How do I use KaAMS?

The Structure of KaAMS Materials

  Overview | Lesson Plan Structure | More on lesson strategies | How can I use KaAMS?

The structure of KaAMS material was designed to provide teachers with a variety of options to integrate lesson plans, bursts of activities, and resources into their classrooms that involve kids in science as scientists. The KaAMS lesson pans are based on anchoring students in problem-based learning experiences through actual NASA-sponsored Airborne Remote Sensing Missions investigating problems arising from environmental phenomena such as volcano eruptions, coral reef destruction, or hurricanes. These missions were, and are continuing to be, supported by NASA research aircraft and scientists. Missions explored in KaAMS include:

·        Shadowing a past mission looking for active lava flows on the Kilauea Volcano.

·        Participating in a current mission … future mission to be developed

·        Proposing a new mission … future mission to be developed

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KaAMS Lesson Plan Structure

missions, including (1) identify a problem scenario, (2) propose ideas and (3) search for information to plan a mission that addresses the problem, (4) collect and (5) analyze data, and (6) go public with results. As students proceed through the pathway they become involved in scientific inquiry and exploration processes prompting reflective thinking and construction of the knowledge necessary to ultimately solve the mission problem and participate successfully in new scientific investigations.

Each lesson plan pathway has an accompanying student guide, The student guide contains worksheets, information, and instructions to help students with each activity and prompt them to constantly think about how the activities they are conducting relate to the overall mission. The student guide pages are cross-referenced to the lesson plans by codes such as ARS1 – What is Airborne Remote Sensing 1 or V-2 – Volcanology 2.

Each lesson plan, provided in downloadable html, word, and pdf formats, was organized using a structural framework. The structural framework consists of a lesson plan overview, four successive lesson strategies, and support materials:

·        A lesson plan OVERVIEW including a lesson plan context, brief overviews of each part of the lesson, a list of key science concepts, background information, objectives, a list of activity bursts, links to access on-line resources, links to supported national education standards, assessment and reflection suggestions, and cross-curricular extension ideas.

·        Events to FRAME learning within the mission process context,

·        Events to INFORM students about the current lessons content and activity instructions,

·        Events for students to EXPLORE information and knowledge,

·        Events to TRY out new knowledge as it relates to solving the mission problem,

·        Teacher SUPPORT material including background content in the form short narratives, diagrams, links to additional background information, and student worksheets with sample responses.

Each of the four main lesson strategies, Frame, Inform, Explore, Try, provides descriptions of both the teacher and accompanying student activities for each teaching and learning event.  As you review the lesson strategies you will find activity instructions, prompting questions with sample responses, background content, and multiple links to additional teacher and student information. Notice that the bolded underlined links will jump you to pages and images within the KaAMS site, the non-bold links will jump you out of KaAMS and into thoroughly reviewed and content expert approved supporting sites.

In turn, each lesson activity will generally include its own detailed instructions, activity prompts, activity and debrief questions with samples responses, and links to supporting web sites for teacher background or student access.

The lesson plans and activities are also full of links to supporting information, optional activities, and other resources as appropriate. One of the hallmarks of the overall design of KaAMS is that it harnesses hundreds of NASA web resources into contextualized instruction. Exposure to these resources may spawn additional creative ideas for your classroom!

Click here for more on the FRAME, INFORM, EXPLORE, TRY Framework.

In Summary …

Missions are problem-based learning experiences that promote student scientific inquiry. Missions contain two separate pathways, an aeronautics and a remote sensing path, each organized to help teachers guide students through knowledge construction and the scientific inquiry process. Each pathway is also accompanied by a student guide that contains suggested worksheets, information, and instructions to help students with lesson activities and prompts them to think about what they have learned, what they still need to know. The individual lesson plans are designed, using a variety of lesson strategies, to shadow the scientific mission inquiry process yet are suitable for a stand-alone, one-time use. The intent of each lesson plan is to provide teachers with sets of contextual activities to involve kids in science as Airborne Mission Scientists. Activities incorporated through the lesson plans are for the most part designed to be hands-on, collaborative, and interactive bursts to get kids excited and involved in their own learning. Throughout the lesson plans teachers are encouraged to prompt student inquiry, hypothesis generations, information collection, data analysis, exploration, problem-solving, collaboration, and reflection, thus facilitating a student-centered problem-based learning environment. Lesson plan activities are designed to encourage the development of critical background knowledge and participation in the scientific inquiry process to support problem-solving. Each activity can be used within the context of the lesson or as a stand-alone substitute to enhance one of your own lesson plans.

Links to more on problem-based learning, reflective thinking, and internet technology integration in your classroom.

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The Frame, Inform, Explore, and Try lesson strategies provide the teacher with a suggested process for conducting the lesson plan. Each lesson strategy represents a different type of learning need in students.

A little on the lesson strategy terminology as adapted from Web-Enhanced Learning Environment Strategies … See Figure 2.

Frame provides a context for the lesson plan. Other terms you might recognize that are synonymous with Frame include anticipatory set, goal setting, or gaining attention.

Inform, primarily teacher-driven, focuses on providing content or instructions to students generally through modeling or presenting.

Explore, primarily student-driven, provides events that actively involve students in investigating content, practicing new ideas, and constructing the knowledge necessary to solve the problems presented in the lesson plan. The content covered during inform, and investigated during explore, is primarily based on the general background content and process knowledge required to address the mission problem, during a specific stage of the scientific inquiry process.

