NASA STEM Activities that Encourage Communication, Collaboration, and Critical Thinking
Tuesday 07/26/2022
1:00 pm ET
FREE 1-hour Webinar
Educators in Grades K-12

The NASA Educator Professional Development Collaborative at
Texas State University is providing a 1-hour webinar.

NASA works with astronaut crews on skills that prepare them to live and work together during space missions. Some of these same skills are useful in everyday life here on Earth. The following series of activities were designed to help students learn and practice skills that they can apply in almost every aspect of life.  Explore activities that encourage Collaboration, Communication, and Critical Thinking.

1. Pipeline- Use a section of foam tubing to get a  marble from the starting line to the ending line with challenging criteria and constraints.
2. Building Block Communication: Set up your original structure in a secure space. Set a timer for 3 minutes. Groups proceed to build duplicate structures following the stated rules. When the time is up have the groups look at their structure and compare it to the original structure.
3. Let’s Shake On It: Test your ability to interact with people from diverse cultures. Recreate greetings from around the world.
4. Lunar Hotel: Project teams take on the task of designing and constructing a model for the first hotel on the moon using 3X5 cards and tape.
5. Mother Ship: Each project Team will design a vehicle that will move from water to land and then travel safely to the mother ship.
6. Rocket challenge: The challenge is to build a rocket model out of spaghetti, marshmallows and gumdrops.