Location
Radisson Resort at the Port, Convention Center, Martinique Room
Start Date
2-5-2001 2:00 PM
Description
Last July we celebrated the 30th anniversary of the first landing on the moon. Comparable scientific and technological advances will drive the 21st Century. Are our children ready? Recent studies by the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) report that U.S. students’ performance is unacceptable. International ranking across 17 nations shows eighth grade students in the United Sates perform poorly in both science and mathematics. In a comparison of achievement in scientific inquiry, the U.S. ranks thirteenth among the 38 nations participating in the study. This decline is a serious national problem. Steps must be taken to correct these inadequacies if we are to prepare our nation’s youth for the new millennium. In 1969 space sciences provided the needed boost for science and mathematics education. Space sciences can again provide a focus for the enrichment of education in the 21st Century. Space Settlement Design: A Unifying Theme for Skill Development Through Scientific Inquiry is offered as a model for the enhancement of science and mathematics education in the 21st Century.
The proposed model, initiated as a pilot middle school to high school transition program in 1997, is a three-week, half-day Summer Institute utilizing “hands-on” scientific inquiry as the springboard for skills development. Two Institutes are offered each summer. Modeled after the Jet Propulsion Lab’s (JPL) Spaceset and NASA’s International Space Settlement Design competitions, Institute participants are divided into groups, or “corporations,” and engage in a “real-world” problem-solving scenario of space settlement design. Participants receive ½ high school science credit. Completion of the Institute is encouraged by allowing students to change from a graded to a pass/fail status on the final day of the Institute. Over the last four years Institute enrollment has increased dramatically, due in large part to the popularity of its space settlement design theme. The 2000 Summer Institute had 135 participants. The 2001 Institute is expected to enroll over 160 incoming ninth graders. Tracking of Institute “graduates” has shown a significant increase in student success in both science and other academic subjects when compared to the control group of non-Institute students.
The Institute enriches the traditional high school science and math curricula by its unique cross-disciplinary format and by addressing Earth/Space Sciences. Earth/Space Sciences are not offered by most high schools, an omission that leaves tomorrow’s citizens deficient in their knowledge of space and space exploration.
Paper Session II-C - Space Settlement Design: A Unifying Theme for Skill Development Through Scientific Inquiry
Radisson Resort at the Port, Convention Center, Martinique Room
Last July we celebrated the 30th anniversary of the first landing on the moon. Comparable scientific and technological advances will drive the 21st Century. Are our children ready? Recent studies by the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) report that U.S. students’ performance is unacceptable. International ranking across 17 nations shows eighth grade students in the United Sates perform poorly in both science and mathematics. In a comparison of achievement in scientific inquiry, the U.S. ranks thirteenth among the 38 nations participating in the study. This decline is a serious national problem. Steps must be taken to correct these inadequacies if we are to prepare our nation’s youth for the new millennium. In 1969 space sciences provided the needed boost for science and mathematics education. Space sciences can again provide a focus for the enrichment of education in the 21st Century. Space Settlement Design: A Unifying Theme for Skill Development Through Scientific Inquiry is offered as a model for the enhancement of science and mathematics education in the 21st Century.
The proposed model, initiated as a pilot middle school to high school transition program in 1997, is a three-week, half-day Summer Institute utilizing “hands-on” scientific inquiry as the springboard for skills development. Two Institutes are offered each summer. Modeled after the Jet Propulsion Lab’s (JPL) Spaceset and NASA’s International Space Settlement Design competitions, Institute participants are divided into groups, or “corporations,” and engage in a “real-world” problem-solving scenario of space settlement design. Participants receive ½ high school science credit. Completion of the Institute is encouraged by allowing students to change from a graded to a pass/fail status on the final day of the Institute. Over the last four years Institute enrollment has increased dramatically, due in large part to the popularity of its space settlement design theme. The 2000 Summer Institute had 135 participants. The 2001 Institute is expected to enroll over 160 incoming ninth graders. Tracking of Institute “graduates” has shown a significant increase in student success in both science and other academic subjects when compared to the control group of non-Institute students.
The Institute enriches the traditional high school science and math curricula by its unique cross-disciplinary format and by addressing Earth/Space Sciences. Earth/Space Sciences are not offered by most high schools, an omission that leaves tomorrow’s citizens deficient in their knowledge of space and space exploration.