Try provides the students with opportunities to test their new content and process knowledge by applying it to the overall mission problem. This strategy is likened to closure and testing.

Although each lesson strategy in the lesson plan has a different purpose each can be conducted using a variety of types of lesson activities. For example, you will see that many of the Frame lesson strategies begin with either the discussion of a projected image or an intense hands-on activity, each approach designed to contextualize the lesson.  Click here for further descriptions of each lesson strategy.

Further descriptions of lesson strategies: Frame, Inform, Explore, Try

Frame is a lesson strategy in which a context for studying a particular topic is established. Setting context for learning may include providing directions or creating a mood.  Framing often occurs in the introductory and motivational activities to promote interest in subject areas or provide a context for approaching learning.  Problems are often set in real or fantasy events that are easily accessible from the web.  Framing is an important motivational strategy for all methods of teaching, regardless of whether the teacher, the learner, or their partnership controls the lesson.  (back to figure 2)

Inform is the lesson strategy in which information about the content is conveyed to the learner during a presentation, demonstration, or discussion--that is--those activities that are representative of present and guide teaching methods. (back to figure 2)

Explore is the lesson strategy that is student directed.  Students investigate, manipulate, and research subject areas, problems and situations, those activities represented in the guide, active learning, collaboration, problem-based and role-playing teaching methods. (back to figure 2)

Try is the lesson strategy in which the student practices, or tests their newly acquired knowledge, skills or inclinations as represented in the guide, active learning, problem-based, and role playing methods of teaching. In KaAMS, Try is the primary lesson strategy where the teacher prompts students to apply their new knowledge to the mission problem. (back to figure 2)

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How can “I” use KaAMS lesson plans in my classroom?

The KaAMS lesson plans, activities, and resources were designed to provide you with a great deal of flexibility in how you integrate them into your curriculum, based on your greatest wants and needs. You could use all of the lesson plans in mission as a complete unit of instruction, a series of lesson plans, an individual lesson plan, one or more of the lesson activities, one or more of the linked resources, or any combination of these materials. You might also use KaAMS material as a personal preparation tool to help you better understand the content areas of aeronautics, remote sensing, general scientific inquiry, or the mission’s science context, for example in the shadowing mission, volcanology. Following, are several examples of how middle school teachers have used KaAMS in their classrooms …

Examples of teachers using KaAMS in the classroom …

Complete unit | Series of lesson plans | Individual lesson plan | Lesson activities | Resources

Integrating a complete KaAMS mission:

A sixth grade teacher used the entire aeronautics pathway over a sixth month period. She used the KaAMS lesson plans as the foundation for the science class and added additional supplemental activities to cover curriculum requirements not addressed specifically in KaAMS. For example, in one of the initial lesson plans students work in teams and participate in collaborative problem-solving. Since this teacher’s students did not have experience in collaborative teams, she supplemented the KaAMS lesson plans with several team-building and team decision-making activities she had used in the past. In another lesson plan, where the students develop presentations of their findings, the teacher integrated a 3-week unit to develop the students’ skills at creating electronic presentations. They developed technology skills using a context of reporting on their scientific inquiry and findings. The value of the structure and open-ended nature of the KaAMS material was in providing many opportunities to easily supplement KaAMS lesson plans and activities to meet specific curriculum requirements.   (Back)

Integrating a series of KaAMS lesson plans:

A eighth grade teacher needed to conduct a unit of Electromagnetic Spectrum and light as part of her required science curriculum. She decided to use a series of the lesson plans to supplement the textbook she was currently using with her students. The series approach offered her an option to use the contextualizing NASA mission and the Remote Sensing pathway to conduct unique lesson plans that covered the EM spectrum as well as scientific inquiry and process skills, which are also important to her requirements. She used activities from her textbook in connection with KaAMS during a six-week period. (Back)

Integrating an individual KaAMS lesson plan:

A sixth grade teacher was interested in building her students teamwork skills for up-coming planned science activities. She decided to use one of the KaAMS lesson plans that prompted students to explore how NASA airborne mission scientists work together to investigate environmental problems. The lesson plan provided her with a problem-based approach and supporting materials to engage students in collaboration, scientific inquiry, and group decision-making while developing an understanding of what scientists do and how they collaborate. She was able to use this single KaAMS lesson plan over a two-week period. (Back)

Integrating an activity from a KaAMS lesson plan:

In previous years during an earth science unit on volcanoes, this eighth grade teacher’s kids looked up volcanoes, built and labeled models, and took a short exam on volcano terminology. She wanted a new motivating activity that would intrigue the kids and prompt higher levels of inquiry and participation. She found an activity in a KaAMS lesson plan that outlined three experiments kids could conduct to develop an understanding of the structure of a volcano, eruptions, and lava flow. She used this KaAMS activity to motivate her students and frame the volcano unit. The activities took two class periods. (Back)

Integrating resources from a KaAMS lesson plan:

A seventh grade teacher was assigned to teach a new topic, principles of flight, in the curriculum with which she had little knowledge. The curriculum materials were well planned, but lacked sufficient background material describing basic concepts. After finding and reviewing KaAMS she came across some images and an on-line tutorial provided as teacher background information in a KaAMS lesson plan on aeronautics. Reviewing the images and tutorial enhanced her understanding of the basic aeronautics concepts she was required to teach. She then decided to integrate the resources into her lesson activities to provide students with an interactive on-line activity and accompanying hands-on experiments involving them in exploring required concepts. (Back)

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Site updated July 17, 2003

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