NASA in the Classroom Edition Caitlin Nolby and Marissa Saad North Dakota Space Grant Consortium

Agenda – 10/22/15 4:30-4:45 pm Review of Workshop Objectives and Activities 4:45-5:30 pm Sharing of Classroom Experience Assignments 5:30-5:45 pm Break 5:45-6:30 pm Investigation – Sorting the Solar System* 6:30 – 7:15 pm Working Dinner Meteorites Presentation 7:15-8:15 pm Investigation – Super Sleuths 8:15-8:30 pm Wrap Up: Reflection on Investigations 8:30-8:45 pm Final Evaluations *Sorting the Solar System replaced Star Power

Workshop Goals Help educators to engage students in areas of space exploration and general science, by using effective instructional strategies and educational resources, with engaging and inspiring content. Promote the effective use of SciGirls® investigations and NASA-developed resources through integration of space science content with the SciGirls style of inquiry.

Workshop Objectives Participants will develop a comprehensive understanding of the SciGirls Seven by the end of the workshop. Participants will be equipped to modify existing lesson plans using the SciGirls Seven by the end of the workshop. Participants will gain confidence teaching space sciences through an increased knowledge of space-related topics. Participants will be able to effectively conduct investigations presented during the workshop (and modified lesson plans) in their respective classrooms, utilizing their understanding of the SciGirls Seven and space sciences by the end of the workshop.

S P A C E R O C K S Logistics Register by 10/29/15 for PD Credit Grading: S/U 3-4 weeks to be posted on transcript Travel reimbursement Mileage for 3 roundtrips Sign and turn in today! S P A C E R O C K S

Sharing Classroom Experience! Implement modified activity or workshop activity in the classroom. Informal presentations should include: Description of investigation conducted Elements of SciGirls Seven included in investigation Any challenges/successes with classroom implementation

Sorting the Solar System You are the astronomers! And you get to travel back in time… 3 Envelopes of different time periods Categorize solely based on information provided 7 7

Sorting the Solar System Use index cards to label/name each grouping and include the following information on the card: Name for your grouping Description of your grouping Criteria you used to create the categories Card numbers of the objects in your group 8 8

Let’s categorize! Antiquity – 1799… Go! 1800 – 1950… Go! 1951 – Today… Go! 9

Reflection on Sorting the Solar System How did your previous knowledge and experiences (related to Solar System objects) interfere or help you as you completed this investigation? How would you reply to a student who said “If science constantly changes, how can we trust it?” Which SciGirls Seven strategies did we use in the Sorting the Solar System investigation? Collaboration Personal Relevance Open-ended Unique Approach Positive Feedback Critical Thinking Role Models 10

Why Study Asteroids? Asteroids: Fact or Fiction? What is OSIREX-REx? What are Asteroids Made of?

A METEOROID approaching the Earth. Space Rocks Defined Meteoroid: Small (less than 10 meters) rock/metallic object IN SPACE Meteor: The light produced when a meteoroid ENTERS THE ATMOSPHERE (sometimes called a “shooting star”) Meteorite: A natural rock/metallic object from space that has fallen to EARTH’S SURFACE A METEORITE which is a part of the meteoroid that survived atmospheric entry and reached the ground. A METEOROID approaching the Earth. A METEOR formed by a meteoroid entering the atmosphere at high velocity.

Space Rocks Defined Where do they come from? Why study space rocks? Samples of the early Solar System Meteor Showers (Comet Tails) Impacts!! – Planetary Protection

Impacts in Our Solar System Mercury, Moon, Mars Gale Crater and Curiosity Rover

Impacts on Earth Meteor Crater (Arizona) was formed by the impact of an ~50 meter iron asteroid ~50,000 years ago 1 km

Peekskill Meteorite (12.4 kg) and 1980 Chevrolet Malibu October 9, 1992 – Peekskill, NY Michelle Knapp - 18 yr old, HS senior When police arrived on the scene, they filed a report for criminal mischief by a very strong male. The smell of gas from the punctured gas tank prompted the fire department to investigate, at which time they found the meteorite.

Super Sleuths All meteorites that are found on Earth originally came from a Parent Body, or their starting location. The top four parent bodies are: 6 Hebe = 35% 4 Vesta = 5% 3103 Eger = 1% Mars Have fun!

Ask the students: How did you match the glitter samples (asteroids) with its “Parent Body”? What’s your problem? How did you collect evidence? Tape, microscopes, and tweezers? Prepare slides How did you gather your glitter evidence? Procedure and accuracy How did you ensure pristine work conditions? Avoid cross-contamination? Draw Conclusions Did you determine its parent body? Why would this information be useful?

