3 … 2 … 1 … and we have lift-off of Project Ianos! This free online learning program is specifically designed to ignite curiosity in the next generation of explorers using the inspirational story of human space exploration.
“When students become curious about a topic, they get excited and their horizons expand. That’s our goal with Project Ianos – to spark the imaginations of these young minds and showcase the diverse opportunities available to them whether they work on Earth, on the Moon, or on Mars.”
- Dr. Andy Aldrin
President, Aldrin Family Foundation
Principal Investigator, Project Ianos
Connecting Classrooms to Careers in Spaceflight
Project Ianos' dedicated team of leading education specialists, storytellers, and space organizations now offers free, downloadable STEM lesson materials for middle-school educators around the world. The learning begins with Videos produced and hosted by world-renowned explorer and award-winning television presenter Josh Bernstein. In each engaging episode, Josh interviews engineers, scientists, and leaders from NASA and the space industry who are designing and launching missions to the Moon and beyond. All episodes combine historic and current-day footage from NASA missions to share the awe-inspiring story of the past, present, and future of human space exploration.
After viewing an episode, students participate in corresponding Expeditions comprised of three Missions or hands-on learning activities. Aligned to national teaching standards, Missions invite students to become explorers of space themselves as they complete data literacy, design, and engineering tasks corresponding with potential NASA tasks, such as:
Testing “rocket propellant” ratios to launch off of Earth
Purifying “wastewater” on the International Space Station
Repairing mock spacesuit gloves on the Moon
Designing, building, and using gym equipment for an astronaut fitness program
Designed by Educators, for Educators
All Project Ianos education content has been designed by teachers for teachers and includes comprehensive, organized learning plans that they can follow. Student journals for each Mission provide illustrated instructions for all student tasks. Plus, we offer easy-to-use online teacher training (via the Pepper platform) to help educators break down sophisticated science and engineering concepts with ease.