Teach Briefs
Go where no student has gone before
S.T.E.M. projects for launching student minds into space
By Joe Maness and Rich Holtzin
Imagine yourself a high school
student, say, 9th through 12th grade,
taking math courses entailing
astronautics or aerospace projects.
Most projects usually run about six
weeks. You are part of a team of
three or four other students and
collaboration is imperative. Even
though you may have an inherent
fear or dislike of higher math, the
detailed lesson plans you’ll be
working with are clear, concise, and
cool. The projects also entail the
best of the best astronautics and
aerospace industries, like Boeing,
R.E.L. (Skylon), Bigelow, and Virgin
Galactic. There is one more thing
about these projects geared mainly
to Pre-Algebra, Algebra 1 and 2,
and Pre-Calculus: each denotes an
exclusive S.T.E.M. problem created
for your high school.
Welcome to the world of
astronautics
and
aerospace,
where they don’t call it rocket
science for nothing! What you’ll
be experiencing is indeed the real
McCoy in the guise of a tangible
academic exercise.
The above description applies
to our S.T.E.M. for the Classroom
program. While some advocates
for S.T.E.M. projects think or assume
students should eventually choose
similarly related fields as future
employment, we feel differently.
In our view, students taking S.T.E.M.
courses can choose any line of
employment or academic field and
still profit from the experience. The
cognitive discipline and academics
is that exceptional and far reaching!
How did these imaginative
projects come about? While most
S.T.E.M. projects average just a few
days, ours were designed for halfsemesters or quarters. The intrinsic
concept correlates to developing
and
implementing
a
robust,
comprehensive, and sustainable
New Space commercialization
program. Moreover, the conviction
62
62
to follow, now well beyond the
prototype phase, include the
aforementioned
Pre-Calculus
project about to be launched in the
fall which will extend through 2014.
Here’s an example of one
of our new Algebra 2 projects
(http://www.stemfortheclassroom.
com/2013/07/the-bell-curve.html)
featuring the portion of the text
under “Analysis” could suffice as an
insight of what the project entails.
Which brings us to our thesis
of teaching: To offer high school
students at all Socioeconomic
Status (S.E.S) levels engaging
S.T.E.M. projects at no cost. All that’s
needed is an Internet connection,
which most schools already provide.
Our hands-on projects challenge
students to step out of their comfort
zone by designing real-world space
missions using real-world spacecraft
that best describes our ideology data, thereby gaining a better
utilizes reuse and commonality to understanding of all four S.T.E.M.
achieve affordable and profitable facets. As it turns out, designing
and planning a space mission for
spaceflight operations.
Our approach to sustainable the projects entails the use of the
rocketry in all aspects was itself various mathematical concepts
influenced by a movie, October and equations students typically
Sky, released in 1999 (and based on learn in high school classes.
We also boldly set out on this path
the book, “Rocket Boys,” by Homer
Hickam). The narrative was centered and wanted to find a way to give
on a trio of high school students in back to the community something
a backwoods West Virginia coal- totally innovative and highly
mining community, who became stimulating. Ergo, a pragmatic
interested in launching rockets. approach to education that made
One of the students, Homer, grew better sense and would maintain a
up to eventually become a NASA student’s interest. Now that we know
engineer, while the other two chose the classes thus far taught were so
to work in non-S.T.E.M. fields. We well received by our students, we
were smitten with this film for many believe even more in the synergy of
reasons. Primarily, we realized its our S.T.E.M. concept. Additionally,
greater potential for seeding minds there can be a 100% success rate
with elemental constructs for all that for all those students to follow. This
follows in life and chosen vocations. claim cannot be fostered by typical
As for the apt title of this article, testing methods mandated for most
given
the
recent
successful school programs!
prototype of our Algebra 2 class
What is our pragmatic approach
during the 2012-2013 school year, given our version of S.T.E.M.
those students did indeed boldly projects? While the abstractions
go where they never thought of
mathematics
involved
in
they could or would. The courses astronautics and aerospace can be
www.RocketSTEM.org