NASA Tech Briefs: What are your top priorities in this position, and what do you see as the role of education in NASA’s strategic mission? Dr. Adena Williams Loston: When I think about my top priorities for the agency, they are not just my priorities – they are the agency’s top priorities. Those were defined prior to me coming to the agency. Those priorities are the pipeline and the workforce – how to expand the pipeline and ensure that we are producing the workforce that is essential to respond to the needs of NASA and the work of our Enterprises. To address those priorities, we have established in the Education Enterprise strategic objectives that will satisfy those two priorities. One of our strategic objectives is to engage the public and to work with the education communities. NASA is an agency of discoveries and explorations, and what we’re attempting to do is to capture those discoveries and explorations – those unique tools we have available to us – to entice students to become interested, motivated, and inspired to know more about the sciences. Some examples of those things are the NASA Quest Program at Langley Research Center (Virginia), the Summer Robotics Program at Ames Research Center (California), and the Mars Student Imaging Program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (California). That one is very unique in that it gives students the opportunity to take pictures on Mars, but in order to do that - while it seems like a simple and fun activity - the students have to learn math concepts in order to be able to successfully do that. They have to do the calculations to get just the picture they need. There are lots of resources within the agency that we can use to engage students. There are many examples of that. This year, as our strategic focus, we are focused on the K-12 environment. Certainly, we have interest in working with and helping to support the undergraduate and graduate students because that will respond to our immediate workforce needs. But when we look at what’s happening now in the educational arena, how well our students are performing or their lack of performance in terms of proficiency levels in math, science, and engineering, they are not doing as well as they should. When you look at how fourth graders are performing and how we’re compared to our international partners, we’re at the bottom of that ranking. We have, as an agency, agreed to strategically focus on the K-12 environment – the pipelines. For our work to go on at NASA, and for us to have the workforce that’s so crucial to us – the engineers, the scientists, the mathematicians – we’ve got to get those students in the lower grades engaged and interested, and wanting to pursue those courses. We’re also focusing on the parents, because they’re the ones who will sign off on the student’s schedule and what courses they’re going to take, beginning in the middle schools, when they begin to have options and career choices. Our job is also to help educate the parents and to engage the public in formal and informal venues about the significance of what the students are trying to pursue as a career. NTB: Administrator O’Keefe has referred to the “graying of NASA” and the need to recruit young, talented engineers. How is NASA working with communities and educational institutions to draw young engineers to the agency? Dr. Loston: The Administrator has asked that we focus on developing a campaign for engaging middle schools, the public, and the education community in pursuing careers in math, science, engineering, and technology. We want to have an impact on the pipeline, but it’s also done because of the situation we find ourselves in at this agency. Administrator O’Keefe has given assignment to myself and some colleagues that we are to develop the corporate recruitment strategy for the agency. In looking at developing that, we recognize that there is a graying of the current employees within the agency. This year, we potentially may have 200 to 300 engineers and scientists exit the workforce because they will be retirement-eligible. Also, in the next three to five years, roughly 25 to 30% of that skill set also will be retiring, and that’s a national crisis. Knowing that, what we’re attempting to do is ensure that we have the backfield – those individuals with the skill sets and the essential management competencies – that will replace the mature workforce that will be exiting NASA. We’re developing a corporate recruitment strategy, and what it entails is to have each Associate Administrator in the Enterprises identify the skill sets and the competencies that they’re going to need in the next three to five years. As they identify those, our role becomes identifying those institutions that are producing the students with the skill sets essential to satisfy those needs. As an agency, to help respond to that, we have created a new initiative this year called the Science and Technology Scholarship, or the Scholarship for Service program. We will fully fund the tuition costs for those students who bring to the table those skill sets that we’re going to need, and we require that they give the agency years of service equal to the years that we have fully funded their tuition. The one challenge we have is that we’re still waiting for legislative authority to require that service. We think that will be coming in the near future. NTB: What are your hopes for the Educator Astronaut program, and how do you see Barbara Morgan and other Educator Astronauts inspiring the next generation? Dr. Loston: I am very excited about the Educator Astronaut program, and very hopeful. This program was conceived by the Administrator and actually, in my initial conversations with him when I was considering the job, one of the things that he had charged me with was responsibility for helping to roll out the campaign for this program. I think it’s a great strategy. Barbara Morgan serves as a catalyst. We’ve identified where the pipeline issues are beginning - and that’s at the K-12 environment - where we need to get more students interested, excited, and motivated about these programs. We’re now taking teachers in those environments – because they can make a direct connection with those students. They’re in that classroom environment and the students will identify with them. When the teachers become part of the regular astronaut corps on a day-to-day basis, there is a base they can use to interest the students, inspire the students, and motivate them. Space has its own natural curiosities. We know children are interested automatically in space and dinosaurs. We’re trying to build on that natural curiosity, and we’re making a connection with the education community. Not only will they have that direct connection with the students, but they also have that direct connection with the teachers in those programs. We’re using the Educator Astronaut program as a catalyst to continue to spark that interest and to keep them motivated. Through the program, we’ve given them venues in terms of access to NASA through our EdSpace Web site, which provides them with opportunities to engage in missions and different activities to learn more about space, the activities that astronauts would pursue, the career fields that NASA is interested in, and how they can work with their families to have a team of Earth Crew members. Right now, that number is over 10,000 students. We’re thinking that it is having a dramatic impact in terms of satisfying our goal. We have established the NASA Explorer Schools. Those are the schools that will have teachers engaged in the development of those young minds that we want to inspire. Teachers have often stated that they have challenges just in terms of teaching science, because they don’t know how. So what we’re doing is saying, ‘we’re going to step up.’ NASA sees our role and responsibility to help develop that talent and skill set within the teachers. We’re teaching them inquiry-based methods of instruction, which is essential in how you present math and science concepts. They will come to a NASA center over the summer and spend a week with us. They will come with their administrators. We’re providing the teachers and administrators with stipends and also saying we’re going to develop a partnership with that school over a three-year period, provide them with grants if they need to purchase equipment, and basically help to develop the professional talent within the schools. The students can be the benefactors of being able to digest and learn and receive the information that they’re attempting to impart, relative to science and math concepts. NTB: So you’re actually helping these schools set up a curriculum to meet these needs? Dr. Loston: Yes, we are. And we’re taking it a step further. In the past, we’ve had programs where we’ve helped teachers with the pedagogy and how to deliver that in the classroom. Now we’re saying it’s more important that not only do we have the teachers, but we’re bringing the administrators in. We know that when you bring a teacher to any kind of workshop, it is very difficult for a teacher to go back to the school and transform curriculum in that school. But if we have the stipulation that the administrator also has to come, we have a greater chance of assuring that this new concept for delivering instruction can be adopted by the school, and populated and shared with other teachers in that school. That’s the unique difference with the Explorer Schools program. We think it’s going to make a difference. We’re piloting 50 schools this summer. After the piloting process, we will do an assessment of the program and its outcomes, tweak it where it needs tweaking, and then we intend to have several hundred schools that we will offer the opportunity to have access to NASA resources and to engage the teachers in inquiry-based methods of instruction. It’s important to NASA to say that it’s everybody’s responsibility. We know that the development of teachers and students is the role of the Department of Education, and certainly they have their core mission. We’re not at all attempting to replace their role. We work with them and the National Science Foundation as partners. NASA is simply saying that we’re bringing to the table those unique tools that we have to get the students motivated, interested, and inspired. We do have some amazing discoveries, and we use that as a means to excite and involve. And it’s working. NTB: How can NASA best encourage young women, in particular, to enter math, science, and engineering careers? Dr. Loston: One of NASA’s goals is to ensure that underrepresented communities - including young girls and minority students - have access to NASA content and resources, and that they be involved in all of the new programs that we’re rolling out. When we talk about gender-equity, we want to ensure that young girls have access, and we’re establishing programs to ensure that they’re part of this. We have partnered with Sally Ride’s Explorer Festivals, because we know that’s a venue where we can attract and share the whole excitement of space. We’ve talked about other opportunities, from looking at Boys and Girls Clubs, to looking at the Girl Scouts, to going directly into neighborhoods and communities that have programs established for young girls. We continuously work to identify as many venues as possible where we can address that. That’s also a focus of our Explorer Schools. When we’re evaluating pilot schools, we’re looking at those with the greatest level of diversity or special populations that have not been a part of or heavily represented in the math, science, and engineering fields. NASA has worked to involve as many different mediums in terms of reaching students and the education community, as well as the parents. We are proud of the fact that we’ve just announced our relationship with Pearson Scott Foresman [an educational publisher located in Upper Saddle River, NJ]. In their new 2006 science series, they will incorporate NASA content, materials, and discoveries in their textbooks. That is at the elementary school level, where we are engaging students at a very young age, trying to keep them motivated. We have conversations about expanding that to their other partners and subsidiaries such as Prentice Hall to develop materials for the middle schools. We are trying to work with as many potential partners and to use as many mechanisms as possible to motivate and inspire students. We recognize that it’s not just one tool, but many tools. And it’s not just one person’s responsibility, but many individual’s responsibilities. It’s the responsibility of all of us. All of the work of the Education Enterprise is to support the needs of the other Enterprises. That’s where we’re directing our research efforts. We recognize that all education is not formal education that happens within the four walls of a classroom. There is informal education, and we’re looking to formalize our relationships with all of those unique venues like planetariums, museums, and science centers, and make sure that they have access to NASA content and material. Those are venues that will engage the public and the parents. The parents are key in all of this. We have to factor in their role and responsibilities. They are the ones signing off on the student’s schedule. While the parents may think it’s an easy decision to say, ‘don’t take algebra in middle school, take it in high school,’ in fact, a student taking algebra in high school is already behind. We want to make sure that students start out with the right track in middle school so that they have not limited themselves in terms of career options by high school when they start looking at colleges. Our web site doesn’t only focus on becoming an astronaut. That would be equivalent to one in several thousand athletes actually getting a spot on the team. There are a lot of other careers based around that, and we introduce those other careers on the web site. We try to capture the student’s interest. We want them to consider that while they may not be astronauts, there are some careers that support the astronauts, and we want to focus on them as well because they are equally important to NASA - maybe a career that helps in building the next spaceship that gets the astronauts to orbit. Resources:
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2003
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