While the activity asks you to choose a career in Mission Control, I don't mind if you choose other space-related careers. Here is a short list of possibilities:
Mission Control
flight director
flight controller
CAPCOM
ground control
Other
data scientist
space lawyer
software engineer
space journalism
Or find another one you would like to do.
Instructions from activity 1:
For this activity, you will be choosing one of the mission control careers we studied in this unit and coming up with a question you have about how that professional does their job. In the next activity, you will research to find answers to your questions and create a brochure about your findings that high school students considering this career can use to help them decide if this is the right career for them.
Step 1: Choose Your Career Review all of the mission control positions that you read about in this unit. Which of them sparked your interest? Do you have skills or talents that overlap with the requirements of one of the careers? Choose one mission control career to focus on—and make sure it’s one you’re interested in asking questions about and researching! We know a lot about these careers, but there is still more we can find out about them.
Step 2: Ask a Question Once you’ve chosen your career, think about three questions you have about the career. These questions could relate to anything about the career path—what education is required, what a day-in-the-life looks like—anything goes! If you’re having trouble thinking of questions, consider what you might ask if you were job shadowing someone in this career path. What would you ask if you were sitting next to them in the control room?
To complete this activity, submit a word processing document that lists:
The mission control career you chose (with two or three sentences explaining why you chose that career)
Your list of at least three questions you have about the career
Instructions from activity 2:
Now that you’ve chosen the career that interests you and have come up with some questions, it’s time to research!
Step 1: Research: The goal of your research will be to:
Answer the questions you drafted in Activity 1
Present three reasons high school students might want to pursue this career, and three challenges the career might present
Decide whether you would like to continue on to this career in the future, and explain why or why not
In your research, be sure to consult multiple authoritative print and digital sources. A good resource to find reputable sources is Google Scholar—make use of their search function to find peer-reviewed articles related to your search. If you need to venture outside of scholarly articles, be sure that websites you visit are from reputable sources like .gov and .org entities. Try to find books that were published in the last 10 years, as trends in aerospace change quickly.
Step 2: Create Your Brochure Use the research you’ve gathered to create a tri-fold brochure that covers the required content from Step 1. You may create a brochure electronically or by hand—whichever you’d like! As you draft the text of your brochure, be sure to avoid plagiarism and restate the research that you consulted in your own words. Also, as this is a science course, practice writing in an objective and formal style that is appropriate for this field. Lastly, to make your brochure easier to read, use headings that set apart the different sections of your brochure. You may want to organize your brochure into the following sections:
Describe the career you chose
Answer the questions you drafted in Activity 1
Present three reasons high school students might want to pursue this career and three challenges the career might present
Decide whether you would like to continue on to this career in the future and explain why or why not
At the end of your brochure, please cite at least four sources.
Step 3: Analyze the Research Process Finally, after your brochure is complete, you will assess the usefulness of each source in answering the questions you asked about the career. On a separate word processing document, list your four sources and write one or two sentences about how valuable they were in answering the questions you asked about your career.
To complete this activity, submit your brochure from Step 2 and word processing document from Step 3.