Mia Angelica C.

Mapua

February 11, 2016

141755

NASA Kids Club

URL: http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forkids/kidsclub/flash/index.html#.VrcM1Ll97EZ
I.

DESCRIPTION

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

NASAs Mission and Vision
We reach for new heights and reveal the unknown for the benefit of humankind.
To do that, thousands of people have been working around the world and off of it for
more than 50 years, trying to answer some basic questions. Whats out there in space?
How do we get there? What will we find? What can we learn there, or learn just by trying
to get there, that will make life better here on Earth? (NASA, 2015).
History of NASA
President Dwight D. Eisenhower established the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration in 1958, partially in response to the Soviet Unions launch of the first
artificial satellite the previous year. NASA grew out of the National Advisory Committee
on Aeronautics (NACA), which had been researching flight technology for more than 40
years (NASA, 2015).
NASA is famous for the many space projects and missions that they are active in,
but one of the projects that they are most famous for is the Apollo 11 Mission.
President John F. Kennedy focused NASA and the nation on sending astronauts to
the moon by the end of the 1960s. Through the Mercury and Gemini projects, NASA
developed the technology and skills it needed for the journey. On July 20, 1969, Neil
Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first of 12 men to walk on the moon, meeting
Kennedys challenge (NASA, 2015).
NASA also has continued its scientific research. In 1997, Mars Pathfinder became
the first in a fleet of spacecraft that have been exploring Mars, as we try to determine
whether life ever existed there. The Terra, Aqua and Aura Earth Observing System
satellites are flagships of a different fleet, this one in Earth orbit, designed to help us
understand how our home world is changing. NASAs aeronautics teams are focused on
improving aviation, so it meets the explosive growth in global demand for air services
(NASA, 2015).
Throughout its history, NASA has conducted or funded research that has led to
numerous improvements to life here on Earth. In the early 21st century, NASA is
extending our senses to see the farthest reaches of the universe, while pushing the
boundaries of human spaceflight farther from Earth than ever before. An unprecedented
array of science missions is seeking new knowledge and understanding of Earth, the solar
system and the universe (NASA, 2015).

NASA Kids Club

NASA Kids Club has educational games, engaging multimedia and visuals, and
educational activities to cover K-4 students developmental and learning abilities as
addressed in national education standards in mathematics, science and technology. The
skills levels provide a natural progression through the site that allows users to find games
that are best suited to their varying abilities. Developmentally appropriate content is
based on national education standards and benchmarks per grade level (NASA, 2014).
II.

CONTENT

Main Menu
Now in Space: Space Station Crew
In here, you can see NASAs current mission or expedition. There are many facts and
details about the expedition that people can read. After reading through the current
expedition, you can read about all of NASAs past missions, together with important and
useful details about them. This area is mainly for information gathering and reading.
Clubhouse
The Clubhouse is a page filled with games for different age levels. With fun animations,
sounds, and colors, kids will definitely enjoy playing these games with different subject
matters such as English, Science, Math, and History.
Pictures
You can view interesting pictures that NASA takes from all over the world and in space.
Under these pictures are small descriptions about them. There are even some interesting
facts that go along with these pictures.
Skill Level Games
The numbers show the different skill levels or grade levels of games that children can
play with. These games cover many different subject matters such as Science, Arts,
English, Math, and History.
Teacher Area
Everything that teachers need to know about the games on NASAs Kid Club is here on
this page. This page contains descriptions of the games, the skills and concepts kids learn
from these games, the curriculum the games follow, and even written text of the games
that teachers can use to help them guide children while theyre playing with the games.

Art Supplies
On this page, kids can paint or draw anything they want on a blank canvas. There are
different brush sizes and colors for them to choose from. There is even an option that
allows you to print out your work.
Clubhouse Games
Put It Together
Try your skill at finding the answers to the puzzles. Can you solve the puzzle? Students
can choose a NASA image and the level of difficulty (NASA, 2014).
Skills and concepts learned:
Understand patterns, relations and functions.
Analyze, compare, create and compose shapes.
Reason with shapes and their attributes.
Lets Fly Away
Explore past, present and future NASA aircraft. See pictures of cool NASA aircraft in
this multifaceted slideshow (NASA, 2014).
Skills and concepts learned:

Identify and define shapes.

Analyze, compare, create and compose shapes.
Reason with shapes and their attributes.
Identify, compare and analyze attributes of two- and three-dimensional shapes
and develop vocabulary to describe the attributes.
Describe attributes and parts of two- and three-dimensional shapes.
NSES Standard: Science as a human endeavor.
Astro-Matic 3000
Find out how old you would be or how much you would weigh. Discover what your age
and weight would be on another planet or a moon (NASA, 2014).
Skills and concepts learned:

Objects in the sky.

