# Presentation: 786617

## Our Future Explorers

## Exploration Vision

- The current generation of high school and college students will solve the problems to allow future explorers to travel to the moon, Mars, and beyond through:
- Science Mission - help us prepare for the journey and for what we’ll encounter when we get there.
- Aeronautics Mission - help us build better vehicles to explore farther and safer.
- Exploration Mission - help us focus and integrate our capabilities to make this journey a reality.
- And Operations Mission - allow us to have the infrastructure we’ll need to launch and land on Earth, space, or other planets.

## Agenda

- Virtual Lab Description
- Past (Mature Technology)
- Response to educator need
- Highly tested
- Mature product technology
- Present (Build Support)
- Partnerships
- Integrating into Education
- Building community of Users/Developers
- Future (Self-Sustaining)
- Educational Applications
- Further Collaborations and Propagate use

## Software provides access to many sophisticated scientific instrumentation (Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), a Light Microscope, a Scanning Probe Microscope (covering Scanning Tunneling, Atomic Force, and Magnetic Force microscopy), and an Energy Dispersive Spectrometer for the SEM).  
Flash animation videos explain how each of the instruments work  
Videos on how they are used at NASA and the sample preparation 
Measuring and labeling tools provided with each instrument 
Hands on experience of controlling the virtual instrument to conduct investigations, much like the real scientists at NASA do.
Very open architecture 
Open source on SourceForge 
Extensive use of XML
Target audience is high school and entry-level college students
“Many beginning students never get closer to an electron microscope than the photos in their textbooks.  But anyone can get a sense of what the instrument can do by downloading this simulator from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.”  Science Magazine, April 8th, 2005

- Flash animation videos explain how each of the instruments work
- Videos on how they are used at NASA and the sample preparation
- Measuring and labeling tools provided with each instrument
- Hands on experience of controlling the virtual instrument to conduct investigations, much like the real scientists at NASA do.
- Very open architecture
- Open source on SourceForge
- Extensive use of XML
- Target audience is high school and entry-level college students
*“**Many beginning students never get closer to an electron microscope than the photos in their textbooks.  But anyone can get a sense of what the instrument can do by downloading this simulator from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.”*  Science Magazine, April 8th, 2005

## Virtual Lab

- How its used at NASA

- Specimen Preparation

- How it works

- Scanning Electron Microscope

## Brief History of Virtual Lab

- Project Initiated from Educator Request
- Customer/User focus
- Student/teacher feedback from prototype testing into development
- Internal (KSC and Beckman) software testing and evaluation
- Annual expert reviews provided additional refinements
- Independent evaluation through UCF at 3 school
- Strategically Designed for Growth
- Open Architecture
- Open Source
- Broad base of specimens (82 specimens across 4 instruments by May 2006)

## Supports Educational Standards

- National Science Education Standards (NSES)
- An inquiry-based approach to science
- Student learning that is guided and facilitated
- Emphasis on the assessment of student learning
- The development of environments that enable students to learn science

## Supports Educational Standards

- International Society for Technology in Education’s National Educational Technology Standards (NETS)
- design developmentally appropriate learning opportunities that apply technology-enhanced instructional strategies to support the diverse needs of learners
- facilitate technology-enhanced experiences that address content standards and student technology standards
- use technology to support learner-centered strategies that address the diverse needs of students

## Supports Educational Standards

- NETS met through teacher support
- apply technology to develop students' higher order skills and creativity
- apply technology in assessing student learning of subject matter using a variety of assessment techniques
- use technology resources to collect and analyze data, interpret results, and communicate findings to improve instructional practice and maximize student learning
- apply multiple methods of evaluation to determine students' appropriate use of technology resources for learning, communication, and productivity

## Different Audience Use

| K-12 | College | Professional | Informal |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Science and Math class use to demonstrate concepts on real specimens. | Training vehicle 
Analysis Tool  | Collaborative tool for scientists
Sharing of Information | Museums sharing rare samples (example, echinoderms) 
“Who done it” books  |

## Present (Build Support)

- Partnerships
- Beckman Institute (http://virtual.itg.uiuc.edu)
- University of Central Florida (http://nasa.ed.ucf.edu/main.html)
- Lehigh University
- NSF Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center
- NSF Center for Nanoscale Chemical-Electrical-Mechanical Manuacturing Systems (Nano-CEMMS)
- ARC NASA Quest “Here today gone to Mars”
- Field Museum Chicago
- Central Queensland University, Australia
- Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
- The Advanced Learning Technologies in Education Consortia (ALTEC) at the University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning (http://www.4teachers.org)

