sure to share!! In my true fashion, I have created resources and a rubric, of course, that would allow you to create your own project in your classroom. As soon as formatting is complete, I'll be putting it in my Teachers Pay Teacher store. Tinkercad resources will be added soon as well. Students are using Screencastify to create a virtual tour of their solar system!! This week, I'm co-teaching what we're calling, Mission Days. We've adapted the NASA & PBS Design Squad Touchdown lesson to incorporate the Purdue SLED (Science Learning through Engineering Design) structure. I've been thrilled to continue to also share space exploration outside the classroom as I embark on my second year in space. A few teachers have been showing the PBS Documentary, A Year in Space , that chronicles Scott Kelly's journey, to their classes. One teacher asked if she could borrow it to take home because she had been talking about it and her husband really wanted to see it. A couple of nights ago when I went out to dinner, the host stopped me. I was wearing my Crew jacket and he asked what my patch was. I explained that I was a teacher who was working on lessons to teach space exploration. His response was "dope". From a teenage boy, I would say that's a pretty big compliment! I can't wait to update you more on all of these awesome space happenings! Until then... Peace, love and space exploration,
- CAPCOM Conrad Ever wonder why Russians use the term cosmonaut to refer to an astronaut? Well, part of the answer is in Greek. The Greek word nautes means sailor. The Greek word astron means star. The word kosmos means universe. So, cosmonaut means universe sailor and astronaut means star sailor. Now, you know! I included this in the glossary of the Mission Logbooks I made as for my space-themed class. I put together a variety of activities to teach 3-5th Grade students at Purdue’s Gifted Education Resource Institute (GERI) Super Fall Program. I’m sure this comes as no surprise when I say that my class was all about space. I also created a new word to describe my students, méllonaut. Méllo means future in Greek. So, my students were future sailors training for a future in space. After all, they are the Mars Generation! The rest of the day's activities were a combination from a variety of sources; NASA, Indianapolis Children's Museum Beyond Spaceship Earth PD and SEEC sessions. I separated the activities into phases: Preparation, Training for Space, Take Off, In Space and Returning to Earth. A great book to pair with the activities was Becoming a Spacewalker : My Journey to the Stars by: Astronaut and Boilermaker Jerry L. Ross . > Preparation First, each méllonaut created a mission patch to represent themselves and they put these in buttons that they could wear all day! > Training for Space Before making the journey through our solar system, you need to be aware of what it is. Our solar system is so large that it's difficult to really grasp the concept of size. For students to get a better idea, we used some hands-on activities. Using JPL's Solar System Bead Activity, méllonauts constructed a scaled model of the solar system. It's a great and unique way for kids to visualize how far away the planets are and how large our solar system is. Tips for using in your classroom: pre-cut the string, make sure you have a variety of bead colors. Based on the scale listed, each kid gets 5m of string. I would recommend decreasing the scale or having students attach the beads without using knots. Since we were at Purdue, families could take advantage of the awesome Voss model - an outdoor scaled model of the solar system - dedicated to Janice L. Voss, a Purdue alum and astronaut. they were able to record their observations in their mission logbook that I created. If you can't visit it in person, you can take a virtual tour! > Take Off Communication is a vital part of being successful on space missions and life in general. Students created structures out of legos. The structure was their choice, but they had to name, draw and label their structure. Then, they had to write a how-to-build my structure. This may have been the most difficult task of the day. I would recommend limited the amount of legos that can be used on the amount of time for building and writing. > In Space Being able to notice similarities and differences and make observations and predictions allows us to be ready for obstacles that may arise as well as prevent problems from occurring. Students did a mini-experiment by rehydrating bananas to experience the difference between eating on Earth and eating in space. Students recorded their before and after observations. We also watched some video clips of Former ISS Commander Chris Hadfield preparing a meal in space. The favorite activity of the day was the EVA! Méllonauts walked down the hallway with their regular shoes and built a tower out of ten blocks. Then, they completed the same activities with moon shoes! Both activities were timed to be able to compare and contrast. >Landing The final activity of the day was to build a lunar lander. Using the structure from SLED (Science Learning Through Engineering Design), students identified key components of their task and were able to test their structure and suggest modifications for future improvements. I'm constantly trying to share space information with others and was happy to be able to wear this shirt proudly on my honeymoon in Maui, Hawaii! I was so honored to be asked to share my Year in Space Experience with my alma mater. You can check it out! My Superintendent interviewed me about My Year in Space on our district podcast, Inside the Rock! I was episode 13 on December and my Genius Hour Session that week was titled, Houston, We Have a Problem. So, you bet I didn't miss that Apollo 13 connection! You can listen here! I've been MIA planning a wedding and getting married. Although my last name is changing, my call sign and enthusiasm for space in not! Stay tuned for a unit on an awesome new book, Lost in Outer Space - The Incredible Journey of Apollo 13 by: Todd Olson and an update on Genius Hour at my school!!
