INFORM students that they will learn about airborne mission scientists by playing the role of different types of airborne mission scientists while investigating different problems.

Explain to students that they will now participate in a short activity to explore problems that airborne mission scientists investigate. In this activity they will assume the role of one type of airborne mission scientist. During this process you will begin a mission in much the same way an actual NASA mission starts. You will develop a formal request for use of NASA resources to study a real problem. 

• For the purposes of this activity, groups of students will be asked to complete a simplified NASA form to request the resources to complete an airborne remote sensing mission. They will then present their request to a NASA panel (their peers and teacher).

Separate students into groups and refer each group to one of the following Problem scenarios describing actual NASA missions:

• Study the decrease in the amount of ozone in Earth's Atmosphere.
• Study effects of smoke and aerosols on climate.
• Study the effect of snow and ice on climate.
• Study moisture levels in hurricanes.

Teacher note: To simplify this activity you may choose to select only one scenario for the entire class and treat each group as a competing team. If your students are new to collaborative group work it may also be desirable for you to guide your students through this process by identifying specific questions to be addressed by each of the "expert" groups (see below).

Refer the students to the Activity sheet: NASA Airborne Science Flight Request Form (AMS-4) and Group activity instructions (AMS-2) in their Student Journal (or distribute copies if not using the journal.) 

Provide an activity overview:

• In groups, examine the Activitysheet: NASA Airborne Science Flight Request Form (AMS-4) and develop a list of questions which need to be answered to complete the request form, e.g., what aircraft do I want to use?
  See Activity sheet: Question categorization chart (AMS-3)
• Each group should identify a person to assume the role of an expert in each of the following: 

• aeronautics – shares ideas on aircraft available
• remote sensing – shares ideas on remote sensing instruments
• science expert – shares ideas on problem being investigated 

• Tell students to categorize using the provided Activity sheet: Question categorization chart (AMS-3) the questions they create according to their perception of which expert is most likely to have knowledge in that area, e.g., science objectives - science expert, remote sensing instrument - remote sensing expert.

Allow students time to general categorize their list of questions to complete the flight request form. 

Prompt students to break up into groups of experts, e.g., the science experts, aeronautics experts, and remote sensing experts get together.

Student activity:

• Carefully listen to instructions.

Student activities:

• Develop a list of questions that need to be answered to complete the flight request form. See Activity sheet: Question categorization chart (AMS-3)

• Choose/assign roles as either environmental science expert, aeronautics expert, or remote sensing expert within each team.

• Decide which questions should be answered by each "expert."

Sample student responses:

• aeronautics expert - type of aircraft, characteristics of the aircraft
• remote sensing expert - characteristics and purposes of available remote sensing instruments
• science expert - objectives of mission, type of data to collect

Student activity:

Categorize list of questions using the provided Activity sheet: Question categorization chart (AMS-3)