AIAA Educator Academy: Enriching STEM Educaon for K AIAA Educator Academy: Enriching STEM Educaon for K - - 12 Students 12 Students Elana Slagle, Edgar A. Bering, Benjamin W. Longmier, Elizabeth Henriquez, Tom Milnes, Paul Wiedorn ED33C-0771 About the AIAA Educator Academy The AIAA Educator Academy is an outreach program designed to increase interacon among K-12 teachers, students, and AIAA professional members. Comprised of student Curriculum Modules, a Teacher Training workshop, and a culminang Capstone Event, students learn engineering-related concepts in fields such as aeronaucs, astronaucs and robocs (STEM). By working in teams with an assigned mentor, students work collaboravely to solve real-world problems and build crical thinking skills. STEM Impact Fosters STEM Pipeline Provides inquiry-based opportunies Focuses on crical thinking skills , collaboraon and problem solving skills Targets students at key age-groups Inspires students to pursue STEM careers through high-interest curriculum Connects students with potenal mentors who can provide guidance and support Build STEM awareness in classrooms, schools, and communies Educator Academy Benefits For Students Encourages innovave thinking rather than prescripve learning Teaches students to follow through on a goal oriented long-term project Fosters leadership, teamwork, and communicaon as well as crical thinking and problem solving skills Emphasizes science planning and engineering design principles (R & D) rather than producon processes Flexible curriculum is problem-based rather than discipline-bound, reflecng the true spirit of discovery and innovaon For K-12 Teachers Low-cost format is inclusive rather than exclusive Fosters inquiry-based learning principles Offers mentor support from qualified STEM professionals to students and K-12 teachers Provides resources for implemenng Curriculum Modules in classrooms Offers teacher training to learn and review curriculum concepts before introducing them to students For The Community Builds an annual event for students and community members Allows interacon between AIAA professional members and teachers and students Provides qualified , local volunteers who share a passion for STEM educaon Leverages the AIAA network locally, naonally, and internaonally Instructional Methodology The AIAA Educator Academy is a K-12 STEM educaon program designed for use in both formal and/or informal educaon sengs. Each Curriculum Module is designed around high-impact topics that encourage the use of higher level thinking skills such as evaluaon, synthesis, analysis, and other crical thinking skills. Each Curriculum Module is a flexible model that allows the teachers to choose lessons that are appropriate for specific subjects, age groups, or topics. All Curriculum Modules have been field tested by K-12 teachers . Feedback from instructors is used to further refine lesson content, curriculum standards, and instruconal methodology. Throughout the modules, students work in teams to design, develop, and test ideas that will they will use to construct their final product. As a culminang event, student teams and their teachers are invited to the regional capstone event to demonstrate their knowledge and interact with other students. Each Curriculum Module focuses on: Inquiry and standards based instrucon Development of 21st century skills such as problem solving, crical thinking skills, communicaon Collaboraon within teams and classrooms AIAA professional members as student and teacher mentors Community involvement in regional Capstone Events AIAA Cur riculum Modules Electric Ca rgo Plane The Electric Cargo Plane Curriculum Module is a STEM curriculum enrichment program for grades 6-12 designed to inspire and encourage future pilots and engineers. This program challenges students to use specific requirements to design and build an airplane as an introducon to physics and engineering. The challenge reinforces many key concepts in elementary physics such as kinemacs and dynamics while demonstrang how engineers combine science, math, research, and experimentaon to build a successful flying cargo plane. Each year, students aend the regional capstone events with their teams to determine which cargo plane can carry the most weight. Mars Rover Celebration The Mars Rover Celebraon Curriculum Module is a STEM curriculum enrichment program for grades 3-8 designed to excite and movate future engineers and sciensts. This program engages students in a flexible 6-week curriculum module that covers planetary science and aerospace engineering in a format that provides a low-cost alternave to true robocs programs. The Mars Rover Celebraon has brought thousands of students to regional capstone events to spread the message about the importance of space educaon to thousands more. Each year, schools bring teams of elementary and middle school students and their Mars rover models to compete in the annual capstone event. Space Weather Balloon The Space Weather Balloon Curriculum Module is a STEM curriculum enrichment program for grades 9-12 designed to smulate and movate future astronauts and sciensts. AIAA and other partner organizaons work with schools to launch high-altude weather balloons to teach physics, experimental research skills and to make space exploraon accessible to students. Students aend the regional capstone events with their teams to collect and analyze data aſter each team’s balloon ascends over two hours to a maximum altude where it bursts, allowing the payload to slowly descend using a built-in parachute. AIAA Teacher Training Teachers parcipate in a teacher training workshop aimed at building background knowledge on the specific Curriculum Module. Teachers also invesgate the curriculum and learn strategies for incorporang the curriculum into their classrooms. Through design challenges, teachers become familiar with the Engineering Design Process and learn how to integrate student-driven inquiry into the tradional science curriculum. Workshop provides curriculum materials and instruconal methodology Teachers parcipate in a hands-on invesgaon of the curriculum Teachers receive Connuing Educaon Unit cerficate for parcipaon AIAA Capstone Events Capstone events are a way for students to demonstrate what they have learned throughout the specific Curriculum Module and meet with other students who have been inspired by the same high-interest content. They also encourage community involvement from AIAA professional members as well as other local organizaons. Capstone events also: Provide a necessary element of external incenve and recognion Help in assessing adopon and impact rates. Movate students to pursue STEM careers Mars Rover Celebration Cur riculum Module Dr. Edgar A. Bering Professor of Physics University of Houston [email protected] Electric Ca rgo Plane Cur riculum Module Tom Milnes Navigaon Modeling Secon Supervisor Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab [email protected] Space Weather Balloon Cur riculum Module Dr. Benjamin Longmier Assistant Professor University of Michigan [email protected] For More Information Please Contact: AIAA STEM K-12 Outreach Resources and Information www.AIAA.org www.AIAASTEMeducaon.org Curriculum Module Resources and Information marsrover.org projectaether.org www.thebmi.org For Free Resources, Please Visit: