DA_NASA_MMS_RYSS, 2011-2012

Eighth grade students at Raul Yzaguirre School For Success [RYSS], Houston, Texas, U.S.A. participated in a classroom assignment involving GIMP [Photoshop equivalent] photo software and research re: Space weather and NASA's MMS [Magnetospheric Multiscale] 2014 Mission.

The students were tasked to research the various topics/concepts about Space weather [Sun, Sunspots, solar flares, CMEs (Coronal Mass Ejections), solar winds, Earth, Earth's magnetic fields, Earth's magnetosphere, magnetic reconnection, auroas] as well as NASA's MMS 2014 Mission, and then translate the information in graphics software as Digital Art. As a result, greater understanding and retention of the information came to the forefront with acquired skills of manipulating photographs ... utilizing various tools and filters within the software.

This cognitive and creative process placed the students in an environment of hands-on with photo software and the requirement of researching the information [notetaking in Word] to translate it into Digital Art through visualization. Digital Artists abound in all sectors as a part of this Digital Revolution we find ourselves a part of, which means this classroom process was also vocational in terms of building graphic Arts software skills. Another interesting aspect to this project/process is the fact that the students took the research assignments in stride to be able to visualize the information as Digital Art.

Photographs for the manipulations were downloaded from NASA websites strictly for educational purposes.

Click on the following link to view students' Digital Art:

DA_NASA_MMS_RYSS

DA_NASA_MMS_RYSS Slide Show] [Please allow loading time; click on player to the right to view the slide show.]

Tom R. Chambers was selected ... along with 24 other teachers around the world ... by ISTE [International Society of Technology for Education]/NASA to help develop curriculum for NASA's MMS 2014 Mission. The above project, DA_NASA_MMS_RYSS, is an offshoot of the development process ... one of the many student challenges presented by Team Two [Jennifer Miller, Sandra Wozniak and Tom R. Chambers] and other teams. Team Two's LiveBinder Challenge can be viewed/read at LBC.

A core group of Tom R. Chambers' 8th grade students from Raul Yzaguirre School for Success [Houston, TX] traveled to Dublin [DublinISD], Texas [April 11/12, 2012] to teach middle school students [6th, 7th, 8th grades] and primary school students [5th grade], under the direction of Jennifer Miller, how to use graphic arts software to make Digital Art as it relates to Space Weather and NASA's MMS [Magnetospheric Multiscale] 2014 mission. Click on links below to view photographs of the workshop process:

Middle school workshop

Primary school workshop

Representatives from NASA [MMS 2014 Mission], El Paso ISD Administrators/Teachers, Sandra Wozniak and her students, representatives from ISTE [International Society of Technology for Education], and others tuned into the "Summit Challenge" via Adobe Connect video conferencing to showcase the Digital Art workshop process, and discuss other methods of challenging teachers and students to participate in dynamic curricular activities for greater understanding and retention of Space weather concepts and the NASA MMS mission approach. Nineteen RYSS students participated in this significant event:

Brandon Aleman, Kevin Gonzalez, Jesus Gomez, Ariel Salazar, Francisco Rosas, Gabriel Bahena, Edwin Mendiola, Ramon Meza, Raul Martinez, Kevin Martinez, Lizbeth Salas, Janet Mendiola, Dulce Ramirez, Destiny Buendia, Evelyn Guajardo, Ariadna Suazo, Esmeralda Gutierrez, Alejandra Martinez, Emily Lopez.

The above students received special recognition at the Junior Academy Award Ceremony near the end of the school year.