IDEA Lab

2nd Grade & 3rd Grade

Could I become a space explorer?

In this project, 2nd and 3rd-grade students studied spacecraft, astronauts, and rovers, as well as the history, present, and future of space exploration. This project had two goals: 1) for students to understand how humans are exploring space now and how they have explored space in the past, and 2) for students to imagine how they might contribute to space exploration as an astronaut, aerospace engineer, rover designer, or programmer.

Designing Spacecraft

After studying U.S. space travel both past and present students designed their own spacecraft with a specific purpose in mind.

Studying Astronuats

To better understand the United States' history of space exploration and what it takes to live in space students learned about the International Space Station, the Space Shuttle and studied astronauts past a present like Neil Armstrong, Mae Jemison, Sally Ride, Kalpana Chawla, and Raja Chari.

Building and Programming Rovers

Much of the United State's current space exploration is focused on using rovers to explore space rather than humans. Students built LEGO robotics rovers and learned to program them.

Using Sensors to Control the Rovers

NASA's Mars rovers use sensors to explore and navigate the surface of Mars. A2STEAM students used sensors to control their LEGO robotics rovers.

Astronaut Mae Jemison

Students read books and watched videos to learn about astronaut Mae Jemison. We recorded what we learned on a chart in the IDEA Lab. (2 minute video)

Astronaut Sally Ride

Students read books and watched videos to learn about astronaut Sally Ride. We recorded what we remembered on a chart in the IDEA Lab. (2 minute video)

Astronaut Raja Chari

Students watched videos to learn about the International Space Station and astronaut Raja Chari who is working and living on the International Space Station right now! We recorded what we learned on a chart in the IDEA Lab. (2 minute video)

One of the first tasks NASA engineers faced when the first Rover landed was just programming the Rover to drive where they wanted it to go. One of the first challenges students worked on was to program their rover to drive with precision. Here are two videos showing students' programs at work.

Rover Engineers

3rd graders are continuing on with this unit and are currently building a replica of the NASA Perseverance Rover which is exploring Mars right now. As part of that work, they are learning about some of the engineers who designed Perseverance.

2nd Graders are moving on to a new project around coding video games.

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