Making mini satellite dishes
that collect signals or building remote-controlled mini
Rovers such as the kind NASA has used on Mars are
the types of activities that could interest kids in
science, but their complexity can derail all but the
most enthusiastic hobbyist.
Now, NASA, the U.S. space agency, hopes it has found
a workaround through new space kits and a
collaboration with a New York-based startup called
LittleBits.
NASA, through its Aura mission to study the Earth’s
ozone layer and climate, is working with LittleBits to
develop activities around a new $189 space kit,
announced on Thursday.
Using electronic modules such as motors and
dimmers that snap together, the creations will
perform functions that normally might require hours
of tedious tinkering or piles of electronics
components.
The new kits are more demanding than playing with
snappable blocks like Legos, but far easier than
wiring, soldering or programming.
“You don’t have that frustration level,” said Steve
Heck, a 5th and 6th grade math and science teacher
at Mulberry Elementary in Ohio who says too many
students lose interest in science and space
experiments when the projects become too difficult.
“You’re going to get a much better student in the long
run.”
For NASA, the partnership has a more specific goal.
“From our perspective, it was to engage kids in how
NASA uses the electromagnetic spectrum,” said
Ginger Butcher, education and public outreach lead
for the Aura mission. “We can see how much ozone is
in the atmosphere. We can see features on Mars.”
NASA reached out to LittleBits after Butcher saw its
chief executive and founder, Ayah Bdeir, give a talk in
2012 about the company’s online modules and
decided they could be helpful for Aura’s educational
goals.
LittleBits is building and selling the kit while NASA is
developing the activities that go along with them.
NASA will not benefit financially from the sale of the
kits, Butcher said.
While the playthings are designed to stay earthbound,
a few lucky kids could see their creations end up in
space.
Working with a company called Xcor Aerospace, Heck
said he hopes to get 10 student projects onto a
suborbital flight in 2015. The students will be selected
through a contest, and Heck said he believes many
will submit LittleBits-based projects.
LittleBits says the kits will boost revenue as well as
the company’s missions of incorporating better design
into electronics and increasing familiarity with
electronics among the public.
“Not understanding electronics is a form of illiteracy,”
said CEO Bdeir. Her company is backed by venture-
capital firms including the Foundry Group, Khosla
Ventures and True Ventures.
It is unclear what demand may emerge for the kits –
Bdeir said she expects to sell tens of thousands – or if
they really will help children better understand the
electromagnetic spectrum or outer space.
They go on sale at a time when space-related issues
are increasingly coming into the public eye.
A few days ago, scientists announced they have found
an earthlike planet known as Kepler-186f.
Source : Reuters
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