Peace, love and space exploration, -CAPCOM Conrad No matter how you say it, it’s still cool to get tomato seeds from space! Never would I thought that tomatoes had any connection to space until I signed up for Tomatosphere. I was really excited when my Tomatosphere seeds arrived a few days ago. I am constantly amazed at how space education connects to just about everything. I am more and more aware of it throughout my year in space as I’m looking at things through a space lens. Not to mention, it’s such a high interest area for students. It’s a great way to get them excited and engaged. I have never done this program before, but have heard great things from people who have. It’s a free program that teachers can sign up for. When your seeds arrive, you will a control group of seeds that have remained on Earth as well as an experimental group of seeds that have traveled to space and been on the ISS. Tomatosphere has curriculum resources; questions and investigations to get your kids thinking. I wanted to see how this project could connect to other curricular areas outside of the science realm. So, I’m sure this is no surprise, I created a Tomatosphere Unit. My goal was to connect this to as many subjects as possible and provide resources I found that would help this. After all, when students are able to make connections, it’s more meaningful! The Overall Driving Questions: I also tried to think about driving questions that could create a purpose for specific subject area contributions.
The Unit Overview includes suggestions for activities in your classroom based on content area. Things can be modified to fit K-12 students just like the Tomatosphere program is designed to do. It is by no means a complete list of every possible activity or resource, but hopefully it is a starting point that you find helpful for you and your students. Click below to download or find it on my TeachersPayTeachers store.
Thank you to Tomatosphere for the program, First the Seed Foundation for your US partnership, SpaceX for transporting the seeds, the astronauts who unpacked and repacked the seeds and all organizations and people involved with this process. What an awesome opportunity for teachers and students!
Now I wonder... what impact will this program have? Peace, love and space exploration, CAPCOM Conrad signing off My heart goes out to all of those affected by Hurricane Harvey, Hurricane Irma and the Columbia River Gorge Wildfire. Although I do not live in Texas, Florida or Oregon, my heart is in all of these places. Hurricane Harvey impacted Houston, Texas and surrounding areas. The heart of my year in space is there. Space Center Houston hosted the Space Exploration Educators Conference, which is where this whole journey began. I was fortunate enough to return to Houston at the end of July for an amazing Professional Development with my fellow SEEC Crew mates. The wildfires are still raging along the Columbia River Gorge in Oregon. A piece of my heart is there because it's where I got engaged. My fiance and I kayaked on the Columbia River the day we got engaged. We throughly enjoyed out waterfall hikes and beautiful drives along the Gorge . Hurricane Irma will be making landfall in Florida within the next few days. I have visited Florida several times and always enjoy the beach. Remember I live in land-locked Indiana. I hope to visit Kennedy Space Center one day and see a launch. I have been able to read a variety of articles and watch videos from different media sources. Since I family and friends who live in Texas and Florida, I have also been able to see their personal experiences via social media. As an adult, it's difficult to process these events. As a child, I would venture to guess it's a whole different ballgame. Lack of understanding of the science behind these events probably contributes to their confusion, uncertainty and concern. I was trying to wrap my head around how I could be helpful so far away. I wanted to help teachers and students. I was also curious what connections could be made to space education. Therefore, I created a unit to answer the driving questions: What is the lasting impact of natural disasters on people and the environment they live in? Download the unit below or on my Teachers Pay Teachers store for free.
Note: I used 5th and 6th Grade Indiana Academic Standards for Science and Media Literacy, but it can be used in other subjects and grade levels. It is not an exhaustive list of everything about natural disasters, but hopefully provides resources that you can use in your classroom to spark awesome student learning. NASA continues to amaze me as I further explore all that it has to offer. It may be stuck in people's minds as a space agency, but what many may not realize is what they do is so relevant to Earth and can be helpful in our daily lives.
