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NASA eClips™ Educators Challenge First Grade Engineers to Build and Test Paper Mars Helicopters

NASA eClips™ Educators Challenge First Grade Engineers to Build and Test Paper Mars Helicopters


The National Institute of Aerospace's (NIA) Center for Integrative STEM Education (CISE) educators met virtually on June 18, 2021, with 70 first graders from Carver Elementary in Newport News, Va. Joan Harper-Neely, STEM Education Specialist, and Betsy McAllister, Hampton City School Educator-in-Residence at NIA asked students to think and work like NASA engineers to build and test different versions of paper Mars helicopters. Students learned that NASA's Perseverance Mars rover carried the first helicopter to Mars. Five classroom educators monitored the young engineers meeting in person and online as they tried to land their helicopters on the target. NASA eClips videos were shown for further explanations:

Real World “Computer Simulations - Turning Complex Ideas Into Solvable Equations,” https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov/video/realworld/real-world-computer-simulations-turning-complex-ideas-into-solvable-equations

Students from Carver Elementary in Newport News, Va.