What is MINDS 2000+?

The Nature of MINDS+

The NASA MINDS 2000+ curriculum is a NASA funded project designed for middle school educators. It is built around the theme of global change and utilizes the Internet as a technologies tool for teaching and learning. More specifically, educators use the integrative curriculum to address the national standards for mathematics developed by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics and the national benchmarks for science and technology developed by American Association for the Advancement of Science by studying issues of global change associated with NASA's Mission to Planet Earth and the U.S. Global Research Program.

The "hands-on/minds-on" pre-service and in-service project is built on real life scenarios that use Internet resources to access information and to aid in the transfer of knowledge across the curriculum. Teachers integrate global change themes with the existing curriculum in order to help students develop a greater understanding of global environmental change through the concept of Earth as a system. Through these learning experiences, students explore how Earth's components and their interactions have evolved, how they functions, and how they may be expected to continue to evolve.

In order to accomplish this goal, students use remotely sensed data, that is educationally relevant, captured from the Internet. Thus, the ultimate goal is to develop in students the capability to predict environmental changes, both natural and human-induced, that will occur in the future. By providing students with this capability they will be able to answer the fundamental unresolved questions about their constantly changing global environment, thus improving their quality of life.

To enhance student's ability to manage knowledge and to be prepared to teach in the future, the Eastern Michigan University's Research Institute for Space Education staff included the NASA MINDS 2000+ curriculum as part of its gopher. EMU's Research Institute for Space Education (RISE) can be accessed via Internet address hardy.emich.edu. The intent of the RISE gopher is to provide a plethora of educational a resources in one location. Among the items included are: key NASA educational resources and contacts; subject oriented data-based; curriculum materials; and materials on teaching and learning. These items and many more can be found through the following menus located at EMU's Research Institute for Space Education Gopher:

  1. About the Research Institute for Space Education.
  2. Blues Skies (U of Michigan Weather Underground)
  3. NASA/
  4. NASA MINDS 2000+/
  5. CIESEN Global Change Information Gateway/
  6. EMU NASA Space Grant/
  7. Subject Resources/
  8. Curriculum Center/
  9. Teaching and Learning/
  10. Global Change/
  11. K-12 Network/
  12. Other Gophers/
  13. NASA Internet Resources/
  14. Suggestion Box.
As a result of the project, the proposed pre-service course, NASA MINDS 2000+ has been implemented at Eastern Michigan University, will in-service teacher educators and middle school teachers. A permanent institute was established for space education. Support pre-service and in-service networks were established to provide continued implementation and improvement of the quality of teaching and instruction at the middle school level. Through the established course and other products of the project, teachers, teacher educators and students will develop problem solving, creative and critical thinking skills that will provide them a means to transfer knowledge to solve tomorrow's problems, thus producing a more scientific and technologically literate citizen.

Themes

Based on the national standards for science, mathematics and technology the following themes have been selected for MINDS 2000+:

Deliverables

The Goal of MINDS 2000+?

The goal of MINDS 2000+ is to develop scientific and technological literacy by focusing on science, mathematics, technology and space science as an integrator of the existing middle school curriculum. MINDS 2000+ will use this relationship and it interactions to have students develop an greater understanding of global environmental change through the concept of Earth as an entire system. Students will explore how it components and their interactions have evolved, how they function, and how they may be expected to continue evolve. In order to accomplish this goal, students will use remotely sensed satellite and earth probe data. Thus the ultimate goals is to develop in students the capability in order that they will be able to predict environmental changes, both natural and human-induced, that will occur in the future. By providing students with this capability they will be able to answer the fundamental unresolved questions about their constantly changing global environment thus improving their quality of life.

Outcomes of MINDS 2000+

To accomplish the intended purpose of MINDS 2000+, the project will focus on the development and implementation of pre-service and in-service activities that foster the integration of technology and space education with the existing middle school curricula for all students. More specifically, the outcomes of this project are:

The Benefits of MINDS 2000+

MINDS 2000+ fosters the following benefits to students:
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