We Exceeded Our Goal!
A huge thank you to all who donated, including various members of the Kerbal Space Program Reddit group and some people at Squad, the makers of Kerbal Space Program, for helping spread the word. We not only quickly met our goal of $330, but raised it to $470 before the end of Wednesday. The extra money will go towards my students, including purchasing an Educational Package to Gamestar Mechanic. It is an online game that teaches about game design and coding principals, and some of my students have really enjoyed it. They sell hugely discounted licenses for teachers.
UPDATE (5/24/16): We have been approved to receive the additional $100 for the #ThankATeacher campaign, bringing our final total to $570 dollars. A HUGE thank you to everyone who supported, whether by donating, sharing the campaign, or offering ideas for lessons. The extra money helped pay for some Adruino kits and additional parts to go with the kits.
UPDATE (7/8/16): The funds have arrived and an order has been placed for license package of KerbalEdu. Check out the news.
A huge thank you to all who donated, including various members of the Kerbal Space Program Reddit group and some people at Squad, the makers of Kerbal Space Program, for helping spread the word. We not only quickly met our goal of $330, but raised it to $470 before the end of Wednesday. The extra money will go towards my students, including purchasing an Educational Package to Gamestar Mechanic. It is an online game that teaches about game design and coding principals, and some of my students have really enjoyed it. They sell hugely discounted licenses for teachers.
UPDATE (5/24/16): We have been approved to receive the additional $100 for the #ThankATeacher campaign, bringing our final total to $570 dollars. A HUGE thank you to everyone who supported, whether by donating, sharing the campaign, or offering ideas for lessons. The extra money helped pay for some Adruino kits and additional parts to go with the kits.
UPDATE (7/8/16): The funds have arrived and an order has been placed for license package of KerbalEdu. Check out the news.
Kerbal Space Program (KSP) is a unique game, combining the four elements of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) into a fun space program simulator. The scientific community has already embraced the program. NASA has partnered with Squad, the company behind KSP, to develop additional materials for the program. Squad has also partnered with the European Space Agency to allow the use of ESA materials in the game.
Even SpaceX owner Elon Musk, whose company has developed actual rockets and space capsules to support space exploration, has shown support for Kerbal Space program:
Even SpaceX owner Elon Musk, whose company has developed actual rockets and space capsules to support space exploration, has shown support for Kerbal Space program:
A company called TeacherGaming, started by teachers and programmers to create more opportunities for game-based learning in classrooms, has created an educational version of KSP in partnership with Squad. It works just like the official game, but with some added features to aid classroom teachers. KerbalEDU is available to teachers at a discounted rate. Through its focus on designing, building, and testing of a working spacecraft, and the implementation of realistic science, KSP could make a great addition to the PLTW program. Missions such as getting a spacecraft into orbit or landing on the moon can be turned into a exciting challenge for students to show their grasp of the engineering principals we are learning. It could help them develop a deeper understanding of how the four pillars of STEM are interconnected. Use of the game could help reinforce lessons from their math and science classes as well. A thorough Mission Library has been created by TeacherGaming for educator use, aligned with Next Generation Science Standards. An example Mission series called Earth History Campaign has been shared as an example of the lessons that have been developed.
For Truman Middle School's Project Lead the Way classroom, a GoFundMe campaign called Space Bound in Project Lead the Way has been created to raise money for the purchase of KerbalEDU licenses. One license per computer is desired. That translates to 25 licenses, or one per lab computer. The goal for all of this is $330.
GoFundMe is running a #ThankATeacher contest. If our campaign can raise at a total of $100 across five unique donors between May 8th and May 13th, our campaign can be entered to win an additional $100 of funding. This can reduce the amount of money needed to fund the project.
Here is a review of the game with some embedded videos showing the original, non-EDU version of the game.
To contribute to the campaign, visit the link below. Help spread the word to increase our chances of being funded.
https://www.gofundme.com/22qb258
For Truman Middle School's Project Lead the Way classroom, a GoFundMe campaign called Space Bound in Project Lead the Way has been created to raise money for the purchase of KerbalEDU licenses. One license per computer is desired. That translates to 25 licenses, or one per lab computer. The goal for all of this is $330.
GoFundMe is running a #ThankATeacher contest. If our campaign can raise at a total of $100 across five unique donors between May 8th and May 13th, our campaign can be entered to win an additional $100 of funding. This can reduce the amount of money needed to fund the project.
Here is a review of the game with some embedded videos showing the original, non-EDU version of the game.
To contribute to the campaign, visit the link below. Help spread the word to increase our chances of being funded.
https://www.gofundme.com/22qb258