| The Program - Overview |
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The ProgramA constantly evolving and engaging multimedia presentation - Inspiration from Exploration educates, excites, and challenges students in order to help them dictate their future and ultimately our future. Theme: Space exploration is a tool which can be used to inspire students and give them hope about the future. It is something bigger than themselves - thus giving them a chance to forget about daily struggles and look to something grand and awe-inspiring. The achievements and possibilities of space exploration can motivate students to take challenging courses in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) subjects and empower them to work through challenges and towards a better future. Target Audience: Inner city and rural middle school students. (although with modification can be applicable to other age groups as well) Presentation Overview • The presentation opens with a video of the launch of Apollo 17 (a night launch). The presenter then introduces himself and gives a short background to relate with the students. Next explorers, such as Columbus and Lewis & Clark are discussed and compared to space explorers such as Apollo, Space Shuttle, and Space Station Astronauts. All along the way it is stressed that exploration is dangerous and hard, however, regardless of these challenges people explored, discovered new things, and learned the entire time. Simultaneously these exploration events are put into both time and distance perspective. Showing students that although Columbus explored hundreds of years ago, space explorers are exploring today! The distance of these exploration events are also compared looking at crossing the ocean, crossing the continent, and crossing the vast distance between the Earth and the Moon. The presentation then presents a video animation of future lunar exploration to show that exploration will continue and that students today will be the explorers, engineers, and scientists who go back to the Moon, Mars, and beyond - permanently! Life in space is then discussed. Comparing what it takes to survive outside the atmosphere to what it takes to survive on Earth. The Earths biosphere is directly compared to a space station, requiring clean air, water, and energy. Similar to the explorers section of the presentation - this directly ties into curriculum taught to middle school students about the water cycle and shows them these lessons are applicable beyond exams. Current events in space exploration are discussed next, followed by some possible future developments. Future developments which are in the hands of the students to make reality. Here students are asked to dream and make their future however they want it. The endless possibilities of space are shown next using pictures of the Earth: first from the Moon, then from Saturn, and finally an artistic description of the Milky Way Galaxy. This progression of zooming out from Earth shows students that truly anything is possible. With the students excited and in awe from the previous sections, the presentation comes back 'down to Earth' and discusses the "People Behind the Program." While any student could be an astronaut, this section shows current employees at NASA who work on space exploration activities such as the Hubble Space Telescope. Such employees are directly compared to the crew of Columbus's ship - something any student can aspire to and achieve. Finally students are implored to Dream Big, Ask for Help, and Never Give Up. Through various examples they are shown that the future is in their hands and that the application of what they learn in school can be exciting. Inspiration from Exploration is a flexible presentation geared to show students why math and science are important, exciting, and cool.
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