Material Detail

Sweet stuff... but dated. It's no "Halo 3" trailer!

This evaluation was prepared by Victoria Gray and Jacqueline Gutierrez. This video was created by Troy Tenhet, an instructor from Kern High School in the Panama-Buena Vista School District for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology. This is a clever presentation that begins with an old fashioned 1950’s style filmstrip juxtaposed with a new water cycle visualization presentation being prepared by Emma, a NASA scientist. An animated creation, Molecule Max, interacts with Emma to explain the Earth’s water cycle, how it is changing and the ways in which NASA is studying and using this information. This clever presentation is sure to be a big hit with kids in grades 5-8. The use of Flash technology helps ensure that older students will enjoy the presentation as well! The webpage is easy to navigate and everything points to the use of the Molecule Max video. Text is easy to read and well written. It is easy enough to stop and start the video in case the instructor wants to take questions from students or point something out. Overall this is a well done presentation and utilizes the most up-to-date information from NASA to shows how satellites in space are helping to monitor the Earth’s water cycle. The presentation discusses the effects of Hurricane Katrina, globalization and the ever increasing water needs of the human population. Emma shares that there are still a few more pieces of data that NASA would like to gather and how that might be accomplished in the near future. The presentation brings this process to life in an easy-to-understand format that kids and adults will enjoy. This video can be easily inserted into an existing science lesson in grades 5-8 or can even be used to develop an original lesson.

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