NASA STEM Digital Badges for Educators and Their Students: A Pilot Program Bringing STEM into Middle Schools using NASA Langley Research Center’s Centennial Celebration

By Marile Colon Robles, Marjorie Thrash,
Candace Walker and Kimberly M. Brush

https://doi.org/10.46767/kfp.2016-0015

Abstract

A pilot program was developed for middle school (grades 6-8) educators and students to apply NASA real-world problems to classroom concepts as part of NASA Langley Research Center’s (LaRC) Centennial Celebration through the use of digital badges. Three sets of digital badges were developed on three of NASA’s main missions: Earth Science, Aeronautics, and Journey to Mars. Each digital badge offers a total of 5 hours of professional development for educators and 2 hours of activities for students. These digital badges have introduced educators to NASA Langley Research Center’s missions and 100thanniversary. Online discussion sessions, a requirement for these badges, has attracted educators new to the digital badge concepts. The LaRC Centennial badges provide a forum through which educators can learn about this new format of professional development. Educators report that these badges are worth their time and effort as part of their professional development. LaRC looks forward to building new badges in the future to expand beyond middle school across the K-12 continuum.

Keywords

Microdentials; STEM; K-12

Full Text:

PDF

References

DeNisco, A. (2016, June 27). Microcredentials provide highly personalized PD. Retrieved from https://www.districtadministration.com/article/microcredentials-provide-highly-personalized-pd

Gamrat, C., H. Toomey Zimmerman, J. Dudek, and K. Peck (2014). Personalized workplace learning: An exploratory study on digital badging within a teacher professional development program. British Journal of Educational Technology, 45(6), 1136-1148. doi: 10.1111/bjet.12200

Hurst, E.J. (2015). Digital Badges: Beyond Learning Incentives. Journal of Electronic Resources in Medical Libraries, 12(3), 182-189. doi: 10.1080/15424065.2015.1065661

Waters, J.K. (2013, May 30). Everything you ever wanted to know about badging in the classroom: Our definite guide. Retrieved from https://thejournal.com/articles/2013/05/30/everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-badging-in-the-classroom-our-definitive-guide.aspx