Educational Frontier
Each year, NASA’s emphasis on education continues to expand as one of five contributions to the Nation’s science and technology goals and priorities. The Space Agency’s Strategic Plan demands educational excellence—“we involve the educational community in our endeavors to inspire America’s students, create learning opportunities, and enlighten inquisitive minds.”
Barbara Morgan and Christa McAuliffe, Teacher in Space program backup and primary crew.
NASA’s dedication to education benefits all participants and advances the Agency’s mission. A full range of projects and activities contribute to the educational goal’s aim by providing information, experiences, and research opportunities in support of the enhancement of knowledge and skills in science, mathematics, technology, and geography. One measure of success is through community participation. Data show that 22 million people, including teachers, faculty, and students, are involved in NASA education activities, as part of 151 separate NASA programs. Over 2,500 kindergarten through 12th grade schools participate, with a fair mix of urban, suburban, and rural institutions.
In a major announcement aimed at taking students on a new journey of learning, NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe unveiled plans in April 2002 for a new type of space explorer—an Educator Mission Specialist. Shortly after completion of the core elements of the International Space Station in 2004, NASA will send Barbara Morgan, the Agency’s first Educator Mission Specialist, into space.
Morgan was selected as the backup candidate in 1985 for the Teacher in Space program. She trained side-by-side with Christa McAuliffe and the Challenger crew at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. The Teacher in Space program ended when Challenger exploded in early 1986.
“The time has come for NASA to complete the mission—to send an educator to space to inspire and teach our young people,” O’Keefe said. “Working in partnership with Education Secretary Rod Paige, we will make Barbara’s flight the first in a series of missions in the new Educator in Space program.”
In a real out-of-this-world educational experience, an area of small, unnamed craters on Mars was the first site explored by a group of middle school students operating the camera system onboard NASA’s Mars Odyssey spacecraft. The group of 11 sixth and seventh graders visiting Arizona State University in Tempe, from Olympia, Illinois, kicked off the Mars Student Imaging Project, a science education program funded by NASA and its Jet Propulsion Laboratory, of Pasadena, California, and operated by the Mars Education Program at Arizona State. The students watched as commands were sent to Odyssey from the university’s planetary imaging facility. While scientists hit the keys, the students, who chose the study site, directed commands to photograph a set of Martian coordinates. To see and download the image, go to <http://clasdean.la.asu.edu/news/images/msipix/>.
The Classroom of the FutureTM serves as NASA’s premier research and development program for educational technologies. This tool develops curricular materials that improve mathematics, science, geography, and technology education in ways consistent with the national educational reform movement. The program helps bridge the gap between America’s classrooms and scientists who have expanded the frontiers of knowledge in virtually every field of science over the last 40 years. The website at <http://www.cotf.edu> provides detailed information and instructions regarding how educators can utilize and participate in this NASA education program.
One Classroom of the Future offering is BioBLAST® (Better Learning through Adventure, Simulation and Telecommunications), a multimedia curriculum supplement for high school biology classes. Based on NASA’s advanced life support research, the program offers students both traditional and computer-based research tools to study the interdependent components of a bioregenerative life-support system for long-term space habitation. Another stellar offering is Astronomy Village: Investigating the Universe, a CD-ROM-based multimedia program that provides teachers and students with 10 complete astronomy investigations intended to complement and extend the science curriculum in 9th and 10th grade classes. Students, in teams of three, use the Astronomy Village software to conduct the investigations and learn about the nature of scientific inquiry. The Astronomy Village’s interface is based on the village-like appearance of major observatories on mountain tops. Tools available to students include an image processing program, an image browser, and various simulation programs. The simulation programs include a star life cycle simulator, an orbital simulator, and a 3-D star simulator.
NASA has taken full advantage of electronic media to present students and teachers with distance learning programs. Langley Research Center’s Education Office produces NASA Connect and the NASA Why? Files to reach both elementary and middle school students. Both tools offer free instructional distance learning programs delivered through satellite television and the Internet, designed to increase scientific literacy and to improve math and science competencies of both students and educators.
Two students from Olympia, Illinois, analyze visual data from the Mars Student Imaging Project while visiting Arizona State University.
Engineers and technicians from Langley also lent a hand to a group of Virginia high school students, named the Future Engineers of Hampton High, who decided to tackle a real-life engineering challenge following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. NASA researchers helped the students refine their designs for a reinforced airliner cockpit door and an onboard camera passenger surveillance system.
Classroom of the FutureTM is a trademark of National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
BioBLAST® is a registered trademark of National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
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