NIA-CISE Educators and Guest Presenters Host Pre-Earth Day Event

Utilizing NASA eClips™ resources and activities, educators from the National Institute of Aerospace’s Center for Integrative STEM Education (NIA-CISE) and several guest presenters hosted a virtual Pre-Earth Day Event for students and families on April 12, 2022, from 10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m ET. Former and current members of the NASA eClips Educator Advisory Board worked with the Education Team to plan and implement a variety of engaging activities for youth and their families to learn about our planet in advance of Earth Day. The extended webinar was attended by 21 adults and 108 students. Videos of and resources from the presentations that focused on the Earth’s spheres were shared with an additional 37 educators and their 386 learners who registered for the event. Registrants signed up for the sessions they were interested in attending and received a comprehensive materials list so they could complete the hands-on activities along with the presenters.

Educator Advisory Board Member Melissa Sleeper, an 8th grade teacher at Storm Grove Middle School in Vero Beach, FL, worked with 16 of her students to develop and present three sessions where several activities were demonstrated. Student groups led participants in how to use a bird identification app, reuse toilet paper rolls to make bird feeders, make leaf rubbings, conduct a nature scavenger hunt, create a carbon footprint poster, make Earth Day toast, and produce clay seed hearts. In addition, several of Sleeper’s students have created a community Lagoon Protection Agency (LPA) that works to ensure clean water in the nearby Indian River Lagoon. The LPA students shared their efforts, including a virtual field trip to the lagoon, storm drain stenciling, and a water filtration investigation demonstration.

Educator Advisory Board Member Shelly Munoz, a high school science teacher at Pierz Healy High School in Pierz, MN, pre-recorded a session entitled “Dollar Store STEM Activities” that showcased a variety of STEM activities that took advantage of everyday and/or inexpensive materials. Katherine Mangum (a former Advisory Board Member) helped her 5th grade students from St. Catherine’s School in Richmond, VA share a session that illustrated how to recycle paper to create seed cards. After seed cards have been gifted, they can be planted to produce flowers and herbs.

Students from Alex Tharpe’s CHROME Club at George P. Phenix PreK-8 School in Hampton, VA shared a session on how to make a crumpled paper watershed model to help learners understand how pollutants make their way into local waterways. Students from the She Can STEM Academy that serves under-represented and underserved girls in the Tidewater area of Virginia kicked off the webinar with a video they created that gave a short history of Earth Day and suggested ways individuals can make every day an Earth Day.

NASA eClips™ is supported by NASA under cooperative agreement award number NNX16AB91A and is part of NASA's Science Activation Portfolio. Sharing with teachers and learners at events like this one helps further enable NASA science experts and content into the learning environment more effectively and efficiently with learners of all ages. Please visit https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov/ to learn more about how NASA eClips™ provides educators with standards-based videos, activities, and lessons to increase STEM literacy through the lens of NASA.