The idea that innovation is necessary was cemented for me this past spring. We, as teachers had to be flexible and adapt. This is definitely a strength of educators, but the situation was unexpected and to some degrees we weren't prepared. To prepare our students for an unknown future, innovation is crucial.
How are we going to help our students continue to move forward, regardless of the format of "school"?
Design challenges may be my favorite thing to create and teach! I love being able to have students more meaningfully connect with content in a hands on way. Their creativity continues to blows me away. Providing them with the structure (criteria and constraints) allows me to facilitate and students to be in the driver's seat. It gives them choice in how to show their learning. It also makes it a more memorable and fun experience. Provide students with criteria and constructs and a design challenge can be a quick 5 minute activity, class period performance assessment or even an entire unit.
If you're wanting to start small, introduce this to your kiddos or get your feet wet, try the Challenge Generator. You can choose between a STEM Education or Design focus. There are three categories; Inventions, Build & Engineer or Create & Draw.
If you're a regular reader, the following may seem familiar. I've talked about these resources in previous blog posts. Science Learning thru Engineering Design (SLED) process before. There are many design challenges that target K - 6 science concepts and include books to read to support learning. I model all of the design challenges after this model as I have found it to be the best structure for design challenges in the classroom. ENGR Teams is another great one. It is targeted to 4th - 8th grades. Both were developed at Purdue University with NSF grants and can be adapted to better fit your standards and learners' needs.
If you're looking for additional tools or resources to promote design thinking in your classroom, try The LAUNCH Cycle and Innovators Compass. The best thing about both of these tools is their adaptability. The LAUNCH Cycle is an acronym so each letter represents a phase, so it's easier to remember. There is also a corresponding symbol for each phase to help visual learners. The last phase, LAUNCH to an Audience, is a great way to incorporate a speaking and listening component for presentations. It is detailed in the book, Launch: Using the Design Thinking Process to Boost Creativity and Bring Out the Maker in Every Student by: AJ Juliani & John Spencer. Not to mention, the book cover is a rocket! Check out the free printable resources.
The Innovators Compass is a great tool for students to look at a problem from many different viewpoints. The variety of graphic organizers allow for easy differentiation and scaffolding.
PBS Design Squad partnered with NASA to create Space Exploration themed design challenges too!
Below, I've put together a small list of design challenges mostly targeted around space exploration. Some are competitive during in the summer, while others extend or don't have deadlines. Regardless, you can incorporate these into your classroom.
Next Moon STep
This design challenge is brought to you by Future Engineers, the same group that led the Name the Rover contest.
K-12 students are tasked with creating an original "image of your footprint (photo or artwork) and tell us what you would say, in 20 words or less, if you were the next person to step foot on the Moon." Submission Deadline = July 21st @ 11:59 Eastern time Reinvent the Rover Wheel
Future Engineers are preparing for the upcoming launch of the Perseverance Rover to Mars with this challenge.
Submission Deadline = July 26th @ 11:59 PST Nasa's Lunar Loo Challenge
This one is more geared for older students (high school and college). As we look toward the future, astronauts "will need a toilet that has all the same capabilities as ones here on Earth. Therefore, NASA is calling on the global community for their novel design concepts for compact toilets that can operate in both microgravity AND lunar gravity. These designs may be adapted for use in the Artemis lunar landers that take us back to the Moon. Although space toilets already exist and are in use (at the International Space Station, for example), they are designed for microgravity only. NASA’s Human Landing System Program is looking for a next-generation device that is smaller, more efficient, and capable of working in both microgravity and lunar gravity. This challenge includes a Technical category and Junior category."
Submission Deadline = August 25th Home on the Moon
This interactive project led by the Aldrin Family Foundation is a great way to get your students, your family, friends or coworkers thinking about the future of space exploration . Create a team, choose the best location for a moon outpost and submit proposals informing and defending your choices.
For additional information, resources and registration, click on the link below. Nasa Spotlite
NASA Spotlites are short (90 - 120 seconds) videos created by students to help debunk scientific misconceptions. So, NASA needs you to create videos to be a part of their eClips website.
