Student Digital Art Exhibition on NASA’s MMS 2014 and Solar Weather

A great way to engage students after researching topics in the classroom is to integrate technology and allow students opportunities to express knowledge using digital art components.  Students from Dublin ISD and Houston’s RYSS, Raul Yzaguirre School For Success, successfully showcased a Joint Digital Art Exhibition on NASA’s upcoming MMS 2014 mission.  Students participated in the MMS 2014 Challenge and researched solar weather, the sun, auroras, magnetic force, the Earth’s magnetosphere, real world applications of the scientific method and NASA’s MMS 2014 mission.  Students from RYSS visited and led a GIMP joint art workshop with students at Dublin Intermediate and Dublin Junior High last April.  As a result of these exercises, students will now have their pieces in a traveling exhibition.  Students tend to perform higher if productions are appreciated by others and showcased to target communities.  The learning experience becomes more meaningful and approaches can have a lasting effect.  Tom Chambers, Sandra Wozniak, and I are attempting to turn students on to the fields of science, art,  math, engineering, and technology by asking students around the world to participate in MMS 2014 challenge.  The team of three educators were selected to present in NASA’s Cyber Cafe in March and ideas are a result of a collaborative effort with ISTE, International Society of Technology Educators, and NASA to help promote an interest in NASA MMS 2014 mission.  To access MMS 2014 guides, integration resources, research tools, and examples please visit our 2012 featuredLivebinder at http://www.livebinders.com/play/play_or_edit?id=330317 .  We also are avidly looking for partners for students and invite educators to collaborate with us in our Epsilen MMS 2014 Group and share integration ideas, examples, and resources.

The idea that students create content for target audiences to encourage others to care or take an interest in solar weather, NASA’s MMS 2014 mission, or learn about sun solar storms can be very powerful.  Students in my community will be participating in STEAM camp to learn more about MMS 2014 challenge.  Students in our district led the world in this effort and hosted a NASA summit last April to kick off MMS 2014 challenge.  The DISD and RYSS Art exhibition is the first of many showcases and attempts to spread the word.

Teachers can utilize a variety of tools to engage students in academic vocabulary building exercises.  Digital Art Shows using Gimp, Photoshop, a web 2.0 tool is just one example of how integration can be used to produce a powerful learning experience.  STEAM participants will also create  30 sec vocab-videos on scientific academic vocabulary using Animoto, Keynote, or iMovie.  To learn more about the Gimp workshop, please visit the following sites:

 http://www.eschoolnews.com/2012/04/18/nasa-mms-2014-student-digital-art-workshops/

http://tomrchambers.com/ryss_dmps.html

http://www.schooltube.com/embed/c7b9421d11ca49ce949b