Activity Masters to accompany "Inspire Your Students To Learn Like Astronauts" published in ETFO's October 2015 edition.

1. Masters for Inspire Your Students to Learn Like An Astronaut
Stefanie Cole 2015
Quickwrite Sheet:
Aim To Be A Zero or How to “Be” So Everyone Else Can Too Page 1
Example Brainstorm Sheets “Aim To Be A Zero” Page 2 -5
Quickwrite Sheet:
“The Last People In the World” or Sometimes You Just Have to Buckle Down Page 6
Quickwrite Sheet:
“Sweat the Small Stuff” or Permission to Fail Page 7

2. “Aim to Be a Zero”
Or
How to ‘Be’ So Everyone Else Can Too
Over the years, I’ve realized that in any new situation, whether it involves an elevator or
a rocket ship, you will almost certainly be viewed in one of three ways. As a minus one:
actively harmful, someone who creates problems. Or as a zero: your impact is neutral
and doesn’t tip the balance one way or the other. Or you’ll be seen as a plus one:
someone who actively adds value. Everyone wants to be a plus one, of course, but
proclaiming your plus-oneness at the outset almost guarantees you’ll be perceived as a
minus one, regardless of the skills you bring to the table or how you actually perform.
This might seem self-evident, but it can’t be, because so many people do it.
An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth, Commander Chris Hadfield, p. 181
For 2-3 minutes, either:
Write all that you can in response to this work as a whole.
Explain how do you see yourself and why?
Describe a time you have observed a plus one, zero or minus one in any learning
environment, from a sports team to the classroom?
Based on format from Linda Rief’s 100 Quickwrites, 2003

3. Independent Reading
Plus
One
Zero
Minus
One

4. Independent Work
Plus
One
Zero
Minus
One

5. Group Work
Plus
One
Zero
Minus
One

6. Group Discussions
Plus
One
Zero
Minus
One

7. “The Last People in the World”
or
Sometimes You Just Have to Buckle Down
Early success is a terrible teacher. You’re essentially being rewarded for a lack of
preparation, so when you find yourself in a situation where you must prepare, you can’t
do it. You don’t know how.
An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth, Commander Chris Hadfield, p. 100
For 2-3 minutes, either:
Write all that you can in response to this work as a whole.
List your strengths and weaknesses.
Describe a time when something was difficult for you and you worked to achieve it.
Based on format from Linda Rief’s 100 Quickwrites, 2003

8. “Sweat the Small Stuff”
or
Permission to Fail
And as in any debrief, everyone also wanted to review what we could have done
better—and to magnify and advertise our errors, so other astronauts wouldn’t make the
same ones.
An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth, Commander Chris Hadfield, p. 81
For 2-3 minutes, either:
Write all that you can in response to this work as a whole.
Write about a time you made a mistake or were embarrassed and what you learned
from it.
Write about a time you saw someone else make a mistake and it taught you something.
Based on format from Linda Rief’s 100 Quickwrites, 2003