Format
Part 1: Pre-Mission video conference
Rally the troops! This live video conference with the entire class, teacher, and Mission Commander will introduce the goals and team assignments. Students will be given a preview of their upcoming online work as the stage for success is set and the mindset for engagement is cultivated.
Individual Computer Tasks
Using our website as a launchpad, students will now assume the role of a Mission Support Crew Member. Students work through self-guided online learning activities to collect information and clues needed for a successful Mission. These are designed to take about 30 minutes. They may do the tasks at home, or in school, whichever works best. Internet is required. The programs will NOT work on iPads or phones. Computers or Laptops are recommended for optimal results. The tasks will end with a special code and other data they will need to be ready to share for the final mission. Therefore, they will need to write down their results on a piece of paper, and bring that paper to the final mission video conference.
Part 2: Culminating Mission Video Conference
Allow for 90 minutes. (It can be shorter if requested)
The final Mission video conference brings the teacher, class, and Commanders together to team up and use their findings to successfully help a lone Astronaut reach Mars, launch a probe, and return with samples from the surface of the Red Planet. Excitement, thrills, and humor will have your class roaring with joy!
Objectives
Our goal is that every child feels successful and excited about learning. Through this immersion, students will have a positive, unforgettable shared experience together. Our aim is to ignite the spark of inquiry and potential within every child.
Standards Alignment
National Standards
National Standards
National Science Standards: Grades K-6
U.Unifying Concepts and Processes -
Unifying concepts and processes help students think about and integrate a range of basic ideas which builds an understanding of the natural world.
E.U.1 - Systems, order, and organization-
Systems: A system is an organized group of related objects or components that form a whole. Systems can consist, for example, of organisms, machines, fundamental particles, galaxies, ideas, numbers, transportation, and education. The goal is to help students think and analyze in terms of systems.
E.U.2 - Evidence, Models, and Explanations-
Explanations: Explanations provide interpretation, meaning, or sense to objects, organisms, or events. Explanations incorporate existing scientific knowledge and new evidence from observations, experiments, or models into internally consistent, logical statements, such as hypotheses, laws, principles, and theories. The goal is to help students create explanations which incorporate a scientific knowledge base, logic, and higher levels of analysis.
State Standards
New York State Learning Standards in Science:
Standard 1: Analysis, Inquiry and Design-
The central purpose of scientific inquiry is to develop explanations of natural phenomena in a continuing, creative process.
~Students: ask “why” questions in attempts to seek greater understanding concerning objects and events they have observed and heard about. Students should question the explanations they hear from others and read about, seeking clarification and comparing them with their own observations and understandings.
Standard 2: Information Systems-
Information technology is used to retrieve, process, and communicate information and as a tool to enhance learning.
Students should use a variety of equipment and software packages to enter, process, display, and communicate information in different forms using text, tables, pictures, and sound.
Telecommunicate to a distant location with teacher help.
Standard 4: Physical and Living Environments-
-Investigate differences in personal body characteristics, such as temperature, pulse, heart rate, blood pressure, and reaction time.
Standard 5: Technology; Engineering Design-
Technological tools, materials, and other resources should be selected on the basis of safety, cost, availability, appropriateness, and environmental impact; technological processes change energy, information, and material resources into more useful forms.
Technological systems are designed to achieve specific- results and produce outputs, such as products, structures, services, energy, or other systems.
Standard 6: Interconnectedness - Common Themes
Through systems thinking, people can recognize the commonalities that exist among all systems and how parts of a system interrelate and combine to perform specific functions.
Students will understand the relationships and common themes that connect mathematics, science, and technology and apply the themes to these and other areas of learning.