ACTIVITIES
NASA Engineering Playlist
Looking for a sequence of 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 with NASA activities.
Lesson 1: Build An Airplane (Engineering Design Process Activity) – Build an airplane that has ailerons, elevators and a rudder.
Lesson 2: Build a Satellite (Engineering Design Process Activity) – This lesson provides students with an understanding of satellites, their use and structure, and power systems. In this potentially multi-day activity, students will use the engineering design process to design, build, test and improve a model satellite.
Lesson 3: Women@NASA: Role Models (Role Models and Mentors Connection) Watch a video of one of the women who are engineers and work at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab. After watching a video, have the youth write a paragraph about the engineer, one wondering what they have about the engineer, and one question they would ask the engineer.
Lesson 4: Make a Soda Can Engine (Engineering Design Process) – Students will investigate the action-reaction principle (Newton’s third law of motion) by creating a water-propelled engine. By observing the device in action and changing certain variables, students will explore the properties of engines and the dynamics behind directionality and thrust.
Lesson 5: Women@NASA: Careers (Role Models and Mentor Connection) – Many people dream of careers in science, technology, engineering, and math. Hear about the fascinating careers at NASA. After watching the short video, youth write a paragraph about the career they might want in STEM.
Looking for EVEN More at NASA?! Activity Toolkit: Engineering is Elementary’s NASA Partnership free units – A suite of free NASA-funded STEM resources for students in grades 3-8. All resources are research-based and classroom-tested. They are designed to support students’ understanding of space, while helping them see themselves as capable problem solvers.
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.
RESOURCES
Broadening STEM: Pride in STEM – Pride in STEM is a charity run by an independent group of LGBTQIA+ scientists & engineers from around the world. On this website, find resources, blog posts, events, and more.
Broadening STEM: 500 Queer Scientists – A database of LGBTQ+ researchers, professors, program managers, and students in a range of STEM fields: engineering, data science, chemistry, psychology, and many more disciplines.There are 1,591 people and counting profiled on this website. This database provides students, educators, and practitioners with an easy way to identify LGBTQ+ individuals in STEM in order to highlight their work and/or network with them.
