Week 7 #iNerdsMG with #NASAMgUE

Students made good progress this week by creating a working design modified from their original blueprint. As issues develop with the design, additional modifications are made. The team hopes to begin testing the design with the simulator next week. The design may not have enough parts from the NASA kit with the addition of the Junior Botball components. NASA components should be 90% of the materials used with only 10% from outside the kit materials. Teachers meet with the Junior Botball mentors Monday on Skype and await additional guidance from the NASA mentor #JohnsonSpaceCenter who has been monitoring the engineering design process.

SLED Development

Junior Botball Possibility

A few students at our school have the possibility to participate in the Global Conference on Educational Robotics in two ways. First, students will be able to participate in the International Botball Tournament where they will complete programming challenges. Secondly, they may be able to present on the use of the Botball Wallaby in the school’s NASA project. http://bit.ly/2lompcI

Conference information:

Everyone interested in robotics and STEM education is encouraged to attend the conference! Each year students, educators, enthusiasts, and professionals from across the world gather at the Global Conference on Educational Robotics to connect with peers, discuss technology-related ideas, and cheer on their favorite teams during two exciting autonomous robot tournaments.  http://new.gcer.net/events/

The qualifying team has the potential to receive grant funding from the Idaho STEM Action Center to offset travel costs and will seek additional funding opportunities as needed.

In order to qualify, the participating students will need to:

1.      Complete Junior Botball Challenges at Galileo’s STEM Night, March 2, 5:00-7:00 pm

2.      Assist with the school’s NASA project as programming consultants or programmers (During school hours)

3.      Complete Junior Botball Challenges at Youth Appreciation Day in Emmett, ID, April 29 (More details to follow)

Week 5 and 6 #iNerdsMG with #NASAMgUE

We have been working hard the last two weeks and still feel as though we have not accomplished enough. While our understanding of the NASA SLED project grows, we are quickly running out of time. We did receive and send out the NASA press release to broadcast and print media with only a couple of responses that I am aware of. We also had a bit of a break through during a teacher training for the trigger for the automatic launch. The Junior Botball Wallaby could be attached and run remotely. Our after school group has been learning how to program the Wallabies. Instead of teachers showing the NASA team how to program for launch, we "hired" three fifth grade consultants to teach the appropriate group how to code. In addition, we recruited another potential mentor through with the Junior Botball trainers. The project is progressing, but the deadline is looming. It's just part of the challenge.

Challenges we have struggled with include understanding the SLED launch procedure, recruiting and developing mentors, and managing 110 students. We finally have a complete understanding of the launch procedure but the delay in our understanding was a delay in the students' understanding. However, teachers and students on the team were definitely involved in the learning process together. We solicited and had some response for mentors from Boise State University. It is difficult to know how to explain the project and how to prepare a mentor to assist. Finding and preparing a mentor for this project has led me to believe that much more can be done to prepare mentors and provide a way to create a database for educators to access for particular projects. A database is not sufficient. Mentors should be trained on inquiry-based learning, so they know how to guide students. It is challenging for teachers to work with students and train mentors simultaneously. Finally, we wanted to include all the students. Jobs have been created for the student groups. Jobs are needed at different points of the project, beginning, middle, and end. Therefore, it has been a challenge keeping all students engaged when not all students have something to do at the moment. With deadlines looming and students waiting to do their jobs, we are moving to more meetings but keeping them targeted to the necessary groups. Next two weeks are critical. Updates will be posted as time allows. Check back!

Week 4 #NASAMgUE

This was a busy week for #NASAMgUE at Galileo STEM Academy. If you would like more information about the highlights, just let me know.

• We received our SLED materials kit from NASA. 
• The teaching team had a webinar on Tuesday. The hour and a half webinar shared strategies for culturally responsive teaching, inquiry-based instruction, engineering design process, and 5E lesson plan. 
• We met before the webinar start time and looked at the kit, discussed our progress on outreach, and shared ideas for Friday's full team meeting with students. 
• We were also excited to hear from our NASA mentor on Tuesday. 

Tuesday was a busy day! The full #iNerdsMG team met on Friday morning, as usual. Students are developing a clearer picture of the challenge just like the teachers. There are twelve different jobs for the student groups. Some do not have any tasks until we can start testing and do our final planning. Student groups who had jobs to work on continued progressing in their work. Other students continued to learn more about microgravity. We will have a mentor from Boise State joining us next Friday. We are also hoping to have a chat with our NASA mentor on a conference or video conference call. There is a lot to do, organize, and prepare. It's still well worth the effort.

NASA SLED Kit Materials

Anyone can be President

As a teacher, the words "Anyone can be president!" were used as an inspirational tool for students.  Asking them to picture themselves in the highest office of this country gave them the opportunity to see the possibilities their life could hold.  Sadly, after only a few weeks in office, President Trump has given those words a different meaning.  No longer does someone have to be qualified for the position, after all "Anyone can be president." I was prepared and ready to give our new leader a chance.  He quickly shot down any possible optimism I had with his bullying and heavy handed measures. Our president has become someone we cannot encourage our students to look up to. He bullies others publicly and on social media. We have lessons about this starting in elementary school discouraging his exact behavior. It saddens me that to say I can no longer use our country's highest office to inspire our nation's youth. I am also sadden by the division in our nation. Thankfully it has not made an appearance in my classroom yet. I worry that it's only a matter of time. I am not the nicest person I know, or even close to it. How is it possible that I can have more empathy for others than some? Does this mean our country is divided by hate or is it ignorance? It is a shame that ignorance can breed hate, for either way our country is headed down a long hard road. I hope to inspire students in my classroom to be problem solvers. I work hard to help them be critical thinkers. I try to prepare our country's future. We will have quite a lot of work ahead of us.