Students from Walnut Grove Elementary School, Eubanks Intermediate, Durham Intermediate School, and Dawson Middle School made history on Oct. 17 at the NASA Multiscale Magnetosphere Social Event at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Mad. The Carroll ISD students were given the opportunity to ask top scientists, program directors, engineers, and helophysics experts questions about the mission activities, space weather, the sun, and magnetism. This is the first time any group of students were granted this rare opportunity.
"The NASA MMSbrMission is scheduled to launch on March 12, 2015," said district instructional technologist Jennifer Miller. "I was invited to NASA tobrview the spacecraft and cleanroom on Oct. 17. I decided to take thebropportunity to bring Carrroll ISD students with me and was successful atbrconnecting four campuses with mission officials at the Goddard Flight center."
Miller, a PhD research assistant and student attending UNT College of Information Department of Learning Technologies, joined Carroll ISD in August 2014; however, it was her earlier work with NASA that led to the opportunities for learning and engagement for district students.
Photo courtesy of Chris Underwood, DIS.
Photo courtesy of Chris Underwood, DIS.
She began working with NASA's Multiscale Magnetosphere air education team in 2012. From there, she developed curriculum through a problem-basedbrlearning unit targeting middle school STEAM (Science Technology Engineering Art and Math) students.
Through Miller's research on student perceptions toward STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math) careers, and using the arts to generate interest toward topics relating to math and science, she has helped the district employ 3D printers, robotics, digital art and video technologies.
"There's a huge career component," she said. "You try to connect students with people whobrare serving in different STEM career roles and have them in essence serve thebrrole of a STEAM professional using the curriculum we created. We call it 'Take abrNASA MMS Challenge.' Students learn about the mission, then they serve the role of abrjournalist, an artist, a scientist or engineer. They create a reflectionbrserving one of those career roles and teach the general public about the topicsbrsurrounding the mission."
In this particular mission, Miller said, students set earthbrmagnetospheres, solar stores, and the sun, and used renewable energies. Students were able to meet people that help NASA with that mission.
"They have a YouTubebrchannel that creates videos to help facilitate this idea where students learnbrthat it takes everyone working together to promote a successful mission," Miller said. "There's artists, journalists, videographers, physicists, engineers ... but they'rebrall working toward a common cause. It gives them a real-world scenario. Itbrhelps them make connections of how math and science is applied to a real-worldbrevent."
Miller has been working with Dawson art teacher Emily Trammel, whose eighth grade art students recently completed a digital arts exercise onbrthe mission and their reflections will be on display soon. She's also worked with Eubanks Intermediate School's Bea Price.
Photo courtesy of Chris Underwood, DIS.
Photo courtesy of Chris Underwood, DIS.
"Her kids have been phenomenal," she said. "They've been doing a lot in thebrmission. They took photos from space on Nov. 7 with the international spacebrstation, learning about latitude and longitude, and orbits. They were able to submit latitude andbrlongitude to people facilitating the ISS orbit and take a photo based on whatbrthe students submit. Then they get a real photo back from the international spacebrstation of a certain place on earth they selected."
The image is an ariel shot a la Google Earthbrcoming from the international space station. The "Earthkam" program is named after Sally Ride, who was the first American woman in space, and also an educator.
Miller also reported EubanksbrIntermediate robotics club students and Dawson Middle School art students metbrwith the Father of Digital Art, Laurence Gartel.
"Mr. Gartel began his longbrcareer in 1975 after teaching students computer science," she said. "Emily Trammel's eighth gradebrart students researched topics surrounding the mission and reflected on NASA'sbrMMS mission via digital art using Gimp, a freeware software that is similar tobrAdobe Photoshop."
These are just a few of the opportunities opened up to Carroll students through Miller's programs. The hope is thatbrstudents will learn how topics students are learning about directly apply to abrreal world problem or situation. In addition, the NASA MMS program will provide studentsbrdirection as to how STEM and STEAM careers all work together to promote abrsuccessful real world mission.
"Our chat withbrJennifer Miller and Troy Klein regarding the MMS mission was literally out ofbrthis world," said Durham math teacher Chris Underwood. "Our students ... alongbrwith myself, Denise Smith, Dena Johnson and Wendy Oliver got to experiencebrfirsthand exactly what this mission's purpose is and what we hope to learn frombrit. The students were completely engaged during the chat and I know are lookingbrforward to learning more about the mission in the months to come."
Photo courtesy of Chris Underwood, DIS.
Photo courtesy of Chris Underwood, DIS.