Hello Teachers – Welcome to The Asteroid Academy!

 

We’re glad you’re here, and can’t wait to show you around!  There are a lot of great tools here to help you manage your students’ experience, designed to make things run as smoothly as possible. To make things as convenient as possible, we’ve consolidated your account, materials, class and results tracking all here, under the For Teachers section of the site.

Below, you’ll find answers to the most basic questions, but be sure to browse through the entire section – we have lots of great features here for you, and of course, if you ever have any questions, feel free to email us.  We’re here to help you!

Look Around

The Dashboard (Teachers Only)

This is how you manage all your students’ activities here at The Asteroid Academy.

  • To see your Dashboard, look at the upper left hand side of the screen, under the URL.
  • Use your mouse to point to The Hab Lessons, and you’ll get a drop down menu with your Dashboard.
  • This is where you’ll find your student information, including their progress through the lessons.
Modules
  • Each Module is structured to have at least one video lesson, followed by multiple text lessons.
  • Each of those lessons has a Hangman game (it’s actually another way to check for understanding, but no one has to tell the students that!), and a multiple choice quiz at the bottom of the page.
  • The second to last page of each Module has review quizzes:  a crossword puzzle, a vocabulary quiz, and a longer multiple choice quiz.  This is also where  you’ll find the bonus assignments and polls (we’ve left the questions and answers here on your Getting Started page for reference).  You can have your students to do whichever assignments you like.
  • That last page in each Module invites everyone to “Dive Deeper.” This is where you’ll find links to relevant blog posts, as well as outside resources, including suggested websites and apps.
The Asteroid Blog
  • We’ve written short pieces about topics that we find relevant to The Asteroid Academy Mods, and include links to original (outside) source materials.
  • In addition to posts about coral, energy, robotics, and the environment (just to name a few), we write a series called Young Scientist Spotlight.  These are a great way to show that science is for everyone, and spark conversation about how the students can impact the world.
  • These posts also have short quizzes attached to the bottom.
  • We add new posts on a regular basis to keep things fresh–feel free to send us your suggestions!
Learning Outcomes References (Teachers Only)

We’ve cross referenced our materials with recommended young adult Learning Outcomes. In the coming weeks, we’ll also be cross-referencing to additional curricula, but if you’d like to see how the materials correlate to your local curriculum, send us an email and we’ll add your request to our upcoming updates queue.

There are two ways to use these Learning Outcomes.

  • Each lesson and blog post has a list of associated suggested curriculum standards listed at the bottom, including a link to the Curriculum Map.
  • The Curriculum Map has links to each section with links to all the associated lessons and blogs.

Navigation

Top Navigation Bar

This is your standard general navigation bar–it looks the same for everyone. Note:  the “For Teachers’ section is password protected.

  • The icons to the right are your personal notifications of friendship requests, messages, etc.
  • The three horizontal lines on the far right lead to a drop down menu of links to your personal profile area.
Left Side Navigation Bar
  • This is the student navigation bar.
    • The My Modules and Asteroid Blog links
    • The Student Dashboard customized per student
    • FAQs for students

Your Class

How to set up and manage your students on the site as well as monitor their progress.

Adding Students

If you have a new student who is not set up in your platform system, just send an email to support@asteroidacademy.org and we’ll be happy to help. Students can be added at any time, but must be set up through our admin department.

Checking a Student's Progress
  • You’ll find detailed reports on your class and each students’ progress through lessons and assignments on your dashboard. Simply click on Your Dashboard in the Teachers menu at the top of the page and you’ll find your dashboard and reporting area.
Extra Assignments
  • You can assign any extra work you like through a student’s profile, or by sending a notice to all of your class. Students can upload outside homework, answer questions online or even set up projects to work on together through their profile sections.

Bonus Questions

Sometimes you want to give students the chance to go a little deeper into a subject. Here are some ideas for class discussion or extra assignments. You can assign as many as you’d like, or leave it up to the students if they want to go further.

These questions (but not answers)  appear on the “Games, Quizzes & Bonus” section of each module, as well as in the Unit Reviews. Since these questions require more effort, they have higher point values.  Remember, these are maximum possible point values – how many points a student’s answer is worth is up to you. Obviously, a student who answers “What are some things you would want to eat on the Hab? Why?” with “Beef Jerky and Trail Mix, because they are both lightweight, have protein, and are delicious.” is going to get more points than a student who answers “Beef Jerky.”

To make assigning Bonus questions as convenient as possible, we’ve created a table of questions with their corresponding lessons just for you – you’ll find the Bonus Questions List in the For Teachers menu.

This area will be updated frequently – feel free to make suggestions!