I wanna be a science teacher!
I spent a couple of days in Melbourne over the weekend. Mainly it was to catch up with friends and see the cast of Glee but a friend of a friend invited us to go through the Victorian Space Science Education Center. Which is awesome. Seriously, i've never wanted to be a science teacher so much in my life.
They have labs set up with access to "command centers" that run missions. The first mission is to "Mars" - their downstairs lab that students have to get into space suits to travel to. The team that works on Mars then has to collect samples, plot maps and then follow the orders of the team in the command center. The students in the command centre each have their own roles as well with a Mission Director and Specialists who have to follow their checklists and advise the astronauts on the surface.
The second mission is to the Space Station where the students have to perform tasks in the similar way to the Mars missions but the guys in the command center also have to monitor the lifesigns and the signals while the lab specialists are up there.
As well as that they've got programs being set up that allow remote access to a Mars rover robot that when it's done will actually move around their Mars surface and perform tasks for schools that can't actually get to the Space Science School. On top of that they have language labs for Japanese and Italian students so that the International Space Station can be run in another language.
The best part is the labs. It feels like you are walking onto Mars or the Space Station and from the look of things it makes kids actually excited about science. If nothing else it makes me want to play in there with all the toys. Unfortunatly they have no programs set up for History or English so I can't actually take any future students of mine there. Which sucks cause mostly I really want to play...
They have labs set up with access to "command centers" that run missions. The first mission is to "Mars" - their downstairs lab that students have to get into space suits to travel to. The team that works on Mars then has to collect samples, plot maps and then follow the orders of the team in the command center. The students in the command centre each have their own roles as well with a Mission Director and Specialists who have to follow their checklists and advise the astronauts on the surface.
The second mission is to the Space Station where the students have to perform tasks in the similar way to the Mars missions but the guys in the command center also have to monitor the lifesigns and the signals while the lab specialists are up there.
As well as that they've got programs being set up that allow remote access to a Mars rover robot that when it's done will actually move around their Mars surface and perform tasks for schools that can't actually get to the Space Science School. On top of that they have language labs for Japanese and Italian students so that the International Space Station can be run in another language.
The best part is the labs. It feels like you are walking onto Mars or the Space Station and from the look of things it makes kids actually excited about science. If nothing else it makes me want to play in there with all the toys. Unfortunatly they have no programs set up for History or English so I can't actually take any future students of mine there. Which sucks cause mostly I really want to play...