Your Scheduled Mission
Mission Priorities
- Save the lives of the residents of the
Caribbean island of Montserrat. Last census figures from
1994 reported 13,000 residents, but recent evacuation efforts
have brought that number much lower.
- Provide recommendations to the island
authorities
Mission
Directives
- Recruit Communications, Hurricane, Volcano,
and Evacuation Teams
- Prepare teams for the predicted events
Your students will serve as science experts
and participate in a unique learning experience. Linked via
the Internet with Mission Control, they'll participate in
a simulated "e-Mission," confronting real-life emergency
events like hurricanes and volcanic eruptions.
Challenger Learning Center seeks to partner with teachers
and their students who serve as Emergency Response Teams (ERTs).
ERT members learn new science skills and explore an emerging
science called Earth system science. The students have an
opportunity to work under pressure, exercise leadership, initiative,
and cooperation. Each mission's success depends upon partnership.
Students begin the simulation by selecting
an area of expertise. They must decide which facet of Earth
system science they are interested in and want to learn more
about- the biosphere, lithosphere, atmosphere or hydrosphere.
Then they are assigned to an ERT and complete a team application-with
resumes. In the subsequent weeks they engage in preparatory
activities during which they collect data about emergency
events, analyze the data, and learn to make logical recommendations
based upon scientific analysis. All of this leads to the culminating
event: Mission Day.
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