Lessons integrate use of virtual reality, machine learning and artificial intelligence
Elly Yates-Roberts |
Microsoft and NASA are joining up to develop eight new lesson plans to get students excited about space travel. The lessons challenge middle and high school students to design in 3D, analyse data, build sensors, use virtual reality and work with machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI), all while discussing the challenges of living in space.
The jointly created lessons come as we approach the 50th anniversary of the moon walk, the 20th anniversary of humans living onboard the International Space Station and the inaugural launch of NASA’s commercial crew programme.
According to Karon Weber, senior director of Microsoft Education Workshop, the curriculum uses academic concepts and hands-on learning to give budding astronauts an idea of what life is like in space.
Among the tasks is an ‘Astro Socks’ project to reduce the impact of working in microgravity on astronauts’ feet and an exercise exploring how scientists predict climate change using AI and photographs of the Earth taken from space.