NOAA Resources for Classroom Teachers

My excitement continues to grow as I have been reviewing websites and information that I brought home with me from Oshkosh AirVenture to share with you on this blog. I have been using aviation themed lessons in the classroom for years, and I love exploring new ways to use aerospace education with kids and with teachers. As a substitute teacher, though, I have fewer opportunities to share my love of aviation with students, so I am excited about this blog! It gives me a platform to share some pretty awesome materials and resources that other teachers will be able to easily employ in their classrooms. At least that is my hope.

I think the resources alone will excite many teachers, especially if these sites and organizations are new to you. I am excited to get as many of these resources in your hands, and will later share some thoughts about why you should want to use them.

Today’s resource is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. With NOAA’s Data in the Classroom, students use real-time ocean data to explore today’s most pressing environmental issues, and develop problem-solving skills employed by scientists. Access online and classroom-ready curriculum activities with a scaled approach to learning and easy-to-use data exploration tools.

Teachers will find resources for themselves and for their students to help them learn about weather science and safety with Owlie Skywarn.

 

Here is an example of a great book about clouds which could be used with elementary students–just one of the many resources to be found at the NOAA website.

Doing a lesson about careers for Labor Day?  You’ll find some resources on Owlie’s page, and I’ll be posting some other great sites to help you demonstrate to students that it is not too soon for them to explore careers.  STEM careers are greatly in need of qualified, skilled workers. These are not only high paying jobs, but they are exciting and fun careers!

Happy exploring!  If you are interested in learning  more, please add a comment.

P.S.   Want to talk with your students about Hurricane Harvey and the flooding in Texas?  Check out the student booklets that you could print our for your class.

Owlie Skywarn Storms Ahead	Owlie Skywarn Floods Ahead	Owlie Skywarn Hurricanes Ahead	Owlie Skywarn Lightning Ahead
Owlie Skywarn Winter Storms Ahead	Owlie Skywarn Tornadoes Ahead

 

 

 

 

Resources at The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum for Teachers

You will find some excellent resources for adding STEM lessons to your curriculum at The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum website. Materials are available at all grade levels as well as professional development. You will want to explore this website, but be prepared to spend some time because even a brief tour will pull you in and you will want to explore more and more!

Want a quick, easy, and inexpensive lesson to get you started?  Click the link to go straight to this hands on activity to  Create Your Own Paper Airplane.

Want to really get your students jazzed about aviation/aerospace? Schedule a field trip to the National Air and Space Museum!

Civil Air Patrol Tools for Teachers

I wanted to share with you about the NASA website in my first post for this blog because of the upcoming total eclipse. I knew that once you got to the NASA site, you would find all kinds of resources for you to use in your class this year. No matter the subject or grade level you teach, I know that you will find resources there that will enhance your teaching this year.

I am so excited to share with you about my next resource that I could hardly wait!  If you have never heard about Civil Air Patrol, an auxiliary branch of the United States Air Force, this post is going to be the best news you’ve had in a long time!

A representative of CAP shared with the teachers who attended Teachers’ Day at Oshkosh Air Venture an overview of the resources CAP has to offer them.  On the CAP website, there are many resources available for download to use in your classroom. This Geoboat lesson is just one sample and can easily be adjusted to whatever grade level you teach.

Teachers are invited to join CAP as an Aerospace Education Member. There is no requirement to attend meetings, and  membership is very reasonable. For those who become AEM members, the following resources are available for you to use in your classroom free of charge. You won’t even pay the postage to have these resources mailed to you!

The Aerospace Connections in Education (ACE) Program is a free, hands-on, fun and engaging Aerospace/STEM Education program for teachers who teach in grades K-6. Each kit contains 20 grade-specific lesson plans and the manipulatives related to those lessons.

Civil Air Patrol Stem Kit Program allows teachers to select a STEM Kit of their choice which they will use for a minimum of 6 hours in the classroom. After a brief evaluation of the kit, teachers may then order their next kit.

For a list of additional educational materials which can be ordered for use in the classroom, visit CAP Aerospace Education Curriculum Materials. There are resources here for grade levels K-12 and can be utilized by teachers of all subjects.

I hope you will take some time to explore the CAP website and check-out the resources available to you as a teacher to enhance your STEM education in your lessons.

 

 

Oshkosh AirVenture 2017

 

If you have never heard of Oshkosh AirVenture, it is a weeklong event for aviation enthusiasts. There are daily air shows, informative seminars, and vendors of all sorts all there to celebrate aviation.  As an educator, I enjoy attending the forums that are provided for teachers and I also enjoy the opportunity to participate in Teacher’s Day, an event set aside for teachers to experience Oshkosh and to learn ways to encourage and motivate their students with STEM activities related to the field of aviation and aerospace.

There is no place I have ever been where I could find so many freely available resources for teachers!  Although many vendors attend in order to sell you their latest stuff, there are also many vendors who are there to educate and motivate people to explore all that is available in the field of aviation.

I wanted to be able to share the exciting resources that are available to teachers to add to or to supplement your current curriculum. This blog will enable me to reach a greater number of educators with all that is available to them, so if you like what you see here, I hope you will do two things:  add to the discussions and share with your teacher friends!

My favorite forum this year was the forum presented by NASA about the upcoming total eclipse. The presenter shared safe viewing methods, information about how NASA is going to share the event on their website, materials for educators to use in the classroom, an interactive map of where and how to get the best view of the eclipse, and even a pair of safe viewing glasses!  I hope you will check out the NASA site, and even if your school does not begin until after August 21, I hope you will take advantage of this once in a century event to teach science in the real world concepts in your classroom.

NASA has so many resources for teachers and students (K-12), both online and printable. Check it out!

  https://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/index.html

 

Aerospace Education Motivates and Inspires

As educators, we seek to motivate and inspire our students every day. When students are not motivated or have no reason for learning, very little learning actually occurs.  Can you think of a teacher in your history as a student who was unmotivated or uninspiring?  Did you learn very much from them? I doubt it. You may have aced every test, but you didn’t really learn anything from them.  In the twenty-first century, we must find ways to help the learners in our classrooms understand why it is critical for them to learn all they can.  There is a critical need in today’s job force for graduates in all of the STEM fields, and most students are not motivated to pursue these difficult courses of study.  How can we help students engage in STEM learning?  This blog was created to help you to engage students in learning that challenges them and motivates them to want to learn more. We will explore ways to inspire our students to want to learn STEM.