Earth in the solar system.
Recognize the attributes of length, volume, weight, area and time.
Describe and compare measurable attributes.

Color NASA
Color pictures of wildlife living on different NASA centers. See and color pictures of
wildlife living on different NASA centers (NASA, 2014).
Skills and concepts learned:

 Organisms and environments.

Space Lunch Game
Match tiles of Earth food and space food to complete the game. How well do you know
the food groups? Match tiles of Earth food and space food to complete the game (NASA,
2014).
Skills and concepts learned:

Personal health.
Understand various types of patterns and functional relationships.
Represent and interpret data.
Reason with shapes and attributes.
Sort common objects into categories (e.g., shapes, foods) to gain a sense of the
concepts the categories represent.

Why Do We Explore? Storybook

Read the story yourself or have it read to you. An animated storybook explains why
people have explored since the beginning of time (NASA, 2014).
Skills and concepts learned:
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas Explain how specific aspects of a texts
illustrations contribute to what is conveyed by the words in a story.
Fluency Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.
Science as a human endeavor.
Window to Earth
See pictures of Earth taken from space! Take a peek and see how Earth looks from space.
Can you see the difference between a volcano and a lake? (NASA, 2014).
Skills and concepts learned:

Changes in earth and sky.

The physical processes that shape the patterns of Earths surface.
The physical and human characteristics of places.
How human actions modify the physical environment.

Level One (Grade K Standards/Skills)

What Comes Next?
Sequencing is an out-of-this-world experience. Students view a row of space-related
objects and must choose the one that comes next in the sequence (NASA, 2014).
Skills and concepts learned:
Recognize, describe and extend patterns, such as sequences of sounds and shapes
or simple numeric patterns, and translate from one representation to another.
Describe and compare measurable attributes


Grab It
Grab all of the items that begin with the correct sound to help the space shuttle complete
its journey. Students use the space shuttles robotic arm to grab three items from a group
of four that begin with the same sound as a given letter (NASA, 2014).
Skills and concepts learned:
Demonstrate understanding of spoken words, syllables and sounds.

Its Not the Same
It takes a sharp eye to spot the differences in this game! Students compare two spacethemed drawings and are challenged to find five things that are not the same (NASA,
2014).
Skills and concepts learned:
Sort and classify objects according to their attributes and organize data about the
objects.
Analyze, compare, create and compose shapes.
Level Two (Grade 1 Standards/Skills)
Rocket Builder
Design your own fleet of rockets. Students are provided with a variety of shapes that they
use to build a rocket (NASA, 2014).
Skills and concepts learned:
Recognize, name, build, draw, compare, and sort two- and three-dimensional
shapes.
Students will develop an understanding of engineering design.
Reason with shapes and their attributes.
Airplane High Low
Take the challenge. See if you can guess the correct number. Students use clues provided
by a cartoon airplane character to find a secret number (NASA, 2014).
Skills and concepts learned:
Develop an understanding of the relative position and magnitude of whole
numbers and of ordinal and cardinal numbers and their connections.
Represent and solve problems involving addition and subtraction.
Level Three (Grade 2 Standards/Skills)
Addition Blastoff

Can you add as fast as a rocket? Students group numbers to answer addition problems,
which result in the successful launch of a rocket (NASA, 2014).
Skills and concepts learned:
Compute fluently and make reasonable estimates.
Develop and use strategies for whole-number computations, with a focus on
addition and subtraction.
Develop fluency with basic number combinations for addition and subtraction.
Add and subtract within 20.

Star Fall
Test your skills as you steer the Mars rover on its Martian mission. The night sky is full
of stars. Try to capture them! Students are challenged to capture groups of stars that are
the same color. When captured, the stars disappear and points are accumulated (NASA,
2014).
Skills and concepts learned:
More stars are in the sky than anyone can easily count, but they are not scattered
evenly, and they are not all the same in brightness or color.
Objects in the sky.
Understand patterns, relations and functions.

Roving on Mars
Test your skills as you steer the Mars rover on its Martian mission. Students use their fine
motor skills and eye-hand coordination to navigate a rover through a maze on the surface
of Mars (NASA, 2014).
Skills and concepts learned:
Students are proficient in the use of technology. Use input devices (e.g., mouse,
keyboard, remote control) and output devices (e.g., monitor, printer) to
successfully operate computers, VCRs, audiotapes and other technologies.
Level Four (Grade 3 Standards/Skills)
Flip Time
Test your memory and clock-reading skills. Students are challenged to match analog
times to the corresponding readings on digital clocks (NASA, 2014).
Skills and concepts learned:
Recognize the attributes of length, volume, weight, area and time.
Solve problems involving measurement and estimation of intervals of time, liquid
volumes, and masses of objects.
Search for Spinoffs

