Welcome!  The video obviously carries forward the 50^th year celebration of the Moon Landing last July while also updating the activities of STEM Literacy Community of Practice focusing on the use of the NASA Aeropod. The project also celebrated a tenth anniversary last summer as the Community of Practice began as a Math and Science Partnership innovation designed to unite teachers to explore emerging digital tools through the new STEM concept lens.   The Community of Practice structure released educators from the formal project expectations,  involving set outcomes, timed milestones and set content. The  goals began as a focus on emerging online content and continues to demo the use of  data to direct relevant projects.  This is  the 5^th year  of submitting  a video so check out our past videos as they truly carry the flow of moving from teacher focus into student interests.  We continually gain from the questions, suggestions, and further project discussions during STEM-for-All and are especially eager to share during this uncommon time of digital immersion. 

When you watch the video, what do you think about the use of the NASA Aeropod in engaging students? Where would you start? Would you be comfortable using this fantastic tool (just think where its been!)?  How could you use the tool?  If uncertain, what would you need to know about using this digital tool to move beyond your comfort zone so as to move 'from teacher focus into student interests.' 

Now I know what the Aeropods are and I have a better understanding of what you were describing Betty! 
What I like is the student-centered approach of letting the students do it their way, with some external guidance if needed. Even if the the goal or the process is not fully understood this way of teaching/learning allows the student to grasp the idea by doing getting involved.
I was always worried about what I called the peripheral kids. But often they would gain interest and become involved because of the other students doing the activity. 

Hello everyone! 

Happy to be joining Betsy and the SABENS team to highlight this engaging project.

I agree with Bob about the student-centered approach to allow students to grasp the ideas.

Can you describe what you do in terms of teacher PD, and what you have learned as the biggest challenges for teachers to implement the use of the Aeropod with their students? 

The Community of Practice concept extended from the successful MSP project.  During that period of early STEM and sudden launch of the Apple IPod we altered our PD to improve the continuing needs of individual teachers/members.  The teachers’ PD initially  were  the classic  sessions offered by our middle school online partner however as the membership grew the building of cohorts strengthened and were encouraged to send a representative member to the conferences or PD sessions. Other online models were available.

  This factor enabled an internal teacher to teacher teamwork to build that flexed with their schedules and districts changing annual PD focus.  We further added a “tool event” that was open to all and held at one of the extension districts.  This was an all day event designed by the teachers from white papers on their expressed interests and further needs.   Those with PD cohorts demonstrating technical integration were able to suggest their next stage beyond the schedule or tools, borrowing the items to practice with their integration.   The teachers built projects around their tools and kept them as core to their integration documentation. 

The Aeropod as we use it in low levels, carries the same sensors (light/temp) that they use in classroom activities so become a bridge between their classroom based projects and field extensions.   As the STEM Literacy Community of Practice coordinator, I continue to build that outreach to compare with other districts but also comparison sites. 

The biggest challenge for teachers has been time…and timing.   Approaching the use of the Aeropod as one of managing the kite event as a learning objective is extremely difficult for small schools.  Building the  ongoing learning progression of sensor integration with data analysis in collaboration with others is changing that issue.

The positive side of the shutdown has strengthened the potential for this bridge as our projects are continuing

Thanks for asking your questions!

Just threw a note on your comment on our video, Betsy. Much to compare notes on! Thanks for the video insight into the very cool Aerokat work!

I agree that the greatest challenge for teachers is time. We see this from our feedback of evaluations of professional development programs. This challenge ranges from time to fully engage in the PD to time to explore activities with students that go outside typical requirements

This reminds me a little of EREN (Ecological Research as Education Network), which I am more familiar with as an ecologist.  Can you walk us through a project that spans both your STEM classroom community of practice and the AREN, where a student could continue past classroom instruction?  Is there a formal strategy to encourage kids and their families to continue their learning?  If so what have been some of the challenges?

Here at the AEROKATS and ROVER Education Network (AREN), we are always excited to see how Betsy and her STEM Literacy Community of Practice are adopting the Aeropod platform for use in unique new applications - extending both the use cases and the potential operating environments in new directions.

The Aeropod is an airborne remote sensing platform designed to be carried aloft by a kite or tethered balloon. The most typical applications include aerial imaging (visible and multispectral) and atmospheric profiling. The Aeropods Betsy demonstrates here were designed to carry Hobo data loggers and Pasco sensors for measuring reflectance (albedo), surface and air temperature, humidity, barometric pressure and other atmospheric and surface variables.

Deploying the Aeropods by suspending them with rods near the ground level allows these students to gather surface level measurements which can then be compared to measurements from kite-borne Aeropods. This also allows the students to collect useful data and engage with the technology when either the weather conditions or the site location are not favorable for airborne operations. This unique adaptation has expanded our thinking on how the Aeropod platform can be use to collect data about environmental phenomena at different scales, and in a wider range of classroom and citizen science situations.

Thanks to Betsy and her group for all the great thinking and enthusiastic participation over the years. Keep pushing those boundaries!

Andy

Thank you, Andy, for your explanation of the Aeropod. I was not familiar with them and got a little lost in the video a little. I assume teachers mostly use them in classrooms as complementary tools for authentic learning.  How many of these are currently in use?

The data collection  sites extend from Maine to Key West and West to Oregon with an occasional Colorado and seasonal site in OK and new site in 2019 located in AZ.   During the spring the project usually would continue the "window project", pictured in the video to collect contrasting data to the Dec-January vacation period.   This year we added an extension on soil moisture that began during the part of the video that added the digital tools and are also building up from the activities from our long activity partner, Journey North.    This spring we've added in migration observations as we have interns in locations and also we can promote active staring out windows without diverting attention from the classroom!  Our soil moisture practice began indoors with potted plants in the windows and is setting up to compare at our Aeropod Fly site in the NH Shaker Village/Museum sites.  Flying a kite is an easy way to keep social distanced!  All of our outdoor digital extensions do just fine with washing.  So as golf courses open, we'll be on track, sharing digital data is also important to guard for and train against other "virus" safeguards.  These are also risks and practices that take time to learn as we leave the classroom and extend to the fields.  

Thanks go out to all who stopped by and viewed our video and were part of this week's learning adventure.

We learned a great deal and expect to remain in touch with many projects that have spent this week with us!