Pathway(s) Addressed: Industrial Engineering and Technology

Submitted by: Michelle Boyden

Date: 6/2/01

Age(s): 8-10

Prerequisite lessons/knowledge: ability to navigate the world wide web

Recommended: Online / Student Directed

Time frame: 45-60 minutes

Language Arts

A. A student should be able to speak and write well for a variety of
purposes and audiences.

A student who meets the content standard should:
1. apply elements of effective writing and speaking; these elements include ideas, organization, vocabulary, sentence structure, and personal style;

4.write and speak well to inform, to describe, to entertain, to persuade, and to clarify thinking in a variety of formats, including technical communication;

B. A student should be a competent and thoughtful reader, listener, and
viewer of literature, technical materials, and a variety of other information.

A student who meets the content standard should:

1.comprehend meaning from written text and oral and visual information by applying a variety of reading, listening, and viewing strategies; these
strategies include phonic, context, and vocabulary cues in reading, critical
viewing, and active listening;

Technology

A. A student should be able to operate technology-based tools.

A student who meets the content standard should:

1.use a computer to enter and retrieve information;
2.use technological tools for learning, communications, and productivity;

Employability / (Scans)
B. A student should be able to identify career interests and plan for career options.

A student who meets this standard should:

1.Identify and appreciate personal interests, aptitudes, abilities, and priorities;
2.Identify possible career options, considering both employment and self employment and understand how changes in the workplace affect career choice;
3.Use labor market information to identify occupational and economic trends and opportunities, and evaluate possible career options;
4.Identify education and/or training needed for career options and advancement, and develop a career plan;
5.Identify resources available to support education and training related to career possibilities.

Alaska State Performance Standards

Reading, Writing and Math (pdf files) (see above)

Overview: Students are directed to career "cards" and paragraphs of information about careers available from NASA. After reading the cards, students create a spreadsheet that briefly describes the careers they learned about.

Objectives: Students will learn about a variety of careers available from NASA. Some of the career information will teach students what subjects to stress in middle school. Students will be able to record the career information on a spreadsheet of their own.

Resources/Materials: access to the world wide web, computer spreadsheet/word processing

Vocabulary:

Classroom Setting:individual or small group

Activities: Students will click on a link that will take them to two different sites on the NASA Kids website. See below for exact instructions:

CAREERS WITH NASA

NASA doesn't just employ astronauts. There are a lot of careers necessary to create spacecraft and explore space. You will be directed to a few different sites within NASA that share information about a variety of careers.

As you explore these sites, create a spreadsheet that explains what a person with that career typically does, what skills a person with that job should have and any other information about the career that you find interesting.

Example:

CAREER	What do they do?	Skills needed	Other
Mechanical Engineer

Bookmark this page so you can get back to these directions.

The first site tells information about eight careers with NASA: Mechanical Engineer/Technician, Engineer, Pilot, Technician, employee Assistant, Electrical Technician, Co-op students and Carpenter.

Follow the directions on navigating through the eight career cards. Be sure to click on the next button (bottom center of the card) to see more information such as what the employee thinks you should focus on in middle school.

Click here to begin: Career Card instruction site

This next site links to more careers with NASA including some "non-science" careers such as a lawyer, writer and politician/lobbyist. As you read about these careers add them to your spreadsheet.

Click here to begin: Career Expo

Community Connections: Contact a military establishment and have career speakers come to your classroom.

Assessment: Assess student spreadsheets for completeness and depth of information from the NASA site.