Follow the clues to discover the NASA spinoffs hidden in the garage. For more than 40
years, NASA has shared its technological discoveries with private industry, resulting in
new products and services in medicine, transportation, public safety, computer
technology and caring for Earths environment. In this game, students use clues to find
hidden NASA spinoff items (NASA, 2014).
Skills and concepts learned:
Students will develop an understanding of the relationships among technologies
and the connections between technology and other fields of study.
Abilities of technological design.
Level Five (Grade 4 Standards/Skills)
Go to the Head of the Solar System
See if you can guide the comet to reach the sun! Students are challenged to answer
questions about celestial objects as they travel through the solar system (NASA, 2014).
Skills and concepts learned:
Objects in the sky.
AAAS Benchmark: Earth is one of several planets that orbit the sun, and the
moon orbits around Earth.

Jumbled Jets
Can you arrange the airplanes in the correct order? Students must use logic and reasoning
skills to determine the correct arrangement of airplanes on a runway (NASA, 2014).
Skills and concepts learned:

III.

Understand patterns, relations and functions.

Develop and evaluate inferences and predictions that are based on data.
Problem-solving.
Reasoning.
Generate and analyze patterns.

ANALYSIS

Is it developmentally appropriate for its target audience?

NASA Kids Club is developmentally appropriate for its target audience. It has many
games and activities that children from Kinder to Grade 4 would enjoy. All games are
categorized according to their skill level or grade level. This makes it easy to determine
which games are appropriate for each grade level.
Is it easy to navigate?
The web software is easy to navigate through. The layout is organized and the color
schemes used in each page are very eye-catching. The design of the web software is

child-friendly and it can easily grab your attention. The music and sound effects that are
heard when clicking or hovering over items makes it really fun to navigate through the
web software as well.
What are the pros and cons of the software?
Pros

Interactive design
Easy to navigate
Easily grabs your attention
Good use of colors and color schemes
Design and animations are very detailed
Eye-catching animations
All subject matters are covered (It does not just focus on Science or astronomy
alone, but other subjects as well.)
Different kinds of curriculums are used in creating the games
Games are categorized according to skill level/ grade level
Encourages teachers and parents to be involved in the childs learning as well
Helpful text guides and descriptions of the games for teachers
Informative and encourages the discovery of new things (information is given
after completing each game)
Fun printable activities
Asks for users opinions through surveys for the development of the web software

Cons
Takes a long time to load (especially if the internet is slow)
Some difficult words are not properly defined (vocabulary)
Some games have long texts or instructions

IV.

SUGGESTIONS FOR USERS

Students
Students should try playing on this web software. Its very fun and interactive. I
suggest that students take the time to go through the web software and read all the
information that they can find because there is so much to learn from it. I also
recommend that they print out activities that the web software offers so that they
wont spend all their time playing the web software games but they also spend it
using a paper and pen.
Parents and Teachers

I strongly recommend that teachers and parents use this web software to help
children learn not only about Science and Astronomy, but about English, Math,
History, and other subjects as well. I suggest that they follow the text guide that
can be found in the teacher area when they are letting their children play with the
games. This allows them to interact with their students or children while they play
so that learning does not solely come from the web software but from the teachers
and parents as well. They can also observe and monitor what their students or
children do while they play. Parents and teachers should also remember that
although the web software offers a lot of information for the child to learn, it
should never replace them in teaching the child. It can only be used as a medium
or tool in the classroom or at home for learning.
V.

VERDICT
The NASA Kids Club software is a great educational tool that can be used in the
classroom or at home. There are many activities and games that allow children to gain
information and learn new things. The software does not only talk about Science-related
topics, but it also focuses on several other subjects such as Mathematics, English, and
History, while connecting these to the main theme, which is Astronomy. So things about
solar systems and galaxies are not the only things that you learn about here.
The choice of skill level and grade level is another thing that make this software a
great educational tool. Children from Kinder to Grade 4 can enjoy these games and
slowly progress and advance through them. The fact that these games are also based from
several kinds of curriculum styles is what also makes this software very well-made and
well-rounded. So children can learn many cognitive skills from this web software.
The web software is also very pleasing to the eyes. It is well designed and it easily
catches your attention. The great use of animations and sounds makes the web software
even more fun to play with. All the content is well organized and the layout of the
software is easy to navigate through.
Everything about the NASA Kids Club is amazing. It would definitely be a great
tool in learning and teaching.

REFERENCES:
NASA. (2014). NKC Game Descriptions and National Education Standards. Retrieved from
http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forkids/kidsclub/flash/extras/Game_Descriptions_National
_Standards.html#.VroOZbl97Ea
NASA. (2015). What Does NASA Do?. Retrieved from
http://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/what_does_nasa_do.html

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