"One of NASA’s goals is to improve scientific literacy, or our understanding of science. The goal of the video is to engage students in doing activities that can help change their misconceptions about a topic in science." Find more information; including necessary components of your video, things to research, tips and rubric. Be sure to register your team by clicking on the button below. Design Your Habitat
Activities from the SciArt exchange. Each week focuses on a related topic and flows through Think, Create, and Experience phases including videos from awesome guest speakers.
Bonus
This is a design challenge that I created for students while they were doing eLearning. The great thing about this is that you can adapt it to fit your classroom; students and content area. It can be done in person, but it can also be assigned virtually.
I hope that you'll consider how to incorporate design challenges into your classroom. Check out the Resources Tab to help support you in this Endeavor :) It truly is a game changer and helps students develop those "soft" skills like collaboration, problem solving, critical thinking, deadlines, etc that will help them be successful in your classroom and beyond!
Peace, love and space exploration, CAPCOM Conrad
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I presented this activity at Space Exploration Educators Conference (SEEC) 2020. It simulates communication between Mission Control and astronauts. It is similar to Copy That CAPCOM, but involves more of a technology piece. The title and idea came from Apollo 13. Like all space exploration mission, this was definitely a collaborative effort. Huge shout out to my amazing friend and colleague, Jaime, who helped this idea become a reality!! Building BackgroundBefore diving into the activity, I had students sit in small groups. Each table was labeled with a NASA Mission Control Call Sign. This helped me keep track :) Individually or with their small group, students defined communication in their own words and thought about the different types of communication. As a class, we shared ideas from different groups. Set UP
Goal = Clear and Precise Communication
Challenges
Materials
- laptop or desktop - flipgrid.com
PRintable Lesson PlanClick the button below for FREE download of this activity! Tech Tool Spotlight: FlipgridAn awesome way to engage students by recording and sending video messages! If you have never used Flipgrid before, sign up with this link! Elearning StyleThis activity could be modified to become an eLearning task. Added Bonus - You don't have to worry about setting up your physical classroom or find spaces for students to spread out. If you don't want to do small groups, you could have a class competition. The teacher could be Mission Control and the students could all be astronauts. You could set up one grid and a topic for each class, if you have multiple. If one homeroom class, see which student astronaut correctly draws the icon first. If multiple classes, have a period competition to see which class correctly draws the icon first. Check out Square Peg in a Round Hole Activity Resources on Teachers Pay Teachers for specific lesson resources described above (logbook, Wakelet questions, space exploration icon cards, etc). Peace, love and space exploration,
- CAPCOM Conrad Welcome back! Whether your school year has started or you're still waiting for launch, there's always room for more space. The purpose of this post is to highlight ways to bring space into your classroom...whether that be books, resources or activities to try! ISS AboveIf you've never heard of this amazing little gadget or you're not quite sure what it does, get ready to be blown away. This Raspberry Pi (tiny computer) has the code to track the International Space Station. It allows you see live video feed of the Earth from space, get data on velocity, current location and find out when the ISS will be above you! If it's not quite in your budget, I would highly recommend writing a grant to get one of these awesome buddies in your classroom. Plug it in, hook it up to an ethernet cable and a monitor and now space is truly in your classroom. Students are fascinated to watch it and it definitely broadens their horizons. It's definitely a game changer! It lends itself to so many STEM connections, like the power of coding and even something as simple as making observations. Check out my previous blog post here and find out how you can get an ISS Above.
