This is a NASA-themed, MEA (Model Eliciting Activity) lesson that challenges students to solve a real world open ended problem, while promoting collaboration through teamwork. This lesson asks each group of students to choose five positions and assign salaries to the positions with a given budget of $500,000. The students' original decision (and "twist") will be based on information from the client's letter(s) and data set(s). Groups are to write a detailed letter to the client of the procedure used.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. MEAs resemble engineering problems and encourage students to create solutions in the form of mathematical and scientific models. Students work in teams to apply their knowledge of science and mathematics to solve an open-ended problem, while considering constraints and tradeoffs. Students integrate their ELA skills into MEAs as they are asked to clearly document their thought process. MEAs follow a problem-based, student centered approach to learning, where students are encouraged to grapple with the problem while the teacher acts as a facilitator. To learn more about MEA’s visit: https://www.cpalms.org/cpalms/mea.aspx