NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

By: Sherri Mitchell

Every summer since 1998, the NASA Pre-Service Teacher Program has hosted a 2-week, residential institute at NASA Langley. This year, 20 students from 11 different universities were selected to participate. Living in a dorm at Hampton University, the junior and senior elementary education majors engaged in a wide array of hands-on lessons, went on tours and, at the end of the two weeks, taught a lesson to a group of young children.

Cooper Elementary students constructing a bridge.

Photo Credit: NASA/Shannon Drummond.

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This year’s institute was one of the most successful, as seen in the evaluation of 100% of the participants who rated it as one of the most valuable experiences they had and they would recommend it to their peers. What made this year different?

Cooper Elementary Technology Magnet School in Hampton, allowed NASA to get its fifth grade students involved with the program. Paula Tucker-Hogan, director of NASA’s Pre-Service Teacher Program, and other staff members felt this decision proved to be a phenomenal one. Cooper Elementary fifth grade students came out to NASA in the early part of the second week to get to know their prospective teachers and tour the center. The students visited the NTF Wind Tunnel, took pictures at the Hangar and enjoyed a picnic lunch with our teachers outside of the Reid Center.

All the while, the NASA students were hard at work putting together their lesson plans, based on inquiry-based learning. This method is designed to ask questions and find out what the students are thinking and what kind of connections they are making. Kraven Cook, a 26 year-old student from Mississippi Valley State University, said, “[The] Pre-Service Teacher Institute gave me great confidence in inquiry-based learning, and I would recommend any teacher candidate to participate in it”.

Principal Chervese Thomas, at Cooper Elementary.

Photo Credit: NASA/Shannon Drummond.

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At the end of that week, our 20 teachers traveled to Cooper to put their lesson plans into action. They were divided into four groups of five and taught the lesson over two days. Each group used a version of a highly enriched STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) activity they had learned during the previous week. In one group, students built a device to protect an egg being dropped from eight feet while studying gravity. A second group used Lifesavers to build cars that students raced while learning about Newton’s First Law of Motion. When Cooper Town Bridge fell, students in Group Three had to build a new bridge out of craft sticks and straws, all while staying within a limited budget. And one group gave students three different types of planes to build and test which materials worked the best.

Shannon Scott, who turned 22 years old during the institute said, “…Not only did I gain instructional and educational insight from PSTI; moreso, I gained strong practical skills of leadership and management that will propel me into my prominent ‘headship’ status.”


 
NASA Langley Research Center
Managing Editor: Jim Hodges
Executive Editor and Responsible NASA Official: H. Keith Henry
Editor and Curator: Denise Lineberry