Get Real! Check out the Science happening Right Now!

This week your students can become a part of history!  They can become part of a team made up of artists, social media, NASA officials, and more to help celebrate the launch of the Magnetospheric MultiScale (MMS) mission this week.  What’s that, you say?  The MMS Mission is a set of 4 satellites that will be launched this week to study magnetic reconnections in the magnetosphere?  Still not clear?  These four satellites are going into space to study the explosions that cause “space weather.”  These explosions of energy can wreak havoc with our electrical systems, astronauts, other expensive satellites and our everyday tv, radio and phone transmissions. 

The first challenge

A couple of years ago, I was given the opportunity to help develop lessons around a new NASA Mission, The Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission (MMS) a mssion that was not even going to launch for a couple of years.  Our mission (and we chose to accept it) was to design a lesson that would teach kids around the world what the mission was all about and why it was important AND we had to include a social media component.  We decided to design a truly authentic mission and turn that challenge around to our students.  The MMS Challenge was born. Students from all over participated and shared their videos, artwork, models and activities that would teach other children about the MMS Mission.  Check out what students have done to meet the challenge.

A new challenge

Fast forward to today….the mission is launching this week and we are once again asking students to become an integral part of the team.  What better way to demonstrate in a very real way, the wide variety of careers involved in such an undertaking than to talk to some of the people that are directly involved.  We would love to have your students meet our team, learn about the mission and share through social media.  Our team includes Father of Digital Art Laurence Gartel, NASA MMS Education Outreach TEAM, NASA MMS Social Media Team, students and teachers. 

Introduction to the mission

There are a number of great short videos that you can use to introduce your students to the mission.

NASA mms video

NASA Edge Part 1

Transcript

NASA Edge MMS Video Part 2

Starting the Mission

How it will deploy?

Mission overview

More Resources

Another way to get your students acquainted with the purpose of the mission is to use the SCAN tool at TregoED to learn and discuss why the mission is important from different points of view.  SCAN is a free, private online discussion tool.  Teachers should register at TregoED.org and set up the SCAN lesson, Space Exploration and You: SCAN the NASA MMS Mission to get a unique URL for their class discussion.  Each step of the SCAN critical thinking strategy will allow students to See the important issues, clarify them, Assess what is important and Name next steps.  Students discuss the issues from the point of view of an astronaut, student, electric company owner, and satellite company owner to determine how the MMS mission could have an impact on their daily lives. An engaging way to get them talking about the mission in a real time online classroom. 

Find lesson plans and activities that your students can do to learn about the mission. 

Make the math-science connections by mapping out the size of one of the satellites in your classroom with this activity.

Get them involved

Encourage your students to participate as a journalist, scientist, artist or engineer and share their knowledge of the launch through social media.

Details coming soon (email me at sanwoz@gmail.com if you want me to email you the details) on how you can join a student led team, on the afternoon of March 11 or 12. Meet the Father of Digital Art Laurence Gartel, NASA MMS Education Outreach Team, NASA MMS Social Media Team, and other NASA MMS Officials and follow and post on our social media channels (#magrecon):

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/MagMultiScale
Twitter: http://twitter.com/NASA_MMS
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/nasamms 

PBL's and the King of Multi-tasking

 The "King of Multi-tasking"
There were days in my classroom where it seemed that chaos reigned.  On the good days, acting as the “guide on the side” – I felt like Erich Brenn, the “King of Multitasking”  from the Ed Sullivan Show running around answering questions, getting resources, assessing understanding, etc. My job, like the Brenn's, was to keep everyone humming along.  The end of the year is when many teachers start planning for their “fresh start” next year in the hopes that they can run around a little less. 

Gearing up for Success

It takes a lot of work to transform your classroom into a problem-based learning environment where student groups can work independently.  The work you do upfront can cut down on your need for multi-tasking and help ensure student success. Establishing and providing routines, expectations, rubrics, resources, etc. accessible to all students is a challenge.   Back in the olden days, I had notebooks at every computer station with the materials that students needed.   I had to make physical copies to share with colleagues and for students to take home.  I was thrilled to discover that the free digital version of this notebook could cut out the copy machine step.

Livebinders.com

I have used always used livebinders to put together resources for my teacher workshops and I know that there are lots of ways to share resources including websites, Edmodo, social bookmarking sites, pinterest, etc.  My recent work with Jennifer Miller and Tom Chambers, educators from Texas, called for more that sharing of website links.  Our challenge was to develop a unit that was relevant, authentic, open-ended, collaborative and problem based centered on the NASA 2014 MMS Mission.  The resulting livebinder (up for top 10 Livebinder!) is a great model of how these binders can be used to organize and present a PBL which includes directions for students and teachers, rubrics, resources, worksheets, links, etc.,  all accessible at home or at school.

We set up our livebinder with familiar tabs making it easy to use for both teachers and students. 

Beyond a series of links, this becomes a true resource binder and a great way to share a complete lesson with colleagues and students.    

Are you using Problem Based Learning in your classroom?  How do you avoid becoming the "King of Multi-tasking?"