Exploring Space Weather and 5E Instructional Model with NASA MMS Team

The purpose of this four-week learning exchange is to bring together organizations, teachers, students, and community stakeholders to assist elementary and middle school students choose a STEM career pathway by exploring topics and problems surrounding space weather through the lens of NASA's Multiscale Magnetosphere Mission.

Course Objectives

1. To prepare and teach middle school students how to quickly and efficiently monitor progress of an entire solar storm from the time it erupts from the sun and magnetic field. To do this, participants will engage in the following activities.

• Predict which sunspots may be a source of solar storms and identify this within an online learning platform.
• Discover when solar storms occur and predict which solar storms will affect Earth in an online learning community.
• Measure disturbances of Earth’s magnetic field and predict auroras.
• Identify when aurora viewing is most desirable.
• Create an object to teach the local community about solar storm weather reports employing a monitoring system already developed.

2. To generate interest among students, teachers, and stakeholder in STEM careers in relation to solar storms and the study of heliophysics using a real world scenario and event.

3. To assist in the development of STEM elementary and middle school programs via the arts through the construction of a learning artifact or object that can be shared with a wider learning community.