ASEE Partners with NSTA
Posted on October 4th, 2011 by Jaimie Schock
The American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) has put together a public/private partnership to develop ways of engaging elementary, middle, and high school students in engineering. Participants will learn about innovative, hands-on, project-based engineering at three events during National Science Teachers Association regional conferences.
Filed under: For Teachers, K-12 Outreach Programs | 1 Comment »
Tags: American Society for Engineering Education, Conference, Conferences and Meetings, Department of Defense, NASA, National Science Teachers Association, Professional Development, Teacher Training
In this lesson, teams of students in grades 4 – 8 learn about basic aerodynamics by constructing a rocket from a balloon propelled along a guide-string. They use this model to learn about Newton’s three laws of motion, examining the effect of different forces on the motion of the rocket.
NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission will launch twin spacecraft in tandem orbits around the Moon to measure its gravity in unprecedented detail and create a gravitational map. GRAIL MoonKAM will allow classrooms to request pictures of the lunar surface from cameras on the twin satellites. 
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory recently announced the new Fall 2011 Cassini Scientist for a Day essay contest for students in grades 5-12. Winners are invited to a teleconference with Cassini scientists and engineers from the lab. The contest deadline is Oct. 26, 2011.
Two Houston engineers have won a competition for low-cost experiments that high school students could send aboard a suborbital space flight. They have designed an inexpensive microgravity spaceflight kit that allows students to conduct three experiments demonstrating important principles of science and engineering.
In this activity, students will learn the challenges of operating a robotic rover on the distant Red Planet and solve problems through a hands-on simulation. After trying to navigate an obstacle course blindfolded and guided only by verbal commands, students will discover that tooling around Mars is no simple joy-stick ride. 
Many kids dream of exploring space, but few get much further than their schoolyards. This is not true of students in Tekna-Theos, a Florida after-school program bursting with science activities and contests. They’ve set their sights high, designing and building mini-satellites and preparing a payload to test the effect of weightlessness on bone cells. Some have actually experienced “Zero-G.”
It’s easy to find your way to school. Now imagine trying to navigate the skies, with no signs to point you in the right direction. How do pilots find their way? These “pilot training lessons” developed by the Center for Innovation in Engineering and Science Education at the Stevens Institute of Technology will teach your young aviators the principles of navigation in a fun series of real-time activities.
The Journey Museum in Rapids City, SD, is offering two NASA LEGO-Robotics workshops for students, June 9, 2011 and August 4, 2011. Participants will engage in challenges that can be shared with students to encourage the use of imagination, problem-solving skills and team work. Cost: $25 per workshop, $15 for members.
