Moving at the Speed of Creativity

Tag: nasa

  • Plants in Space

    Plants in Space

    These are my notes from the SPACE 2024 presentation, “Planting Other Worlds” by Melissa Sleeper and Lisa Dupuy. The session description is: Tired of the same old plant growth lessons? Help spark student interest in agriculture using Space as the hook. When humans go to settle the Moon and Mars, they will have to eat.…

  • Host an Astronomy Night

    Host an Astronomy Night

    These are my notes from the SPACE 2024 presentation, “How to Host an Astronomy Night: Astronomy in Elementary and Middle School Classrooms” by Peter Tlusty (Mr. T) NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador / Richmond Astronomical Society Member. Links about Peter: https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/ambassadors/2159 “Tech teacher honored for out-of-this world lessons” (March 2023) I’m an amateur astronomer! Now teaching…

  • Visualizing Off-Planet Habitats

    Visualizing Off-Planet Habitats

    My middle school computer programming students are continuing to work on our “Coding Mars” unit, in which they are using Minecraft MakeCode to simulate the 3D printing of structures and habitats which Icon of Austin, Texas, is under contract with NASA to do first on the moon / the lunar surface and (ultimately) on Mars.…

  • Space Club Dreams

    Shelly Fryer and I have a “slow hunch” that we should start a SPACE CLUB at school. Shelly and I are both “space geeks” and love sharing “all things space” with our students. My class “Wonder Links” frequently include videos and websites about space and space exploration. This past week, we watched and discussed both…

  • 1000 Starships to Mars Every 2 Years

    Tonight Elon Musk and Chris Anderson have stretched my mind in some unexpected ways. Elon hopes we’ll see (and is working toward) a future within 10-20 years where SpaceX is launching 1000 Starships to Mars every two years, so we can establish a self-sustaining city of a million humans who will be able to carry…

  • Sharing My Enthusiasm for Space Exploration

    Last week when Shelly and I were attending the NASA Space Exploration Educators Conference at Space Center Houston, our students and colleagues were out of school with 3 snow days in a row! Today we were all back in class, and I took about 10 minutes in each of my classes to share a little…

  • Conspiracy Theories, Apollo Moon Landings and SIFT 

    The last 3 days, Shelly and I have WONDERFUL learning and networking experiences attending the NASA 2022 Space Exploration Educators Conference (#SEEC2022) at Space Center Houston (@SpaceCenterHou). For the past two years, I’ve taught a media literacy unit to my 6th graders called, “Froot Loop Conspiracy Theories,” focusing on the Apollo Moon landings, YouTubers who…

  • The Orbital Perspective: Inspired by Chris Hadfield, Ed Robertson, the Wexford Gleeks and Rod Murray

    Thanks to a recommendation from my Canadian friend and fellow educator Rod Murray (@mrmuzzdog), this morning I started my day with an inspiring, co-created song by Chris Hadfield (@Cmdr_Hadfield), Ed Robertson (@edrobertson,) and the Wexford Gleeks (@wpa_to) recorded together when Commander Hadfield was orbiting our planet as an astronaut aboard the International Space Station in…

  • Share Podcast Excerpts using Audacity, iMovie and Google Slides

    Today I taught a lesson in which I shared a 4.5 minute excerpt of an amazing 55 minute NASA podcast, featuring an April 2019 interview with Dr. Harrison Schmitt, the Apollo 17 lunar module pilot and the only geologist to walk on the Moon to date! In this post, I’ll share my workflow and steps…

  • Great Videos To Show Students About NASA and Orion

    Today was a very exciting day at school for several reasons. One was the successful launch and recovery of the unmanned spacecraft “Orion” by NASA, which some of my STEM students watched and experienced in real-time. The launch was at 6:05 Oklahoma time (7:05 Florida time) and the splashdown in the Pacific Ocean happened 4.5 hours…