## Integrating Into Education

- UCF Usability Study
- 9 high school biology classrooms in an urban school district in Florida, with focus on general science classes (i.e. not advanced or honors-level) within underserved populations (n=225)
- Over 50% of the students in the schools identified themselves as African-American or Hispanic
- 30% or more of the students in these schools were eligible for the free or reduced lunch programs

## Lesson Plan Example

- http://reach.ucf.edu/~virtuallab/

## Transfer of Tools from NASA into Education

- Concept: The application of units of measurement (microns) and conversion.
- Training (from NASA): Investigating and documenting details of an unknown specimen.
- Tools (from NASA): The SEM, Microscopy.

## Example of Standards Used

## The lesson plan  focuses on specific objectives...

## Linked to assessment....

## Scenario to Direct Student’s Use of the Tool

## Support materials help structure the work with the Virtual Lab SEM(in this case students are asked to explore and identify types of bugs)

## Integrating Into Education

- UCF Study Conclusions
- Minor enhancements needed to support slower hand-eye coordination
- Additional supporting materials reinforcing the skills and knowledge taught are needed, so that more students are able to articulate what they have learned to include:
-  the specimen;
-  the tools; and
-  the process of scientific inquiry

## Integrating Into Education

| Item Raised in Evaluation | How this was addressed in  Virtual Lab? |
| --- | --- |
| The measurement tool is not as easily manipulated for measuring.  Changes to the graphic design can improve the ease of use. | The stretchable part of the measurement tool now has an expanded focus area (the entire length of tool), and it has a rollover “bold” effect to cue the user into the fact that it is something they can manipulate.  Additionally, an unlimited number of measuring “tapes” can be dragged from the top-left to any point on the screen, allowing the user to have multiple measurement references. |
| Without any recognizable pattern, the measurement tool would disappear.  The stability of the tool needs to be addressed. | The tool has been rewritten and no-longer exhibits this behavior. |
| Include a note in the credits mentioning if modifications were made from the original/authentic experience and why, if maintaining the original is important as the SEM is adapted for high school users. | We will include a note on this in the next release from the Help menu, and will discuss this issue in general on the new project website. |
| Graphics or pop-ups can help guide students who attempt to use the tool incorrectly (for example: left-clicking when a right-click is needed). | We will be adding tool-tips for all tools in the next release.  We will explore capturing incorrect events (such as a right-click when a left was needed) and giving feedback about them. |
| In terms of content, the specimens that featured biological content were most applicable in the biology classrooms; the inorganic materials were not as easily integrated. | We are creating a wide variety of specimen samples so that teachers can integrate this content into different kinds of science units.  We are continuing to expand our biological specimens, and will also continue to collect data applicable to other disciplines as well.  Our entire dataset collection is now available for download on the new project website. |

## Integrating Into Education

- Virtual Lab’s Response
- To support teacher integration of the Virtual Lab into their science classrooms we developed a website this summer to provide tools to support instruction and assessment.
- The site brings together the work of some of the most well-known scholars in the field of assessment, like the work of Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe who together have authored _Understanding by Design._
- Under “Teaching Materials” we offer teachers links to content about recent NASA research using the microscopes.

## Teacher Support Site

## User/Developer Support Site

## Promoting Virtual Lab Use

- Presenting at conferences and writing papers for publication
- Working to distribute through k-12 teacher professional development workshops and presentations to students through ERC and AESP
- Adding brief training video to website to help teachers who are less comfortable with technology understand ease of integration into the classroom
- UCF is submitting an NSF proposal to integrate the use of Virtual Lab within NASA Explorer Schools (NES) and the Delta Researcher Schools (DRS) in the Netherlands.
- UCF is also submitting an NSF proposal to use Virtual Lab within a research experience for undergraduates (REU) as a training tool and also to capture the students work within the Virtual Lab framework to add to our library of specimens.

## Future (Self Sustaining)

- Sample educational applications around NASA content and the Exploration Vision
- Science:  What organisms might we find, what does the existing terrain and rocks tell us?
- Aeronautics:  How can nanotechnology improve vehicle design (sensors, new materials, etc.)?
- Exploration:  How will we get consumables (O2, fuel, etc.) in-situ?
- Operations:  How will we contain/eliminate contaminants?

## Future (Self Sustaining)

- Continue developing partnerships and collaborations to expand base of developers and users
- Continue to strategically develop mechanisms that enable community to grow in the absence of NASA funding
- Research and pursue new avenues for distribution and dissemination