Educational Technology Exemplified through NASA’s Curiosity Rover

While listening to the news and watching the NASA videos on YouTube, I realized how many parallels there are between Curiosity and many of the educational technologies that we’ve discussed in the CTER program at UIUC. NASA has been using cloud computing to transmit data, generating interest and learning through gamification, and using social media to reach the population. 

The scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) at NASA had to not only get data to travel from Mars to Earth but also faced the challenge of sharing the data with the world. In order to process the huge quantity of data and instantaneously share it with the public, NASA had to move to cloud computing for the processing of data; services from Amazon "allows [NASA] to leverage multiple machines to do actual processing." (Endler, 2012) NASA intends to continue using cloud computing because the quantity of scientific data is growing every day and cloud computing is cost efficient. 

Next, NASA has generated interest in young people through gamification. NASA and Microsoft teamed up to create the free and interactive Xbox 360 Kinect video game “Mars Rover Landing.” (Workman, 2012) The purpose of the game is for kids to get the rover to land in the right spot without any damages. Below is a screenshot of the game. (Workman, 2012) Kids are not learning anything about Mars in the game but do gain detailed knowledge on how the scientists and engineers designed the rover to land.

Finally, NASA scientists did a great job in reaching people outside of the scientific community through their effective use of social media. The scientists in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory created a YouTube video, “Challenges of Getting to Mars: Curiosity’s Seven Minutes of Terror.” (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 2012) The video itself is aimed at the general public- it’s not written for scientists or engineers. There is wonderful graphics and describes the challenges Curiosity faces in order to generate public interest.

NASA also created an interactive website that allows users to play games, watch videos, view images from Mars, and ask questions to the scientists. Teachers can find materials on this site to bring Curiosity into their classrooms.  You can follow the Mars Rover on Twitter @MarsCuriosity (which is written in 1^st person, as if the rover itself is writing). The rover has 930,138 followers (including me). You can also “like” the rover on Facebook (which I did today) and follow it on there.

I find it really interesting that NASA has been leveraging these tools in order to reach the public- it’s the same thing that we should be doing as teachers in our classrooms. I am really impressed with NASA’s outreach to educate the general public, generate interest in those outside the scientific community, and create a generation of kids that want to be involved in science and engineering. 

Endler, M. (2012, August 10). NASA Mars Mission Fueled by Amazon Web Services. Retrieved August 10, 2012, from Information Week: http://www.informationweek.com/government/cloud-saas/nasa-mars-mission-fueled-by-amazon-web-s/240005286

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. (2012, June 22). Challenges of Getting to Mars: Curiosity's Seven Minutes of Terror. Retrieved August 10, 2012, from YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ki_Af_o9Q9s&feature=plcp

Workman, R. (2012, August 1). Microsoft and NASA Team Up for Curiosity Mars Rover Xbox Game (+Video). Retrieved August 10, 2012, from CS Monitor: http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2012/0801/Microsoft-and-NASA-team-up-for-Curiosity-Mars-rover-Xbox-game-video