Volume 11, Number 3 • Fall 2003 • Advanced Technologies

Classroom of the Future Impacts Learning

Jane Neuenschwander showcases materials from STORM-E, one of the newest NASA Classroom of the Future exercises. NASA Headquarters.

TThe NASA Classroom of the Future (COTF) program is helping to bridge the gap between America’s classrooms and the expertise of NASA scientists, who have advanced the frontiers of knowledge in virtually every field of science over the last 40 years.

The COTF engages students in “real science” by presenting them with actual problems currently under investigation in various science disciplines. In attempting to solve these problems, students may access the same datasets used by practicing researchers. The COTF program is administered by the Center for Educational Technologies at Wheeling Jesuit University in Wheeling, WV.

One of the newest COTF exercises is putting students in the role of meteorologists. The COTF has created STORM-E—a distance-learning (education conducted using video, audio and/or computer, which does not require the physical presence of instructors or students) weather-simulation tool targeting grades four through eight. It asks young people, “Can you predict the weather?”

STORM-E (Students and Teachers Observing and Recording Meteorological Events) is designed to culminate any classroom weather unit. Jane Neuenschwander, NASA Educator Resource Center Coordinator and Curriculum Designer at the COTF, explained that air pressure, humidity, temperature and winds are the four areas used to organize this simulation. Each student joins a team and focuses on data from one of those areas. The teams are then asked to help with the decision of holding or canceling the outdoor events based on maps, graphs, data and satellite images provided. The simulations are based on historic weather events. The students connect to Neuenschwander at the COTF via distance-learning technology.

“Today’s students need opportunities to be problem solvers,” says Neuenschwander. “The simulation requires students to tackle a problem using the science-processing skills of observing, inferring, predicting, communicating and interpreting data. These same skills are needed to succeed on current proficiency tests, and that excites teachers.”

STORM-E was designed as a curriculum option for the NASA Explorer Schools. However, it is available to all schools with videoconferencing capabilities.

Meanwhile, the NASA Classroom of the Future also is promoting the development of inquiry-based learning environments through the Virtual Design Center. Researchers at the COTF have developed the Virtual Design Center to provide researchers and designers with guidelines for educational technology design. The Virtual Design Center has two main goals: to serve as a NASA resource for stimulating development of research-based instructional technology and classroom activities for scientific inquiry; and to share new knowledge about how learning theories can be applied to instructional technology and classroom environments to promote scientific inquiry in K–12 students. The content of the Virtual Design Center consists of empirical research, theories and examples of existing technology learning tools that facilitate scientific inquiry.

Within the Virtual Design Center framework, designers can participate in an online workshop to support the design of inquiry-based learning environments. The workshop is composed of six sessions that link current research practices to specific design principles. Participants receive feedback from workshop facilitators at each step in the process. The sessions cover the design of an investigation question, development assessment materials and design of support materials. Workshop participation is open to NASA-affiliated designers. *

For more information, visit http://www2.cet.edu/weather or http://www.cotf.edu/vdc. Please mention you read about it in Innovation.

NASA Official: Jonathan Root • Web Design: Printing & Design Office, NASA Headquarters • Credits