Student mission operations centers will be located at many schools. These are centers that could be replicated at any participating school, and do not require sophisticated technology. Through the Internet, the Gateway also supports imaging requests from students not directly involved in a mission operations center. Data from the instruments is available to schools over the Internet in real time during the mission, and archived and made available to any interested student. The KidSat images are being used by students and teachers in support of classroom instruction in science, math, geography, history, art and current events.
Students learn more readily when they area part of the process.
By utilizing a multidisciplinary approach and encouraging the individual pursuit of knowledge, KidSat becomes a compelling example of exemplary teaching and learning practices. KidSat seeks to make educational history by allowing students and teachers to request images of the Earth from their own instruments in space. Students are engaged in complex tasks extending across many subject areas thus increasing their level of understanding and knowledge. KidSat will have the greatest impact on instruction if it includes curriculum guides, resource materials, teacher training, and long term support as part of the project. Educators, students, engineers and scientists are working together to create such curricular modules and implementation plans.