Reflection on Investigations Which of the SciGirls Seven did we employ in: Strange New Planet? Parachute Parade? Collaboration Personal Relevance Open-ended Unique Approach Positive Feedback Critical Thinking Role Models

SciGirls Seven 1. Girls benefit from collaboration, especially when they can participate and communicate fairly. (Parker & Rennie, 2002; Fancsali, 2002) Ask the participants that had Strategy 1 to share what they discussed. Feel free to chime in with any of the SciGirls tips from the booklet or from your own experience! Tips Create a community atmosphere that is open and positive. Start with activities to “break the ice,” involving communication and teamwork for girls who may not know one another. Encourage working in small groups. Use various methods for forming groups, keeping in mind that kids should be grouped with different members from time to time. Cooperative groups consist of members with assigned roles (e.g., recorder, supplies manager, procedure/time manager). This approach can help motivate participants, but be mindful of stereotypical gender roles, such as girls recording and boys using tools. Collaborative groups have no predetermined roles. Speak up promptly if a girl makes a distasteful remark, even jokingly. Set the rules at the start: no teasing or unfriendly talk. Explain why a comment is offensive or insensitive. If conflicts arise, resolve them through group (or pair) dynamics, in which each person voices what they think happened and how it made them feel. Then work on agreement and resolution.

SciGirls Seven 1. Girls benefit from collaboration, especially when they can participate and communicate fairly. (Parker & Rennie, 2002; Fancsali, 2002) 2. Girls are motivated by projects they find personally relevant and meaningful. (Eisenhart & Finkel, 1998; Thompson & Windschitl, 2005; Liston, Peterson, & Ragan, 2008) Ask the participants that had Strategy 2 to share what they discussed. Feel free to chime in with any of the SciGirls tips from the booklet or from your own experience! Look for ways to connect the material to the girls’ lives. If you are teaching an environmental studies lesson, for instance, ask the girls to identify examples of environmental issues in the area where they live and bring information to share from articles in local magazines, newspapers, videos, etc. Demonstrate and talk about your own enthusiasm for the scientific material, and how it affects you personally. Create a “need to know.” As you are preparing your activities, ask yourself—why would kids need to know this? Ask girls to prepare a table of their thoughts, including: what they know, want to know, have learned, and how they can learn more. Use this in groups or individually as a tool for tapping into prior knowledge and encouraging personal reflection. Use case studies. Kids generally relate to characters who face decisions or dilemmas; they often make connections from the story to their own lives. Using SciGirls videos, as suggested throughout our activity guides, provides one avenue to accomplish this. Ask girls if they have ever felt like the girls in the video, or ask what similarities they may have seen between themselves and the SciGirls. Use follow-up questions that focus kids’ attention on ideas or assumptions embedded in their first answers. These questions can help girls explore and express what they know even when they aren’t sure they know it. For example: T ell me more. Then what? Could you give me an example?

SciGirls Seven 3. Girls enjoy hands-on, open-ended projects and investigations. (Chatman, Nielsen, Strauss, & Tanner, 2008; Burkam, Lee, & Smerdon,1997; Fanscali, 2002) Ask the participants that had Strategy 3 to share what they discussed. Feel free to chime in with any of the SciGirls tips from the booklet or from your own experience! Try an activity without step-by-step directions. Don’t shortchange your girls by assuming they can’t do an investigation without prescribed directions. Release their inner explorers and let them surprise you! Pose questions using “what” or “how.” Instead of, “Is noise considered a pollutant?” try, “How can you test whether noise is a pollutant?” Encourage girls to suggest approaches to a problem. Instead of swooping in to rescue them, encourage girls to problem solve by identifying, drawing, or labeling things they do understand. Resist answering the question, “Is this right?” Highlight unexpected results and suggest ways for girls to investigate further by asking, “How could we figure that out?” or, “What do you think?” Use Think, Pair, Share!

SciGirls Seven 3. Girls enjoy hands-on, open-ended projects and investigations. (Chatman, Nielsen, Strauss, & Tanner, 2008; Burkam, Lee, & Smerdon,1997; Fanscali, 2002) 4. Girls are motivated when they can approach projects in their own way, applying their creativity, unique talents and preferred learning styles. (Eisenhart & Finkel,1998; Calabrese Barton, Tan, & Rivet, 2008) Ask the participants that had Strategy 4 to share what they discussed. Feel free to chime in with any of the SciGirls tips from the booklet or from your own experience! Allow girls to design their own experiments and tests. Groups can share their plans with you; but your role is as a facilitator rather than as a leader or expert. Emphasize that everyone is learning and discovering together. Let girls communicate their findings using a variety of techniques relevant to their lives: poetry, music, posters, plays, slideshows, 2D- and 3D-models, drawings, etc. Have your girls create their own project pages at pbskidsgo.org/scigirls. Use your girls’ language to reiterate their points. Use a board or large sheet of paper to document each person’s participation. Write the idea as you hear it—don’t reword unless you have permission from the speaker. When meanings are unclear, restate what the girls said in their own words first, and then ask them to expand on their thinking with, “Tell me more” or, “What makes you think that?” Ask girls to write personal narratives relating to a particular time or place and share these in small or large groups. A journal or blog (for older girls) provides an avenue for reflection on learning.