Keep Calm and Read OnI have always loved reading. In fact, I'm super excited right now because our school just got a shipment of new books and I treated myself on Amazon. So my stack of to be read is growing, which is awesome. As the Innovation Specialist, I am in a unique position at my school. Innovation Specialist is what you may have thought of as a librarian or media specialist, but its more. Regardless of the title, I am in a large room surrounded by books and think that reading is a great place to start. If you've been following along since the beginning, you may remember that my journey of bringing space into my classroom began with a set of books. Not just any books, Hidden Figures Young Readers Edition by: Margot Lee Shetterley. I was able to see how excited kids get when they learn about space exploration, not to mention it was a blast to teach. I've since expanded my space book collection and want to share some new additions that may be a good fit for you. Autobiographies
Adventures
Picture Books
A little Bit Each Day
Communication is keyHere are a few great activities that promote team building, involve unplugged coding and precise communication. Not to mention they're fun and space-themed. - Copy That, CAPCOM - Mars Rovers Regardless of where or what you're teaching, there's always room for space! Peace, love and space exploration,
CAPCOM Conrad Part 3 Tiny Pixel - Image Revealed from yesterday's post...the Mission Patch from The Martian! How Your Kiddos Can make a Hologram ViewerOverview
Materials
Directions
2. Place transparent material on top of template. Use sharpie and ruler to trace on transparent material. 3. Cut out trapezoid pieces using appropriate tool. 4. Affix trapezoid pieces together, so smaller sides are all at the top. 5. Place upside down on screen (so smaller square opening is down and larger square opening is up). 6. Use device to get hologram video. To view, look through the sides or trapezoid faces. The image on the screen should be visible inside your hologram! Here's an illustration for how to make the viewer. Peace, love and space exploration,
- CAMPCOM Conrad Whenever I hear the word satellite, I think of this song, Cecelia and the Satellite by: Andrew McMahon. Background Satellites are extremely useful tools that allow us to learn more about Earth- especially weather, precipitation, landforms - from a slightly different perspective. Satellites see things in pixels aka picture elements. 1 pixel = 1 square area on an image. Spacecraft use 8-bit data. This means that a computer can have 256 shades of gray...talk about being in a gray area! Binary code - series of 0s and 1s that tell a computer information - also comes into play. The binary numbers are used to determine the shade of grey represented. Later, a person interprets the shades of grey as colors and assigns colors to the images. These related Brainpop videos give more information about the topics and include activities, games, a quiz and a link to Newsela articles to read more! Comparing Pixel SizesAs the pixel size decreases, the resolution increases, making it easier to determine what the picture is. Part 1 (Larger Pixels) - Students put the colored paper in the grid square that has the corresponding number. Part 2 (Smaller Pixels) - Students sort the pre-filled in grid segments to make a large grid. Can you guess what it is? Part 3 will be revealed tomorrow! Binary COde GridingOverview
Code
Roles -> Switch after a grid is completed.
Materials
1. Satellite choses one laminated grid from envelope, keeping it concealed from group members. 2. Satellite describes grid in binary code ONLY. Satellite should NOT tell group what image he/she sees on the grid. 3. Satellite can decide to go pixel by pixel or focus only on the shaded squares. 4. Each Computer receives a blank grid and black crayon or colored pencil. The Computers color in the grid squares based on the Satellite's directions. After the Satellite's directions are complete, Computers can determine image. 5. If group has an Engineer, he/she will get a blank grid. Using the computer's image, he/she will assign colors to black squares and recreate the image in color. 6. Roles switch and above steps repeat. How can I adapt? - Change the pixel images to fit something you're studying in class! - Have students design pixel images. Laminate and use them for the activity instead of printed or copied ones. - Divide a large pixelated image into smaller grids. Give each group a grid. Have all groups combine grids to determine overall image. - Have students determine fractions, decimals, percentages and ratios of shaded and unshaded pixel grid squares. This simple, fun activity is a great way to integrate art, technology, math and space into your classroom!
