The equipment is ready. The task awaits. A buzzer sounds, ending the countdown. The Crews scramble into place and listen to the latest orders from Mission Control. Then they’re off – opening their flight manuals and embarking on their latest adventure in a Missions lab.

“We didn’t want a traditional classroom,” said Mel Anderson, a teacher at Pittsburg Community Middle School who helped design the Missions delivery system in the late 1990s. He and fellow teacher and Missions developer Larry Dunekack came up with the “Crew roles” idea because of work they’d done for NASA and their desire to create a “kid-centered” classroom.

“There was also a lot of interest in the space shuttle, too,” Mel remarked. “We felt students could take on specific roles and be responsible for specific things just like the shuttle crew.”

Mel and Larry settled on four roles for student participation. Each sits in an assigned area at the workstation and performs specific tasks.

The Commander accepts the role of leading the Crew, maintaining positive Crew relationships and facilitating communication between the Crew and the teacher. The Commander also reads the Window instructions and leads Window activities.

The Materials Specialist manages the Mission Instruction Notebook storage and materials. He or she inventories equipment and reports missing and broken items. The MS also manages and stores the Crew Mission Record folders.
The Information Specialist reads the Overview and Mission briefings to the Crew. He or she leads the Crew to a consensus on questions and provides specialized information to the Crew through “Information Reports.”

The Communication Specialist activates the call system when the Commander requests it. The CS also communicates the questions to the teacher and operates all electronic devices such as the computer and calculator. He or she maintains the Crew records in a folder, writes and reports the Crew data, and organizes the Crew’s assessment questions and makes them available for the teacher.

Each student experiences all roles during Mission rotations. No student holds the same position twice in a row. If the Commander is absent, another student is appointed to fill in. “We tell them, ‘That way we’ll know who to blame,’” Mel joked.

But the idea holds true for all roles. With students in charge of the materials, inventory, and record keeping, they are held accountable. Mel added, “Many teachers shy away from LEGOs. But we handle it by making it the student’s responsibility to inventory the kits.”

Besides the Crew roles, the layout of the lab is important, too. “The furniture set is very important. When we first started, we had six rectangular tables with chairs. Students would talk to the person beside them or across from them but there was not a lot of group interaction,” Mel said. “Then we saw that at Pizza Hut people in booths all talked.”

So, Mel and Larry adapted the booth idea for a school setting creating the same atmosphere with the workstation arrangement. “Larry built the first Crew center and it was like magic!” Mel said. “It was an instantaneous change and is the environmental foundation.”

Ten…nine…eight…seven… Is that clock right? Mission Control announces it’s time to clean up. The Crew prepares to leave the lab for the day. Thanks to inspiration from NASA and Mel Anderson and Larry Dunekack’s creativity, 1.3 million kids have a space shuttle experience nearly every school day. And through Pitsco, they can blast into the future more fully prepared.