UNI Teaching majors blast into NASA experience!

The University of Northern Iowa (UNI) recently announced a unique opportunity for its preservice educators with the Next Gen STEM (NGS) 101 workshops, hosted by the NASA STEM Engagement Educator Professional Development (EPD) team. These in-person workshops aimed to equip future teachers with essential skills and resources provide by NASA to enhance STEM education in their classrooms.  STEM Outreach Assistant, Mia Kleespies, participated and supported the two workshops.

During each workshop attendees worked in groups of three to four to design a moon lander out of recyclable materials, observe healthy/unhealthy trees, submit data for NASA scientists, explore the complexity of coding, and experiment with Sphero Robots. 

The Sphero Robot activity was Mia’s favorite.  In the first phase of the activity, small groups of students assigned one of their members to ‘be a moon rover’.  The other members served as programmers, first surveying the landing areas, then writing up step by step instructions to lead the ‘rover’ through the exploration area.  Then, with eyes closed and teammates assisting, the ‘rover’ would follow the instructions.  Mia shared that this was the most difficult part of the activity.  For example, the rover’s steps were smaller or larger than the planned steps.  After completing the whole-body version of the activity, the team moved on to exploring the area using a Sphero Robot.  Sphero’s are small ball shaped robots that can be programmed to follow a series of steps or be remote controlled from a cellphone.  “It was fun to figure out how the Spheros worked.  Robots are always fun to experiment with.”  shared Mia. She also said the activity was interesting because there was a purpose to using the robot– to explore the model of the moon surface.  “I learned a bit about how NASA plans a mission.  It takes time.  We used trial and error.  It was a longer process than you’d expect, and we failed before we succeeded.  It was also fun to try something new.”

These workshops were ideal for UNI students who were declared or intended to declare teaching majors in early childhood, elementary, middle school, or high school education. Attendees learned about NASA-specific resources, engaged in hands-on activities, and delved into the engineering design process—crucial elements in fostering an innovative learning environment.

A big thank you to all who attended and the NASA EPD team for putting on an amazing workshop for future educators!  Thank you to NASA, Iowa Space Grant Consortium, UNI STEM Support Services, and Science Education for supporting the workshops.

The first workshop, tailored for future secondary educators, took place on Thursday, October 3, 2024, from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM.  The following day, on Friday, October 4, 2024, the workshop designed for future elementary educators ran from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM. All participants joined NASA STEM Gateway and the NASA Connects network of educators.

Mia Kleespies is the UNI STEM Support Services Outreach Assistant.