Desperately Seeking

NASA Dryden

and the Other NASA Centers


Author: Robin A. Ward, California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo

(Thanks to NASA's KIDS Teacher's Corner for providing the idea for this activity.)


Audience: 4-9 graders


Mathematical Topics: reading and writing in the math classroom, critical thinking skills


Rationale: According to the NCTM Standards 2000,"good tasks fuel students' curiosity and encourage them to talk about mathematics" (p. 31). Moreover, mathematics is a "great cultural and intellectual achievement of humankind" and students should "develop an appreciation and understanding of that achievement" (p. 45).

In this activity, students will be given the opportunity to pick any topic (in this case, it is learning the names of all of the NASA Centers, including those other than the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center) and then, using their spatial and critical thinking skills, will develop a seek-and-find puzzle to challenge their classmates. Students can then access an online seek-and-find puzzle to challenge themselves!

In completing this activity, it is hoped that students will build and test their vocabulary in a fun and engaging fashion, and enhance their spatial and critical thinking skills.


Materials:

seek-and-find puzzle website
names of the NASA Centers


Background: The NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, NASA's primary installation for flight research, is located at Edwards Air Force Base in Edwards, California. Projects at Dryden over the past 50 years have lead to major advancements in the design and capabilities of many civilian and military aircraft. Click here for more information about NASA Dryden.


The Activity:

  • Begin by showing a list of all of the names of the NASA Centers, highlighting the NASA Dryden Research Center and its research endeavors and projects. Allow students the opportunity to use the Internet to find facts about each center, including each center1s location and specialty area. Listed below are all of the NASA Centers. Click here to obtain more information about each center.

  • Challenge students to create a seek-and-find word puzzle in which they need to "hide" the names of all of the centers in a 15 by 15 letter grid. Click here to see a sample puzzle. Students should then give their seek-and-find word puzzle to a classmate and challenge them to find all the names of the NASA centers hidden in the word puzzle.

  • Next, allow students to link to an online seek-and-find puzzle. Let students pick a mathematical topic, choose the terminology or vocabulary associated with this mathematical topic, and let the computer generate a seek-and-find puzzle for them to solve independently. Not only will students be challenged to think of all the terms related to a topic, but then their spaital and critical thinking skills are tested in locating the terms. For example, if a student chooses the topic of "polygons," vocabulary words that can be entered (to be hidden) are: square, hexagon, trapezoid, triangle, decagon, and parallelogram. Click here to see a sample puzzle.


    • Enrichment Activities:
    As the teacher, you can use this easy puzzle builder to reinforce vocabulary for any subject you teach! Think of all the possibilities!


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  • Math Activities Home Page



    • Funded by the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center


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