Welcome to the
NES Challenge!
NASA Explorer Schools invites your school to participate
in the NES Challenge. Since measurement is a fundamental building block
for science, technology and engineering, the NES Challenge is an opportunity
for students to do projects to enhance their measurement skills (See
Standards page). In
school year 2004-05, the theme for the Challenge is Return to the Moon.
We invite projects on any aspect of the Moon and its relationship to the
Earth and the Solar System.
In school year 2004-05, participation will be on a limited
basis. Please check with your NASA liaison to make sure your school has
the necessary video-conferencing capabilities. Once the NES Coordinator for
your NASA Center has given the OK, then please register.
Teacher registration closed on Friday, November 12. The purpose of Teacher
Registration is to alert the NES Challenge Coordination Team to how many
Student Teams will be participating so that we can set up their registration
form. Student Team registration opened Monday, November 1, and closed Friday, November 19.
Challenge Structure
The NES Challenge will be implemented as a multi-tiered
event. In school year 2004-05, the NES Challenge will be open to students
in NASA Explorer Schools. At the first level, the Local Challenge,
the students will present their work to their peers at their own school.
The schools should assemble a panel of judges for the Local Challenge, although
NASA contacts (such as AESP specialists) would not be precluded from participation
at the local level.
One project from each school will move on to the Regional
Challenge. Presentations for Regional Challenges will be delivered by the
students to the judges using NASA's Digital Learning Network (DLN). Regions
are defined as the service regions for which NASA Centers are responsible.
Teams
participating in the Regional Challenge will be invited to submit an application
to present their work at the annual NES Student Symposium (May 9 - 13, 2005,
location to be determined). The NES Program will review the applications
and select one Student Team per school to attend the NES Student Symposium.
The NES Program will support travel for one teacher, and two students per
selected project to this event. Other participants, such as family members
who are unable to attend the symposium, will be connected to the event using
the Digital Learning Network. The presentations also will be webcast, so
that all of the “folks back home” can watch their students take part in
this national event.
Challenge
Brain Teasers
An important part of the NES Challenge is an evaluation
component, being conducted by the NASA-sponsored Classroom of the Future
(COTF). COTF has
developed a set
of two questions, one posed at the beginning of the event and one posed
after the projects have been completed. Each student that participates in
a project in the NES Challenge will be required to submit an answer to these
questions. The students will not be judged on
their answers to the Challenge Brain Teasers. The COTF will be collecting
the answers to the questions to evaluate changes in student thinking as a
result of participation in the NES Challenge. One question will be made available
online at the start of the Challenge in November (due date November 19, 2004). A related question will be posed in early March, after
the students have completed their projects.
The COTF will provide feedback on the Brain Teasers
to the teachers in the form of all student answers from the school and the
scoring rubric, with guidance on how to discuss the approaches to answering
the questions. Any questions relating to the Brain Teasers should be directed
to: Jennifer Kirby (at the NASA-sponsored Classroom of the Future): jenn@cet.edu
Digital
Learning Network: NES Challenge: Help Along the Way
NASA Explorer Schools will provide some help along the
way during the Challenge through its Digital Learning Network. Bite-sized,
mini-lessons on parts of the Challenge will be offered monthly through the
DLN. These lessons will address skills students will be enhancing to address
national education standards.
A Question-and-Answer session will be part of each video conference to
allow teachers and students to ask questions about their specific projects.
The schedule for NES Challenge
DLN video conferences is posted on this website.
Teacher's Guide to a Challenge
Project
I. The Question
Ask a question about the Moon that requires a measurement
to answer. The student can come up with their own question, or the teacher
can provide one. There are some samples on the website. These can be used
to give ideas, or they can actually be used for the projects.
II. The Relationship of the Measurement
to the Question
The student should describe what measurement will be made
to help answer the question. This is the crux of the activity, so time
should be spent to make sure the student understands.
III. The Prediction
The student should predict what they think the answer to
their question will be. They should explain why they think that their prediction
will turn out to be true.
IV. The Experimental Setup
The student should describe how they plan to set up the
experiment. How will they make their measurements? What tools are required?
Do they need to build something? This should all be written down, and,
if necessary, drawings included, before they start the experiment.
V. The Measurements
They should have a log book for recording their measurements.
They can also make other notes in the logbook (i.e., It was cloudy.) The
students should make several measurements of each parameter (to introduce
the concept of measurement uncertainty).
VI. The Results
The students need to determine the best way to present
the data and analyze the results. They will have determined how to use the
data to answer their question in the “Relationship between the Measurement
and the Question” section.
Guiding questions:
- What do your
results tell you about the question you asked?
- Was your
prediction correct?
- Did this
experiment make you think of other questions? If so, what are they?
- What was
the most difficult part of your experiment?
- What would
you do differently if you were going to do the experiment again?
Challenge Brain Teasers
Question
1 (Pre-assessment): Due November
19, 2004.
Question 2 (Post-assessment): Due in March 2005,
date TBD.
Remember, students will not be scored on these questions,
but all students are required to submit an answer to each question. If
a student does not submit an answer to the Challenge Brain Teasers by the
due date, that student's Student Team will be disqualified from the NES
Challenge.
Reports and Presentations
Please download Scoring
Criteria from the web to see exactly how the projects will be
score. Students should follow the format described in Scoring Criteria.
For
the Students
