"Be the Mastermind Behind the Mission!" Outwit the computer virus
that has scrambled the Hubble Space Telescope's Servicing Mission 3B. Through
an interactive lesson filled with video clips and up-to-the minute information
from NASA and the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), your students,
using critical thinking and reading skills, search for word and picture clues
from the events of the 2002 Servicing Mission 3B, including the shuttle launch
and EVAs. Their mission is to place the events in the correct sequence.
Students can work through "Be the Mastermind Behind the Mission"
independently or in groups. Teachers can access images, charts, and worksheets
that accompany the lesson if computers are not available for their students.
The lesson is designed to be user-friendly for all levels of computer accessibility,
even when there are no computers in the classroom. If that's the case, the
educator has two options: each page can be printed out so that students can
place them in order, or, the educator can print out a nicely formatted PDF
file in the Grab Bag section and use it in the same manner.
With links to other interesting sites, your students will gain insight into
the Hubble Space Telescope and the fascinating worlds beyond Planet Earth.
"Be the Mastermind Behind the Mission" lesson is an update of the
"Astronaut Challenge" lesson, which first appeared in 1997.
How to Prepare for an “Online Exploration”
Decide if the activity meets your needs.
- Check out the activity ahead of time by working through it as your students
will. As you go through the activity, pay attention to the following:
- How to navigate from one place to another.
- The ability level. Can students work this activity successfully?
- Natural breaks within the activity. Is there enough flexibility that
students can complete all or selected parts within the time restraints
of the daily schedule?
- Check out the “Teaching Tips” for the following information.
- Overview: Serves as a broad, comprehensive summary of the
activity, including a description, the concepts covered, prerequisites,
and the target audience.
- Science Background: Provides information about the science
behind the activity. It clarifies important concepts used in the activity
and contains a message from the scientist who worked with the team
to develop it.
- Lesson Plan: Addresses specific recommendations for using
the activities, including learning outcomes, new vocabulary, misconceptions,
engagement activities (under the heading procedure/directions), and
follow-up activities. Includes suggestions for using the activity in
one-computer classrooms and those without computers.
- National Standards: Provides alignment between the activity
and the National Science Education Standards, the National Council
of Teachers of Mathematics Curriculum and Evaluation Standards, and
the Project 2061 Benchmarks for Scientific Literacy Standards. Many
state and local standards were developed from these so it should be
easy to check for correlations.
- Grab Bag: Provides resources for educators who wish to
customize the activity. Includes images from the activity, which can
be used to develop your own interactive lesson. Also identifies resources
used in the activity and others related to the topic, which can be
used by students and educators to do further research.
Before using the activities...
- Check out your computers.
- Review the Computer Needs section of the activity.
- Reserve a time to use the computer lab.
- Bookmark the activity on the Web browser (Netscape Navigator or Microsoft
Explorer) of each student computer.
- Determine a strategy for organizing your students. Options include the
following:
- Use a whole-class approach with one computer.
- Use a team approach in a computer lab, with different students having
specific responsibilities during the activity (such as “mouse user,” “note
taker,” and “oral reader”).
- Use a one-computer-per-student approach.
- Think about how this online activity matches up with teaching materials
that are already available to you. These might include:
- Curriculum guides
- Textbooks
- Videos
- Posters
- Labs
Preparing students
- Share the objectives and the key vocabulary words used in the activity.
- Use a large monitor, LCD, or transparencies to give a preview of the
activity and to demonstrate how to navigate within it.
- Give your students a computer/Web pre-assessment to determine their
computer experience and/or competence.
- Organize your students in such a way that more experienced users are
matched up with less experienced ones.
- Try one of the Suggested Engagement Activities, which can be found under
Procedure/Directions in the Lesson Plan section of the activity’s
Teaching Tips.
While students are doing an activity…
- Help individual students navigate through the activity.
- Provide options for those who finish the activity early:
- Have them review the activity again to define key vocabulary words.
- Have them visit related Web links to conduct additional research.
- Have them completing some type of assessment activity. A number
of these can be found under Follow-up Activities/Extensions in the
Lesson Plan section of the activity’s Teaching Tips.
Using the activities without an Internet connection
- Order a CD of the activities.
- For activity-specific suggestions, consult the Classrooms Without Computers
section (in the Lesson Plan section of the activity’s Teaching Tips).
- Print the information provided in the Science Background, which might
be useful for content reading.
- Download the activity in advance from the Amazing Space Web site. Instructions
are in the Computer Needs section accessed from the activity’s title
page.
- Go to the activity’s Grab Bag section and select text, student
activities, or other Internet links that direct you to related topics.
- Earth Science
- Technology
- Reading
Concepts:
- Planning and training involved in servicing the Hubble Space Telescope
- Description of the Advanced Camera for Surveys, a new camera that will be
installed in the telescope
- Order and the organization for this servicing mission
- Data collection for sequencing activity
Prerequisites:
Before attempting to complete this lesson, the student should:
- read at a sixth- to eighth-grade level.
- be able to interpret tables and charts.
- have basic note-taking skills.
Process Skills Acquired:
- Observing
- Sequencing
- Justifying
- Analyzing
- Reading and interpreting charts and tables
- Reading for a purpose
Target Audience/Grade Levels:
- · Grades 6-8, various levels of abilities
Preparation Time:
- Time necessary to download computer software to support the lesson (Netscape
Navigator 4.0).
- Time necessary to become familiar with the lesson.
Execution Time by Module:
- Between one and two (45-minute) class periods.
Field Tested:
Astronaut Challenge 7/18/96 at STScI
Last Update:
January 8, 2004
Send your comments about this page to: amazing-space@stsci.edu