NASA Spinoff is a yearly publication that highlights how NASA research is used in commercial products. You can get a copy or print off pdfs from 1976- present. NASA SPoRT (Short-term Prediction Results and Transition Center) is a "is a NASA project to transition unique observations and research capabilities to the operational weather community to improve short-term forecasts on a regional scale." The International Space Station's mantra is off the earth, for the earth . The research done through CASIS, who runs the U.S. ISS National Laboratory, is Science in space to benefit life on Earth. Images from astronauts aboard station allow us to see and understand Earth in ways we never could before. If nothing else, it helps me realize how connected we are and how we, as Earthlings, can learn from and help each other in this journey we call life. Gus was killed in the Apollo 1 fire with his crewmates Roger Chaffee and Ed White. Learning from this terrible tragedy is a major reason why we were able to land on the moon. Peace, love and space exploration, CAPCOM Conrad signing off. SAFETY is the number 1 PRIORITY! Remind your students that they should NEVER look directly at the sun! Regular sunglasses will NOT completely protect your eyes. You can get solar eclipse viewing glasses, but you need to make sure they have been verified for safety. The American Astronomical Society has a list here. As an alternative to eclipse glasses, students can construct a viewer using a cereal box, aluminum foil and tape. Photo Credit: NASA In case you haven't heard, a total solar eclipse is happening on Monday August 21st! Everyone in North America will be able to see it to some degree, depending upon your location. If you aren't excited, you should be! I attended an awesome session at SEEC about how to use the solar eclipse in the classroom. I did NOT create these resources, but wanted to share them, so that you can can teach the solar eclipse in YOUR classroom!! The path of totality looks like a diagonal line from Oregon to South Carolina. If you're outside the US or a low percentage of totality, you can see a 3-D simulation by downloading the desktop or web app. The last total solar eclipse was in 1999, but the last total solar eclipse seen by the US (contiguous) was 1979.
NSTA PublicationThis has been adapted from the book Solar Science by: Denise Schatz and Andrew Fraknoi, published by the National Science Teachers Association. Bill Nye & The Totally Awesome Total Eclipse Each episode in this 4 part series is 3-4 minutes. You can also download a great activity book. Check out The Planetary Society for more. The Moon's Role in a Solar Eclipse (2:34) - NASAWhy a total Solar Eclipse is such a big deal (5:24) VoxThis video gives great background and uses scientific terminology. Whether you want to refresh your knowledge or show it to your class, it's a solid resource. Solar Eclipse of the Heart (1:45) - Warby ParkerThis parody of Bonnie Tyler's 1983 hit "Total Eclipse of the Heart" is something your students will enjoy! If you're not sure how you can use this in your classroom, don't worry! NASA has got you covered. Regardless of your grade level or content area, this major event can be a learning opportunity for ALL of your students!!
Other Resources to provide background:
Libraries across the country are also hosting Eclipse Events. Click to find a participating library nearest you on the map. Peace, love and space exploration,
CAPCOM Conrad signing off Despite what you may think, Indiana did not have a blizzard, nor did I create my own snow. So, how is sledding possible in June? Well, SLED is an acronym that stands for Science Learning through Engineering Design. It is a program through Purdue University, funded by a targeted Math Science Partnership NSF Grant. It was first implemented in intermediate classrooms in 2011. My alma mater is AWESOME!!!!! **If you're an NSTA member, you can read about the program for free. The article is called "Shedding Light on Engineering Design" . It was published by: Brenda M. Capobianco, Chell Nyquist, and Nancy Tyrie in the Science and Children Journal in January 2013. If you're not a member, it's only $1 to read. ** My binder and design notebook. You can see my individual plan and my group's plan for our solar tracker. I attended the 2017 SLED Summer Institute. It was a fantastic full-day PD, targeted by grade level (6th Grade). I'm excited to be teaching 6th Grade Science and Social Studies this fall, a change from last year!! Man, was it useful! I walked away with so many resources that I can implement in my classroom and wanted to share. What exactly is SLED? The purpose of SLED, as the name suggests, is to support science concepts using the engineering design process and hands-on tasks. It makes the science concepts more meaningful with a real-world connection and creation of a physical prototype or product. It also gets away from the idea that there is only one correct answer or way to solve a problem. It encourages problem solving and creativity. It is targeted for 3rd - 6th Grade students, but there are extension activities that would allow use in older grades as