Using the grandeur of space to teach hands-on, standards-based lessons to teachers to impact the next generation
A description of some of our activities
All of our programs are linked to the standards that teachers are faced with everyday. But we wanted our programs to be something special. The goals at the start of TeachSpace were two fold: First, we realized that the rural schools that we worked with were sometimes not able to get the same types of professional development programs as some larger systems. We are both products of small, rural schools and we have a passion to make sure that no child ever had to feel "small" just because they came from "someplace small". Secondly, we realized after watching and working with many professional development programs that they seemed removed from the realities of the classroom. Often they were full of ideas, but most of them would never be applied. Many required that the teachers do work outside of the program prior to school to implement anything that had been learned. We all know that teachers are too busy already and these kinds of plans, while made with the best of intentions, do not usually materialize.
When you leave a TeachSpace program, you will leave with all of the hands on activities and materials that you need to return to the classroom and conduct that experiment or demonstrate that lesson. Teachers will not leave and then have to work to put a lesson together. That is why the TeachSpace program is not for every school system. It requires a commitment from the school system to buy supplies that the teacher returns to the classroom with.
Here is a sample of some of our activities?
Why things burn? How do you make rocket fuel? It's all the same!
In this lesson, we study how rocket fuel is made and relate it to everyday experiences. A study of why and how things burn is conducted. For the hands on "attention getter", the teacher uses the rocket fuel test stand made from an empty paint can and blows the paint can up using cornstarch or coffee creamer. Teachers use their digital cameras to document the experiment.
Hey - want to see a movie of this??? Click here. (You will need Windows Media Player for this file. Also, the image will be very small in size so that you will not have to wait long for downloading.)
How Big is our Solar System?
Most teachers teach the solar system based on pictures in a textbook. It is hard to realize the scale of such a wonderful place as our solar system. Teacher create flags and learn to demonstrate the size of the solar system in scale so that they can take their children outside to experience the wonder of the planets. A discussion of the math and the use of technology is used to implement this lesson. Teachers are also encouraged to look for places in their school or community to make a permanent display to allow the children to realize the world in which they live. Teachers use their cameras to document the program to use with their student and slide shows and materials are given to each teacher to help them with this important lesson.
Working in Space with Gloves
The space glove activity allows teachers to cover a variety of disciplines. We show teachers how to make very inexpensive, but realistic space gloves to make for their students. (Teachers also leave the activity with sets of space gloves) Students are timed while conducting a variety of task. After students have recorded their data, they then enter the data into Excel spreadsheets. Students then evaluate the results of their findings and graph their discoveries.
Here is a video of Terry Sue conducting a master class with a group of pre-teachers at a college in Tennessee. She often donates her time to work with students like these which are our future.
Left Behind
What would you leave behind on the moon? With Billy's special relationship with NASA and having the chance to meet and listen to the Apollo astronauts, he has found that many personal items where left on the moon. This is a great way to start a writing class or a search for discovery. Teachers are provided with images and lesson materials.
Landing with an Air Bag - learning about chemical reactions
How have the Mars Rovers landed? With an air bag, the same idea as an airbag in the dash of your car. When "Houston has a problem", you are given the materials to make an airbag and through inquiry, you will develop the "perfect" air bag for landing. Once learned, this is an easy to conduct experiment for the classroom.
Do you know your moon phases?
The time is 9:00am and there is a crescent moon low in the western sky. Is it a waxing or waning moon? Do you know the answer? This question is from a 6th grade science contest quiz. Moon phases are a standard everywhere, but very few teachers understand it well enough to do nothing more than to just teach the facts. After learning our hands on approach to moon phases, you will not just understand, but you will be able to tell time at night with the moon! This has been one of our most popular programs as we help teachers understand how to teach more than just the shape of the moon phase.
Creating Educational Videos using a digital camcorder and Movie Maker
Do you really want to see teachers get excited about learning something new. Then this is it! This past summer, Billy and Terry Sue started a 2 day program for professional development for teachers in making their own educational videos. Our goal is to make the teachers feel so comfortable, that they have their own students create educational videos about topics in the class. One can take video field trips, or just let your imagination take you where you would like to go. In the linked video clip, there are scenes from the teachers creating a video about a trip to one of the planets. No teacher in the class had ever used these tools before and at the end of two days, each of the team of teachers had to play their educational movie. Teachers need these experiences to know that they still can be excited about learning something new! Here is a small section from a movie made of the teachers at work.
There are a large number of other activities that we conduct as well. Teachers build air powered rockets cheaply for the classroom, study the planets, work with digital cameras, study rubrics to know how to evaluate students using new technologies, and many more.