 Rosemary
Shaw
Millennium Middle School
Orlando, Fl.
Rosemary_Shaw@scps.k12.fl.us
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Blast Off! Quest for Space
Quest for Space is one teacher's experience in constructing meaningful
web activities from a cool site. Having found a cardboard shuttle a colleague
had discarded, she brainstormed ways to incorporate the theme of space
in her math class. An old textbook located in the back corner of the
classroom had a wonderful project on the Hubble Telescope, which inspired
an online search for "Hubble." This brought her to the NASA site, where
she found numerous lessons related to mathematics, science, and computer
technology. After further exploration and preparation, she developed
her own virtual field trip full of enriching activities for the students.
"Having access to the computer lab with my students for one day, I
prepared a document with hyperlinks to guide students through the site.
We did a puzzle, researched the shuttle and the Chandra telescope, and
completed a scavenger-hunt tour of the site that moved students from
one place to another in a defined way while collecting information. To
top it all off, I arranged for my students to chat, real time, with NASA
engineers. I used this site to supplement the textbook to teach my students
conversions, metrics, and basic computer use."
Rosemary Shaw
By the end of the year, this teacher had signed up her class for a project-to
develop a community on Mars- sponsored by the NASA site. Colleagues in
the art department helped students create mission badges; the journalism
teacher assisted with designing a newspaper for the new community; and
the band teacher led a discussion on how sound would be different on
Mars. Students brainstormed ways to fly to Mars, based on their Internet
research. The school year ended with the promise that the class name
would go up on the next Rover to Mars. What a way to end the year!
Check out Rosemary's lesson plan, Shuffle off
to Space and Millennium ISS Virtual Field Trip, in How
to Use the Internet in Your Classroom.
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