Blah, blah, blah, blog.: NASA Glenn

I was fortunate to take part in a two week course at NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. The workshop taught different ways to incorporate aspects of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics into single lessons since science in elementary schools is being condensed to make room for other subjects. Aside from learning different teaching methods, I saw lots of cool NASA stuff and even carried out experiments on some. If only I could have gone in the zero gravity machine you always see on commercials for Space Camp..maybe next summer.

Moon Craters

One of our experiments was to show how moon craters are formed. Flour and cocoa powder in a tin were used to simulate the moon and we dropped various size rocks from various heights to act as meteors. We then had to measure the "rays" to show how far reaching the meteors' destruction reached. This is definitely an activity I will use with my future students if for no other reason than to smell the cocoa powder for the day.

Micro Gravity Drop Tower

Our experiment was to see if gravity effected the swinging of Newton's Cradle.

The Drop- 8 stories in 2.2 seconds

While the free fall did not effect the motion of Newton's Cradle (it kept swinging as though it was sitting on someone's desk), it did get tangled up at the very end.

Zero Gravity Drop Tower

Things (yes, that's the NASA term) that carry the experiments.

Hard at work in the zero gravity drop control tower.

Models

Cross section of Aries I service module

Model of Aries I

NASA OAI-Our clasroom

Projects

Each day we had different activities that we can use in the classroom that use science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The first was trying to build a water retriever for future Mars missions.