Peace, love and space exploration -CAPCOM Conrad I was extremely fortunate to be one of nine educators from around the country to receive a scholarship to attend an awesome three day workshop at the Space Foundation in Colorado Springs. It was my first time visiting and it did not disappoint! - If you live in Colorado, I would highly recommend bringing your kiddos on a field trip to the Discovery Center. - If you don’t live in Colorado, I would recommend becoming a Teacher Liaison. There are fore core areas of focus for teacher liaisons; Community Outreach, Teacher Education, Space Foundation Connection and Student Engagement. Applications for the next flight class are due November 23rd. The best part of the workshop, besides meeting rockstar TLs was how applicable all of the activities were to all of us. The TLs all came from different states, different school types, different grade levels and content areas; united by a passion for space education. The activities were exciting, hands-on and so much fun! My brain was constantly thinking about how I could bring this back to my school and share it with my readers. It was a jam-packed workshop, so I will be posting in parts. Each day for the next week, I will be posting an activity or group of activities that we did. I firmly believe that regardless of your excuse (grade level, content area, time, standards I need to cover, etc), you can incorporate space into your curriculum. My hope is that you'll be able to bring new ideas to your classroom and colleagues this upcoming school year! Copy THat, CapcomI’ve done a similar activity in my classroom, but this version was easier to implement with fewer materials needed. I was immediately intrigued by the title and thrilled when it began with the Apollo 13 C02 filter scene (see below). This is a great clip to spark students' interest and give them context for the activity and importance of a variety of skills including problem solving. Overview
* Students are assigned a role for each scenario, but they rotate among the roles throughout the activity. Roles
- unable to communicate directly with astronauts
- Cannot view main build or workstation build
- cannot view main build *If group is 4 members, there are 2 astronauts. One astronauts uses ONLY their right hand and the other astronaut uses ONLY their left hand. Room Set-up Example Procedure 1.Flight Director builds something from materials available, behind their screen. *It's best to start out simple and gradually make the builds more complex. 2. Engineer observes build (once complete), heads back to spot and describes build to CAPCOM. 6. When team is confident in their build, Flight Director checks build and says yes or no* to indicate if build is correct. If build is not correct, team can repeat process above to fix. * Depending on groups, could say: Affirmative or negative GO or NO GO Check communication lines 7. When majority of groups are complete or after a specified time limit, student roles are reset. Flight Director creates new build and process repeats. Materials We used the following:
How can I adapt materials for my classroom? The materials can vary depending on your age group and what you have available. Each workstation should be on a table or desk. The key is to provide each workstation with some type of shield. The shield should be large enough so that hand gestures cannot be used to assist with build. Tri-fold or bi-fold boards work great for this, but you could also use a cardboard box. Each workstation also needs to have the same items used for construction. Do I need to use items that are similar to each other? The reasoning behind using 2 items that are similar is that it forces students to notice and describe what they see to their group members. If a student just said, use the cup, their group members wouldn’t know which cup. I hope this is awesome activity is one that you can see easily implementing in your classroom and sharing with others! All photo credits go to my fellow TL Denise!
Be sure to virtually visit tomorrow for Day 2 of the Space Across the Curriculum Series :) Peace, love and space exploration, - CAPCOM Conrad Did you know that NASA has centers and visitor centers around the country? NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) is the Midwest NASA Center and the closest one to me. Although I wasn't able to visit GRC on such short notice, I did find out about future opportunities to do so. I also really enjoyed exploring the Visitor Center. Click below to see which one is closest to you! Did you know that each NASA Center has a specific focus and it's not all about space? Don't let the name - National Aeronautics and Space Administration - fool you! NASA does a lot to research and improve life on Earth! GoddardGoddard Space Flight Center was established in 1959. The center was named after Dr. Robert H. Goddard, a physicist whose area of expertise was rocket propulsion. Instruments build at Goddard are not only used to study the Sun, our solar system and universe, but also Earth. Check out all of the education resources related to the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) missions - water cycle, weather & climate, technology and societal applications. A Clean Room - Notice the structures on top, they make sure that dust and other debris is pushed out of the room. You don't want something traveling to space and interfering with data collection. Before entering a clean room, individuals have to wear what is known as a bunny suit to prevent human contamination (hair, germs, cells, etc). This giant piece of equipment -takes up an entire room- that I refer to as the centrifuge, was built in the 1960s and is still operational. Spacecraft