SciGirls Seven 5. Girls’ confidence and performance improves in response to specific, positive feedback on things they can control – such as effort, strategies and behaviors. (Halpern, et al., 2007; Zeldin & Pajares, 2000; Blackwell, Trzesniewski, & Sorich Dweck, 2007; Mueller & Dweck, 1998) Ask the participants that had Strategy 5 to share what they discussed. Feel free to chime in with any of the SciGirls tips from the booklet or from your own experience! Reward success publicly and immediately. Focus on specific contributions such as, “You were really thinking outside the box with that design” or, “I love the way you and Kate worked together to solve that problem.” Avoid statements such as, “You are really good at this!” It sends the message that success doesn’t require effort or struggle. Convey the same level of respect for and confidence in the abilities of all your girls. Introduce girls to the good work done by their peers. Share the ideas, knowledge, and accomplishments of individuals with the group as a whole. Let a girl know you believe she can improve and succeed over time. When you identify a child’s weakness, make it clear that your comments relate to a particular task or performance, not to the child as a person. The brain is a “muscle” that can get stronger with time; skills can be improved with practice. Emphasize that working scientists struggle and make mistakes, too.

SciGirls Seven 5. Girls’ confidence and performance improves in response to specific, positive feedback on things they can control – such as effort, strategies and behaviors. (Halpern, et al., 2007; Zeldin & Pajares, 2000; Blackwell, Trzesniewski, & Sorich Dweck, 2007; Mueller & Dweck, 1998) 6. Girls gain confidence and trust in their own reasoning when encouraged to think critically. (Chatman, et al., 2008; Eisenhart & Finkel,1998) Ask the participants that had Strategy 6 to share what they discussed. Feel free to chime in with any of the SciGirls tips from the booklet or from your own experience! Support an environment free of “instant answers.” By working through a problem, girls will experience a sense of achievement and confidence that will increase their motivation to learn. When you simply give kids the solution, you rob them of the chance to think for themselves. Address girls’ anxiety about not getting the answer by refocusing their attention on the problem at hand. Build on what they do know to move forward. Think like scientists and engineers. It is okay to make mistakes; there is more than one way to solve a problem. Experimentation may never lead to an answer, but rather to new questions. Practice developing alternative explanations for results. Meet a question quota. Insist on each girl asking a certain number of questions each day. It’s okay to disagree. Stress the importance of considering different approaches and viewpoints. When disagreements arise, allow each girl to voice her viewpoint while all others listen and record the main points. Remind girls of the importance of using solid evidence when making a claim. Consensus may be difficult and perhaps unnecessary, but listening to one another is important.

SciGirls Seven 5. Girls’ confidence and performance improves in response to specific, positive feedback on things they can control – such as effort, strategies and behaviors. (Halpern, et al., 2007; Zeldin & Pajares, 2000; Blackwell, Trzesniewski, & Sorich Dweck, 2007; Mueller & Dweck, 1998) 6. Girls gain confidence and trust in their own reasoning when encouraged to think critically. (Chatman, et al., 2008; Eisenhart & Finkel,1998) Ask the participants that had Strategy 7 to share what they discussed. Feel free to chime in with any of the SciGirls tips from the booklet or from your own experience! Invite guest speakers from all levels, including high school, undergraduate, and graduate students, along with professional scientists. Probe visitors to describe what their work looks like along with how they identify and ask questions, answer them, and share information with others. Remind them to talk about their hobbies, interests, family and life outside of the lab. Invite guest scientists to help lead an activity. If you are unsure of their comfort level working with children, pair them with other educators or leaders. The experience will be valuable for both the students and the scientists! Spotlight women who work on the subjects you are studying. If you can’t get someone live, show videos of female scientists. (Use SciGirls videos or DragonflyTV’s scientist profiles at scigirlsconnect.org). Use SciGirls videos to showcase peers as mentors. The girls in each episode can act as role models for projects. Encourage mentor pairings. 7. Girls benefit from relationships with role models and mentors. (Liston, et al., 2008; Evans, Whigham, & Wang, 1995)

G O T S & N E E D S Formative Assessment! Official Online and Hard Copy Will Email link to downloads Closing Thoughts? Thank you! Group Pic 