Cislunar Aerospace, Inc. features a website that provides sign language for the deaf, including this sign for insect.

3D model gives the sign for cloud.

graphics NASA and Cislunar Aerospace, Inc.

Aeronautics over the Internet

By Pat Kasper

How do you teach aeronautics using fish fins, wind mills, bouncing balls, a swimmer's hands and javelins? Cislunar Aerospace Inc.'s K-8 Aeronautics Internet Textbook (K8AIT) makes learning scientific principles fun by using familiar aerodynamic shapes to help kindergarden through mid-school students recognize common principles of flight. K8AIT is an electronic multimedia, interactive textbook that is delivered over the Internet. It is written in English and Spanish in four reading levels.

"Aeronautics and aerodynamics don't just apply to aircraft-it's really about fluid flow over all sorts of objects," said Jani Macari Pallis, principal investigator and chief executive officer of Cislunar Aerospace Inc. (CAI). "We emphasize concepts to help students recognize the same aerodynamic shapes in everyday objects. Students learn to recognize the principles of aircraft flight in nature, machines and sports." Among the people who can provide this teaching are companies such as Cislunar with Pallis, who has a doctorate in aeronautical engineering, and her staff of educators and engineers who are well qualified to develop the K8AIT curricula.

Sports? Yes, most sports use airfoils or are based on the principles of aerodynamics-a swimmer's hand and arm, the bicycle's man-machine relationship, balls and javelins. One of the newest features on CAI's website is Tennis-Aerodynamics in Sports Technology, which helps students understand aerodynamics, physics and mathematics. It focuses on the aerodynamics of a tennis ball as it is hit, flies, spins and bounces. Videoconferences and chat sessions over the Internet allow students and teachers to participate in the project and learn how scientific principles apply to all areas of life.

The K8AIT is a cooperative agreement sponsored by the NASA Learning Technologies Project (LTP). Its charter is to combine NASA's inspiring mission, unique facilities and specialized workforce with emerging technologies to promote excellence in America's schools. The K8AIT project has been so successful that the University of California at Davis has agreed to continue publishing the interactive textbook after the project's completion.

"There are many reasons why it has been difficult to get aeronautics into the classroom," said Pallis. "The material is esoteric; it's not easy; and there is no comprehensive textbook. The cooperative agreement made it possible for us to develop this children's textbook, make it available over the Internet, and provide computers and Internet access for disadvantaged schools. In the Bronx, one school didn't even have electricity in some classrooms. NASA supported getting the wiring done."

CAI has several pilot sites, including the Children's Hospital in Oakland; a campsite school for children of migrant farm workers in Davis, Calif.; a public library; and a 100-year-old school for the deaf in the Bronx. "Sign language for the deaf is a challenge." said Pallis. "Our website has a 3-D model signer that moves its hands, and we have different signers; two male, two female, an Asian and a black.

"Signs for scientific terms are not common and are not part of a profoundly deaf child's day-to-day vocabulary," said Pallis. "A very limited amount of sign language exists for aeronautic terms. You can finger-spell the words, but that doesn't teach the students the meaning of the word or the concept. So instead of finger spelling aeronautics, we sign science of flight. The deaf educators we collaborate with in Oregon and New York wanted their students exposed to as much science vocabulary as possible, and they developed and agreed upon signs for aeronautic terms such as flaps, leading-edge, training-edge, streamline and sweptback."

Classrooms implement the textbook lessons in different ways. "Some have the monitor in front of the class and use a wireless keyboard and mouse," said Pallis, "while others use a projector with the computer located in the library. In Oregon, teachers go out and visit the hearing-impaired children."

In conjunction with NASA John C. Stennis Space Center in Stennis Space Center, Miss., CAI also plans to explore the uses of satellite imagery in aeronautics. Launched in early 1998, the Clark satellite will provide data for the pilot schools in the fall. Children will see satellite images from their own areas and compare them to other areas; they will also be taught how to interpret satellite images and their uses, not only in aviation but also in such areas as fire fighting and agriculture.

The next step for CAI is to showcase NASA people, projects and facilities in the "Careers" and "Future of Aeronautics" chapters of the textbook. The Learning Technologies Project will assist CAI in providing live Internet-based videoconferences for Spanish-speaking students featuring scientists and engineers from NASA Ames Research Center located in Moffett Field, Calif.

For more information, see:

the Learning Technologies Project web page
and Cislunar's K-8 Aeronautic Textbook.