JoinAlexa for Astronauts
Explore voice artificial intelligence and help to improve life in space with your students
NSTA, along with Mobile CSP and MIT App Inventor, partnered with Amazon Future Engineer on the Alexa for Astronauts program. The new STEM curriculums designed for the program allows high school educators to dive deeper into computer science learning and the Artemis I mission with their students.
Sponsored by
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Sign Up for MIT App Inventor
Your students will learn to code their own space-themed Alexa skills - all with block code and no Amazon (or Alexa-enable) device required. During the lessons, students uncover the basic mechanics of voice artificial intelligence systems.
Please note: Students must be in the United States to participate
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Teach Hour of AI Lessons
FREE NSTA Daily Do Playlist
Using AI to Monitor Health
Alexa for Astronauts: Using AI to Monitor Health—is a series of three lessons that expose students to ideas about artificial intelligence and computer programming in the context of life science utilizing Amazon Alexa and MIT App Inventor. Students design an Alexa skill to help monitor astronauts’ physical health during deep-space exploration.
Lesson Plan 1
How can we build a dialogue with Alexa using Alexa-MIT App Inventor?
Time: Two 50-minute class periods
Lesson Plan 2
How can Alexa-MIT App Inventor be used to help astronauts monitor their body systems?
Time: Two 50-minute class periods
Lesson Plan 3
How can we use AI to monitor and provide feedback on an astronaut’s health when communication with mission control is not possible?
Time: Two 50-minute class periods
FREE Support Materials
Professional Learning Units
Professional Learning Units are bite-sized, self-paced, and asynchronous short courses to improve your practice, enrich your students’ learning, and increase equitable participation in your classroom.
Professional Learning Unit
STEM in the High School Life Science Classroom - Implementing the Alexa for Astronauts: Using AI to Monitor Health NSTA Daily Do Playlist (Part 1)
2 Credit Hours
Professional Learning Unit
STEM in the High School Life Science Classroom - Implementing the Alexa for Astronauts: Using AI to Monitor Health NSTA Daily Do Playlist (Part 2)
2 Credit Hours
Have Questions?
Email professionallearning@nsta.org with questions about the lessons and professional learning units.
Journey to the moon on Amazon Future Engineer’s Callisto®: Space Innovation Tour!
About the Sponsor Organization
Amazon Future Engineer is a childhood-to-career computer science education program intended to inspire and educate millions of students from historically underrepresented communities globally, including hundreds of thousands of students in the U.S. each year. Students explore computer science through school curriculum and project-based learning, using code to make music, program robots, and solve problems. Additionally, each year Amazon Future Engineer awards 250 students with four-year, $40,000 scholarships and paid internships at Amazon, as well as names 10 Teacher of the Year winners, awarding $30,000 prize packages for going above and beyond to inspire students in computer science and to promote diversity and inclusion in the field. The program is currently available in the U.S., UK, France, Canada, India, and Germany.
For more information, visit amazonfutureengineer.com.