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Daily Do

How can we use AI to monitor and provide feedback on an astronaut’s health when communication with mission control is not possible?

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How can we use AI to monitor and provide feedback on an astronaut’s health when communication with mission control is not possible?

Welcome to NSTA's Daily Do

Teachers and families across the country are facing a new reality of providing opportunities for students to do science through distance and home learning. The Daily Do is one of the ways NSTA is supporting teachers and families with this endeavor. Each weekday, NSTA will share a sensemaking task teachers and families can use to engage their students in authentic, relevant science learning. We encourage families to make time for family science learning (science is a social process!) and are dedicated to helping students and their families find balance between learning science and the day-to-day responsibilities they have to stay healthy and safe.

Interested in learning about other ways NSTA is supporting teachers and families? Visit the NSTA homepage.

What Is Sensemaking?

Sensemaking is actively trying to figure out how the world works (science) or how to design solutions to problems (engineering). Students do science and engineering through the science and engineering practices. Engaging in these practices necessitates that students be part of a learning community to be able to share ideas, evaluate competing ideas, give and receive critique, and reach consensus. Whether this community of learners is made up of classmates or family members, students and adults build and refine science and engineering knowledge together.

Lesson Snapshot

High school students, as scientists, work with their group to choose an indicator and create a computer program that will use AI to monitor astronaut health. Students use systems thinking to explain how different vital signs provide information about the functioning of (sub)systems that make up the whole-body system. With their groups, students revise and use a program that uses dialogue (input and output), data storage, and calculations to track a single vital sign in real-time and over time.

Click the Download PDF button above for the complete Lesson Plan.

Materials

Student Materials

Per Student or to Project on a Screen

How Does Space Affect the Human Body? diagram
Vital Signs (handout)
Individual Challenge Reflection

Teacher Materials

Sample Program Flowchart
Alexa for Astronauts Challenge Rubric

Optional Teacher Resources

NSTA Engineering Design Collection
• TechnoKids - How to Make a Flowchart for Programming
• Technovation - Flowcharts

 

 

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