at this time were smaller and the entire thing could fit to be tested. Now, it just tests parts of the spacecraft. To use it, it requires a lot of power and a call to the utility company! GlennI would really encourage you to check out the Great Lakes Science Center. It is the home of NASA Glenn Visitor Center and has so many awesome, hands-on activities related to spaceflight! It is a great museum for all ages and interest levels on the water, right next to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It's not all about space, but that's what we explored. They do a great job of promoting science and their motto is stay curious! We loved the interactive nature of everything and the connection that was made between the activities and why it was important for space exploration. Some of our fun is pictured below, but there was a lot more for you to experience in person; a shuttle landing simulation, rocket launch by building up air pressure, determining which ISS systems could be powered when the solar panels weren't in sunlight, aerodynamic experiment with shapes. My husband, a middle social studies teacher, excitedly tried all of the activities! Check out this FREE upcoming educator workshop at NASA GRC Middle and High School Teachers Monday August 13th 9am-4:30pm > If you aren't able to make it, sign up for their mailing list to keep updated on future opportunities. > In the meantime, check out their awesome Engineering Design Challenges for your classroom! Goals
As you prepare for a new school year- whether it's updating or bigger changes; a new grade level, new school or new school district - think about your space goals! If you or a colleague are looking for resources, have questions about something I've done in my classroom, have an idea for a lesson or unit an unsure the best way to implement it, please reach out! I love collaborating!! Tomorrow I'm headed to Colorado Springs for the Space Foundation's Space Across the Curriculum Workshop!! After all, the ISS is a 20 year collaboration of 15 countries and 5 space agencies. Together is better! It all started with a movie trailer. It was about high schoolers entering an underwater robotics competition. A few weeks later I couldn't remember the title, but I knew that I wanted to watch it. Luckily, my husband did. So, I went to the library and rented the movie Spare Parts. It was a great movie, released in 2015 and one worth sharing with your students to get them excited and inspired. Check out the trailer below. Maybe it's just me, but I love reading the words inspired by a true story. When those words come across the screen, I immediately want to find and read the book! However, this story actually started with an article in Wired magazine in 2005. 11 years later, Joshua Davis - the writer of the WIRED article - also wrote the book, titled Spare Parts: Four Undocumented Teenagers, One Ugly Robot and the Battle for the American Dream. I read the book in a couple days and really enjoyed it. I enjoyed learning more details about the lives of the kids portrayed in the film. I think it would be a great book for middle school or high schoolers. It could be part of a book study, whole group, read aloud or after school. While it's not an astronaut story, I would definitely share it with my former students who, when reading Hidden Figures, were curious about what it was like for them. My Hispanic students were interested in the story and in learning about segregation, but they couldn't fully relate to the African American characters. .As I've been diving into the story, I actually discovered that before it became Spare Parts, it was a documentary called Underwater Dreams. This award winner was named as one of Best Family Movies of 2014 by Common Sense Media! Maybe the coolest part is that 50% of proceeds go to Carl Hayden Robotics team and TheDream.US . You may be asking yourself, I thought this was a blog about space exploration, so what does an underwater robotics competition have to do with that? Well, NASA is one of sponsors for the MATE (Marine Advanced Technology Education) competition. The competition is also all about ROVs (remotely operated vehicles). Think Spirit, Opportunity, and Curiosity, and I'm just talking about the characteristics, I'm talking about Mars. Robotics also involves STEAM principles and definitely is a hands-on application of science process standards and mathematics practices. It also requires teamwork and problem solving skills. In the 1950's it seemed impossible that a man could land on the moon. Likewise, In 2004, it seemed impossible that four kids who lived in the desert would excel in a national underwater robotics competition. What's awesome about MATE is every year's competition involves a back story. So, the competition is tied to a story, talk about an awesome language arts connection. Writing and reading become a lot easier when it's about something that you're interested in! I wanted to share this awesome story to hopefully inspire some of you to check it out and share it with your students. If your school already has a robotics team, here's a real-world connection. If not, maybe it's something worth looking into and learning more about.
Be on the lookout for more book suggestions and resources as that is what I plan to focus on in the blog this summer. Peace, Love and Space Exploration, - CAPCOM Conrad 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 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 |
AuthorApollo 13 fan. Educator. Lifelong Learner. Third generation Boilermaker. Space Exploration Enthusiast. Collaborator. Click Subscribe to stay updated!Archives
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