NASA Family Science Night
NASA Family Science Night (FSN) is a whole-family STEM learning curriculum specifically designed to engage middle-school-aged children and their family members together in a comfortable environment. Based on family-learning research, FSN was developed to foster curiosity and open-ended exploration, model positive collaboration and communication, boost confidence and knowledge levels, and sustain engagement and STEM learning behaviors beyond the in-person program.
Each 2-hour FSN session explores basic scientific process skills and various NASA-inspired STEM themes through fun, hands-on activities that engage the entire family throughout an event. For each session, we provide a detailed activity guide with background information, materials lists, handouts, and step-by-step instructions for running each activity. FSN has gone through extensive pilot-testing, multiple years of external evaluation (reports available upon request), and has been approved by NASA's Earth & Space Science Education Product Review, an independent peer review that ensures that educational products distributed by NASA are of high quality and meet rigorous educational and scientific standards.
Current Sessions
Session 1: How Big, How Far, How Old?
How Big, How Far, How Old? is about classification and how we use it to make sense of the world. Families try their hand at classifying different groups of things – starting with a bag of seemingly-random objects, then a room full of people, and finally testing their skills by sorting objects on Earth and in space by size, distance, and age.
Session 2: Seeing the Invisible
Seeing the Invisible explores the light that our eyes can – and can't – see. Families learn about the electromagnetic spectrum, and experience two types of "invisible light" (ultraviolet and infrared). After experimenting with sources and detectors of these different types of light, they use that knowledge to develop their own secret messages.
Session 3: You Are Here!
In You Are Here!, families explore using models to understand size, scale, and other features. They look at several examples of models and consider what these models show (as well as what they don't) and why we would use each model. Then they build their own models!
Session 4: Tis' the Seasons
'Tis the Seasons debunks some of the misconceptions that people have about why we have seasons. Families explore the reasons that Earth's seasons exist by acting out the Earth's orbit around the Sun, and by measuring a scale distance model of the Earth and Sun throughout a year.
Session 5: Be a Star
In Be a Star, families learn all about stars! They learn that our Sun is a star and experience a kinesthetic modeling activity about how the life cycle of a star depends on its mass. They explore how the chemical building blocks of the universe are created in stars' cores, and how those elements are dispersed into the universe – which means we're made of star stuff!
Session 6: Exploring the Moon
The Exploring the Moon session considers the resources needed to support human life – first, on a boat trip, then on a deserted island, and finally... on the Moon! Families map a simulated lunar surface, and also look at real NASA lunar data to choose a landing site for their imaginary mission.
Session 7: Batteries Not Included
Batteries Not Included focuses on the engineering design process. Families build simple solar-powered cars, then design modifications to improve some measurable aspect of their performance. At each stage, they have to propose a plan and get it approved by a panel of volunteers.
Session 8: Now You See it Now You Don't!
Now You See It... Now You Don't! explores lunar and solar eclipses. Families learn about the motions of the Earth, Moon, and Sun, focusing first on why we have Moon phases and then why we have eclipses. They then build their own eclipse models to show they understand how they work. [This session is currently being updated based on feedback from the 2017 eclipse.]
Session 9: The Search for Other Worlds
In The Search for Other Worlds, families explore three methods used to detect planets outside of our Solar System (also known as exoplanets): transits, wobbles, and Doppler shift. They also consider the conditions required for life on other planets.
Session 10: Galaxies, Galaxies Everywhere (working title)
In this newest addition to the FSN curriculum, families explore galaxies – from our home in the Milky Way to the billions of other galaxies across the universe. They create a "universal address" to help them understand their place in space and try their hand at sorting galaxies like scientists do. [This session is currently under development and is only available to pilot testing partners.]
Want to bring FSN to your community?
After a decade of dissemination, our team is currently redesigning all of the FSN session files to modernize their look and feel, plus adding new photographs, tips and tricks, updated links, and other resources to help you run the curriculum. Once the redesign and updates are complete, the files will be available for download directly from our website.
In the meantime, we are happy to share the current versions of our files via a private link – some files will be in our new format, and some in the old one, but the activities are still ready to implement!
For more information about FSN or access to the curriculum, please contact Sara Mitchell.
FSN@Home Pilot Program
Whole-family STEM learning programs don't have to end while we are all staying safely at home!
Our team has developed a modified version of the FSN curriculum where families pick up kits of materials and join a facilitator on a videoconferencing platform to go through a session together. This FSN@Home adaptation can be conducted using one of several options for delivering, lending, or giving away materials to facilitate hands-on whole-family learning in the home. Most of the original in-person FSN sessions/activities were easily adapted to this distance-learning model, so we currently have several sessions that are ready for partners to try out as part of our evaluated pilot-testing process.
Please get in touch with Christina Milotte if you would like more information about pilot-testing FSN@Home in your community. We'd be happy to share our tips and tricks for engaging families online, the challenges we have faced during our own pilot events, and options we have explored for giving families physical access to hands-on learning materials.