well. What is great about all of the tasks is the ease of cross curricular connections; math and literacy. It is a great structure for an interactive science notebook. Rubrics are also available to grade design notebooks, collaboration, redesigns and activity wrap-ups. What did we do? We started the day with Candy Bag, an activity focused more on the process and less on the science content. I plan on using this in my classroom at the beginning of the year as a way to build classroom community, encourage collaboration and explain the procedures and expectations for these activities the rest of the year. For Candy Bag, students could measure height, length, and width, calculate volume, surface area and cost of their bag. Students could also write a letter persuading a company to purchase their bag. It would also fit well with Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory by: Roald Dahl. What's the Space Connection? We spent most of the afternoon doing Solar Tracker, a design task focused on building an apparatus to collect solar energy throughout the year. This is a great way to assess student understanding of seasons, direct and indirect rays, and positioning of the earth. Like all of the SLED design tasks, math (measuring angles) and literacy (Secrets of the Seasons: Orbiting the Sun in Our Backyard by: Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld) are easy to incorporate. ****AMAZING RESOURCE ALERT!!!***** I would like to thank the Astronomy Education Department at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln for creating these Astronomy Simulations, Animations and Interactives. -> Specific Simulation used for Solar Tracker http://astro.unl.edu/naap/motion1/animations/seasons_ecliptic.html Able to change the view (sun or side of Earth), position on Earth, and date. All Animations and Simulations, grouped by topics: http://astro.unl.edu/animationsLinks.html An entire activity list for student practice, grouped by concepts, is available here: http://astro.unl.edu/interactives/ How can YOU use this in your classroom?
1) Go to stemedhub.org/groups/sled 2) Create a FREE account. *Don't forget to confirm your e-mail. 3) Click on the Design Resources tab on the left hand side. 4) Browse the List of Design Activities, separated by Grade Level *Each activity listed shows has the key concepts and brief description of the design task. 5) Click on the name of the activity. 6) Download for FREE! Peace, love and space exploration, CAPCOM Conrad No, I have not been selected to be a 2017 astronaut candidate. Let me clarify, this is not very surprising, since I didn't apply, but I didn't want to confuse anyone with my announcement on the same date. Let me take a second however, to send a huge Congratulations to all of the #NewAstronauts ! Big kudos to Loral O'Hara, fellow Purdue grad!! JSC is awesome! I support you and can't wait to see what you accomplish on this amazing adventure and of course share what you learn with my kiddos! I am also still awaiting my purchase of Lego's newest debut, the Saturn V rocket. It's making history as the tallest and highest number of elements set! Any. Day. Now. Last, but not least, I want to give a huge shout out to my earthly exploring brother and all of those who embarked on the TransAmerican route of their Journey of Hope. It's a cross-country cycling trip raising awareness and funds to support The Ability Experience . Read on to find out my BIG news. Above is the spaceship I designed for the Star Fleet exhibit created by artist Kiel Johnson at Space Center Houston in February. I chose a backpack with pencil rocket boosters to represent a Teacher's Year in Space. Now, on to My Big Debut... I am officially on TeacherspayTeachers. My store is called CAPCOM Conrad's Creations. I doubt the name is a shock to any of you. The Hidden Figures Young Readers Edition Unit Overview is available for a FREE download by clicking on the link below. **This is an updated version from my previous post.
www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Capcom-Conrads-Creations Check my store for the following documents available to purchase. All are referred to and described in more detail in the Unit Overview. Comprehension 1) Comprehension questions - separated by chapter and heading for the ENTIRE book Assessments 2) Summative Assessments Study Guide - Open Book and Reader's Response 3) Open Book Comprehension Assessment 4) Reader's Response Assessment 5) Performance Assessment Directions 6) Performance Assessment Rubric 7) Performance Assessment Gallery Walk 8) Book Cover Design and Rubric Supporting Activities 9) Runnin' by: Pharrell Williams - Song Lyric Analysis 10) Activity to accompany the Spaceflight video on Brainpop 11) Activity to accompany the History of Computers video on Brainpop I would LOVE to hear from you! Comment and/or question on my blog or my TPT store. Peace, love and space exploration, - CAPCOM Conrad Signing Off |
AuthorApollo 13 fan. Educator. Lifelong Learner. Third generation Boilermaker. Space Exploration Enthusiast. Collaborator. Click Subscribe to stay updated!Archives
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