HISD A+ Challenge Teachers Launch New Lessons at JSC

Each summer for the past three years, the aerospace community has invited educators from across the Greater Houston area to get an inside look at real-world applications of the subjects they teach during the Houston A+ Challenge Teacher Externship.

In its seventh year, the Houston A+ program connects classroom teachers with business professionals to help make students’ learning more relevant to the workplace.

“It is important that we as educators have a positive mindset about the future in providing unique learning experiences to our children,” said Tyra Franklin, a Houston A+ Challenge teacher extern assigned to USA. “District resources are awesome, but it takes a creative mind to build an engaged learning experience utilizing resources in our local communities.”

USA brought the program to Johnson Space Center with the help of Boeing and SAIC in 2007. USA not only hosted five teachers each year, but was also represented on the planning team. During the three years of aerospace community participation, the number of teachers and aerospace companies participating has tripled.

This year, the aerospace team of USA, Boeing, SAIC, Barrios, Lockheed Martin, Wyle, Oceaneering, Jacobs, JES Tech, NASA/JSC, Space Center Houston and MEI hosted 33 teachers from 26 different schools at 11 companies for the summer externship. The teachers are given a thorough orientation and then spend time shadowing mentors to find examples of how industry applies math, science, communication skills and other subjects taught by the teachers.

The educators’ assignment from Houston A+ includes bringing their experience back to the classroom by writing five lessons for the next academic year that incorporate what they learned.

“I will be presenting all of my information to my principals and will encourage them to promote this program,” Franklin said. “I know that I am a better person, teacher and business leader because of this experience.”

Another purpose of the program is to help teachers learn how best to prepare their students to enter their chosen fields upon graduation. USA’s Alan Wylie from Flight Design and Dynamics, Mark Thomas from Constellation, Graham O’Neil from Flight Software, Sharon McDougle from Crew Escape Equipment and Ken Ballard from Safety, Quality and Mission Assurance each hosted a teacher and helped them identify the necessary skills their students would need to work in aerospace. The mentors and their colleagues demonstrated how to apply those skills while providing information about the vast number of careers available to students at USA and JSC.

Feedback from teachers who participated in past years showed their surprise at how many different careers are available at NASA – specifically JSC. Many had assumed that to work at NASA, their students must become an astronaut, an engineer or a rocket scientist. In response to the comments, aerospace team leads designed a special assignment for the 2009 aerospace teachers to further demonstrate what they learned during their externship. This year’s assignment was to create a game that will teach their students about careers and career paths at JSC.

During a final gathering with all the teachers who participated in the Houston A+ Challenge, the teachers presented their five game concepts, each focused on different age groups and grade levels. The game concepts will be given to a group of high school interns for further development and will eventually be available on JSC’s Educators Resource Center Web site.

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