NASA - 'S' is for Space Station

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station are helping children learn their ABC's and vocabulary through educational demonstrations of how they live and work in space.

NASA collaborated with Sesame Workshop, including the popular children’s television programs, "Sesame Street" and "The Electric Company," to create science, technology, engineering and math-related education resources, or STEM, for children ages 2-5.

"The space station environment provides a unique classroom in space to teach young children about the words such as 'float' and 'astronaut' by showing them how astronauts float in space," said Matthew Keil in the Teaching from Space Office at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Space station astronaut Soichi Noguchi completed four educational videos for "Sesame Street" during his stay on the International Space Station from December 2009 to June 2010. 

The four videos are airing on "Sesame Street" throughout the fall 2010 season. On the episode "F is for Float" -- show number 4214 -- Noguchi held up the letter "F" to represent the word "float" while he floated around the space station to demonstrate the word.

"Word on the Street" -- show number 4222 -- featured Noguchi explaining to the character "Murray" what the word "float" means, using similar demonstrations with a lemon, socks and a ball.

On the episode "A is for Astronaut" -- show number 4225 -- Noguchi held up the letter "A" to represent the word "astronaut." Noguchi sounded out the letter and the word for children.

On the "Countdown to Space" episode -- show number 4234 airing on PBS December 27 -- Noguchi counted down from 10 to one. Noguchi counted down and said "blast-off!" while floating from the floor to the ceiling.

Sesame Workshop approached the NASA Teaching from Space Office for assistance in implementing more science and math curriculum into their programming by using the unique educational environment of the space station, NASA centers and facilities and the unique people who work at NASA.

"I am an educator who is very interested in making connections between curriculum and everyday life experiences that students encounter," said Keil.

"There are many teachable moments that exist in every NASA mission. Our job is to make sure educators and students are aware of these moments and assist them in connecting these moments to what they are teaching or learning in school and at home."

The shows are repeated and archived at the following link by using the show numbers to locate individual segments:

http://www.sesamestreet.org/onair/episodes

Dr Sally Ride - America's first woman in space

Dr. Sally Ride continues to encourage children to increase their awareness of Maths and Science in a world that has adopted technology as a provider of entertainment and communications.


Click on the picture to read more of her comments.

ADHD: Brain Training and Concentration

How can you use Video Games consoles, in the same way that NASA uses Flight Simulators, to help you gain the level of concentration that is normally experienced by pilots and astronauts.

In addition to the games console you need to be connected to a bio-feedback instrument that measures your level of excitement and concentration and feeds this back to you, the player. The feedback loop also affects the speed of the game, the more excited you are the slower the game but when you start to concentrate and stay calm, the game will speed up.

Thus, allowing you to be in control of the game speed and therefore, the enjoyment factor, simply by controlling your concentration levels. So, you can very quickly see the cause and feel the effect of better attention focus and control in your play and your life.

This equipment is available from www.smartbraintech.com