Activities

Looking for activities you can implement in your afterschool program today? Say goodbye to googling or searching on Pinterest. Use the following activities in sequence to support youth in building an engineering mindset.

• First Woman Camp Experience: Hands-on activities that accompany NASA’s “First Woman” graphic novel series
• James Webb Space Telescope STEM Toolkit: Virtual and classroom resources related to the James Webb Space Telescope.
• Sun STEM Toolkit: Virtual and classroom resources related to the sun.
• Sustainable Aviation STEM Toolkit: Virtual and classroom resources related to aviation.
• NASA Coloring Pages: Color and learn about some faraway worlds with these coloring pages.
• NASA for Students Grades K-4: Fun activities centered around all things NASA. Games, puzzles, color, and more.
• Space Place Art Challenge: Space Place monthly art missions. Draw, color or paint the subject of the month.
• Climate Kids: Learn about weather and climate through games, activities, and videos
• Build to Launch with LEGO Education and Artemis I: An interactive digital learning adventure that explores the Artemis I mission to the Moon.
• Clean Room – Europa Clipper: Watch this live YouTube stream as NASA’s Europa Clipper, is built and tested.
• Learn the Phases of the Moon: Assemble a printable Moon Phases Calendar and Calculator.
• Night Sky Network: Astronomy clubs bring the wonder of the universe to the public.
• NASA Space Voyagers Game: A strategy card game where students explore the solar system.
• Mars Scavenger Hunt!: Students participate in a Martian mission by completing the Mars scavenger hunt.

Supported by the Mott Foundation, Mizzen is available at no cost to afterschool professionals! Encourage partners to download the Mizzen By Mott app to access STEM  activities at your finger-touch!  You’ll find it in Mizzen here.

 Featured Activities & Playlists

• Mizzen Playlist: STEM Activities for K-5th Grade in Small Groups – This playlist is a great mix of engineering and science activities that are easy and fun for small groups of students.
• Mizzen Playlist: Science Notebooks for 3rd – 12th Grade – Keeping a notebook can help your students think and act like scientists and engineers. Sample these easy-to-implement strategies and lessons to bring science notebooking into your program.
• Mizzen Module: S.INQ Up Earth and Space for 6-8th Grade – Earth and Space is an inquiry and exploration-based curriculum that uses hands-on activities focused on the relationships between the earth, the solar system, and human impacts on our global environment.

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Click on the links below to access curated mini units of STEM-based curriculum from SDAN.

• Activity Guide: Getting Electric
• Activity Guide: Inside My Body
• Activity Guide: Building Great Structures
• Activity Guide: Harnessing Air 
• Activity Guide: City Build 2040
• Activity Guide: Star Wars

Resources

Recruit STEM Experts as Volunteers

Less than 50% of high school girls know a woman in a STEM career. Let’s change that – recruit STEM professionals to support the youth you serve today!

The Moonshot helps to connect STEM experts with OST programs! Share your program’s volunteer opportunities for STEM experts to work with your youth today! Register here to find role models and mentors in STEM.

Transformative Practices

• Equity and Inclusion Article: Building a Community for Indigenous Mathematicians – Easy to read article on identifying as an indigenous mathematician and how to become part of a community of mathematicians.
• Family Engagement Guide: Educator Guide: STEM Activities for Families | NASA/JPL Edu Easy to implement engaging activities for families (as a follow up to after school activities.)
• Role and Models Resource: Career Girls is a comprehensive video-based career exploration tool for girls featuring diverse women STEM role models. It’s free to use and contains 16,000 videos, as well as career quizzes and resources.
• Role Models and Mentors Training Webinar: NGCP celebrated National Mentoring Month in January by highlighting the importance of mentors in empowering girls and young women to actively pursue STEM education and careers. Learn from a panel of speakers including dynamic professionals in STEM who currently serve as mentors and the female students they are mentoring.
• STEM Pathways and Transitions Toolkit: Brokering Youth Pathways: A Toolkit for Connecting Youth to Future Opportunity from the Hive Research Network shares ways in which various out-of-school educators and professionals have approached the challenge of brokering. We provide a framework, practice briefs and reports that focus on a particular issue or challenge and provide concrete examples, as well as illustrate how our partners worked through designing new brokering routines in partnership with our research team.