MO-1: Documenting Your Mission
When NASA has many people working on a complex project over a long time, how do they stay organized and recognize everyone’s contributions? Through documentation! In this activity, all team members will learn about the ROADS from Earth to Venus Mission Objectives (MOs) and identify their own “funds of knowledge” that will help them achieve these goals. Each student will keep track of their work in a Science & Engineering Notebook (SEN). Then, teams will come together to select evidence (such as photos, diagrams, maps, typed notes, or handwritten entries) for each MO and compile it into one Mission Development Log (MDL) for the team.
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Science and Engineering Notebook (any notebook or binder should work)
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Digital access to the Mission Development Log (MDL) template
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Engage Section: Resources to learn more about Venus.
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Explore Section: A fun Lotería card game in English and Spanish to help teams learn more about Venus.
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Explain Section: A guided activity to introduce the challenge’s MOs and identify students’ relevant funds of knowledge.
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Elaborate Section: Guided activities to teach students about the Science & Engineering Notebooks (SEN) and an introduction to the challenge Mission Development Log (MDL).
To learn more about the history of NASA and how NASA documents its work and accomplishments, check out the resources in the Getting up to Speed with ROADS from Earth to Venus document.
For this MO, teams should begin by learning about previous and planned missions to Venus. You can do this by browsing NASA’s Venus Exploration website, watching Venus YouTube videos, reading an astrobiology graphic novel, and even playing a game of Lotería.
Team members should document their work, including what they have learned about NASA’s Artemis mission, in their own Science & Engineering Notebook (SEN). The SEN will also be used to keep records of scientific investigations, initial and final engineering designs, successes, and failures—anything the team needs to record as they complete their mission! Documentation and evidence of their work can take many forms. This may include written work (in the language they feel most comfortable using), storytelling (audio and video recordings), art (sketches, paintings, models), diagrams, data tables, and more.
Teams will not submit all of the documentation recorded in their SENs to NESSP. Instead, team members will work together to select the most relevant information from their SENs and tailor it to tell the story of their mission in a team Mission Development Log (MDL). In other words, they will demonstrate how they met the mission objective deliverables. An MDL Google Slides template is provided, along with instructions on modifying the template in multiple formats. Teams can assign a lead to document the team’s work for each MO in the MDL. However, all team members should contribute to compiling the MDL and take turns being the lead documentarian.
A fun way to have students learn about the challenge is through an Earth and Venus-themed Lotería, a well-known game from Mexico similar to Bingo. Download the game and learn how to play in the Companion Course Lesson 1 Explore Section.
Students and their families possess a wealth of knowledge, skills, and resources from their homes and cultural activities. We refer to these as ‘funds of knowledge.’ Team members are strongly encouraged to utilize their funds of knowledge during the challenge and to document them in their MDL. For assistance in identifying each team member’s funds of knowledge, refer to the Elaborate section in the associated Companion Course lesson.
At the end of the mission, teams will only present a Mission Development Log (MDL), which summarizes what they did for each MO. The end of each MO lists the “Deliverables” that must be included in the MDL. For MO-1, the ‘Deliverables’ list explains what each team needs to know to start their MDL.
- Use the MDL template.
- Include title/slide page with
- Team name.
- Team member’s names.
- Include a short team member biography and a completed “Funds of Knowledge” table
- Describe the grand-band appropriate deliverables for each mission objective completed.
- Be 50 slides or less (including 9 green MO direction slides, see template for details).