The projects on this site have been developed from the idea that in the technology-saturated environment we live in today, students can be transported across the disciplines in science as they learn about the tools that have made exploration possible.
While the activities here relate in some way to microscopes and telescopes, each activity is also relevant across range of scientific disciplines. The resources on Inspired by NASA are applicable across a range of grade levels and science classes.
The Inspired by NASA online resource center offers several activities that can be used separately. They can also be used in combination - and especially before introducing NASA's Virtual Lab (above) in the context of middle and high school science teaching. Here we share one example of ways that these materials complement each other.
Imagine not just one lesson but a unit of lessons that starts with use of the Mercury13 game downloaded onto classroom computers and used by students in pairs as they take turns while working on other activities at their desks.
Then students in the computer lab at the next class meeting access Innovation Orbit to follow some questions you have asked them that relate to their textbook reading or earlier discussion along with their earlier game play.
Back in the classroom Glimpse can be projected so your whole class can watch and learn together. You'll find that introductory tours of Glimpse or often other online activities can be run by students rather than putting you in the spotlight as the person in charge of demonstration.
While students can lead at the projector you can plan for other activities done in pairs at computers as this encourages students to talk aloud to each other - guessing, asking questions, encouraging, and using the language of science in the context of natural conversation.
With computer access in school or at home the Digital Science Notepad (DSN) allows students to document, share, and transform the experiments they conduct with you in your classroom lab.
These types of activities set the stage for student use of NASA's Virtual Lab software in pairs using specimens already downloaded alongside a handout you have made or directions for them to make a handout for others. They would have learned how to open, navigate, and annotate specimens in an overview on the projector viewed by the whole class. Here are some of the experiences that these students would have had along the way if this were your classroom...
Mercury13 is a downloadable game that gives students initial exposure to the Virtual Lab specimens without overtly naming or defining them. It also asks students early on in the game to skim photos of scientists who were key for the development and use of microscopes and telescopes. They begin my asembling a mission team that spans many races and both genders, which provides "teachable moments" regarding past a future science careers. Try it yourself and see. Once it is downloaded it does not need an Internet connection to run. Mercury13 can be the "hook" or a warm-up to get students interested, the incentive to complete assigned work, motivation to reflect back on classroom work while at home, or it can be a way to engage students who finish their work early. It is well-suited for middle school students, but it offers three levels of difficulty so that older students will also be challenged.
Glimpse and Innovation Orbit are accessible online through an Internet connection. Both allow students to explore and answer questions about the scientists they met in Mercury13. Even without playing the game your students can research or read about these men and women prior to trying these out online. These online activities are well-suited for high school students. The scientists are accessible through a series of conversations over time in Orbit. Your students can also experience the work of these scientists through their perspectives as captured in Glimpse and as defined there by the technologies prevalent at the time.
As they then explore NASA's Virtual Lab your students can also apply the language they learned naming specific specimens in Mercury13. Having seen specific specimens in the game, students can now learn more of their names and find out more about them through the Virtual Lab. The use of the Virtual Lab can be structured by these types of activities. It can also be used on its own - within a structured lesson plan. See the Cogs Website for more ideas for science teaching related to the Virtual Lab. As students use the light microscope in your own classroom lab, for example, the Digital Science Notepad (DSN) can help them as they document and transform their experiments.
