Morehead Planetarium and Science Center has just started working on WILD BLUE: Using Fulldome Technology to Illustrate Aeronautics Principles, targeting school audiences from grades 3-8 as part NASA's CP4SMP+ program. Morehead will partner with NASA Langley Research Center as content advisors and Sky-Skan, Inc as content distributors. WILD BLUE's primary goal is to strengthen STEM education in the United States. WILD BLUE plans national distribution of a NASA-inspired media portfolio that supports formal and informal STEM education. The media portfolio targets grades 3-8, addresses National Science Education Standards, and includes two key deliverables: (1) a fulldome planetarium show that showcases aeronautics history and concepts, NASA's role in aeronautics research and related STEM careers (2) web-based curriculum materials that integrate current NASA curriculum materials, including Museum in a Box and Summer of Innovation activities. All WILD BLUE deliverables include NASA content -- the history, primary research and future plans of NASA's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD); imagery illustrating aeronautics concepts; information about STEM careers with NASA; and commentary from ARMD personnel. This four-year project ensures scientific accuracy, educational value and engaging presentation through an advisory board and an external evaluation process. WILD BLUE expects outcomes that include advancing NASA Strategic Goal 6 (participation, innovation, contribution) and NASA Education Goals, facilitating knowledge of NASA's role in aeronautics research, and expanding participation by underserved students in formal and informal science education.
Virtual Missions and Exoplanets (vMAX) will develop and test a three-dimensional, virtual world environment that will engage middle school students and educators from high-poverty schools in NASA-related exoplanet mission simulations. The Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science will serve as the lead institution, in partnership with the following institutions: U.S. Space and Rocket Center, New York Hall of Science, Chabot Space & Science Center, and Sci-Port: Louisiana¹s Science Center; Aimee Weber Studios will be responsible for virtual exhibit fabrication, and WestEd will serve as the project¹s formative and summative evaluator. The overall goal of the project is to create a NASA resource on exoplanet astronomy that will engage students, educators, and the general public in NASA¹s search for worlds beyond our own. The project aims to increase underserved students¹ engagement in STEM, knowledge of exoplanet missions, and awareness of NASA-related careers; and advance the growing body of knowledge on the use of virtual world technologies to provide opportunities for students to participate in NASA Mission-related science teaching and learning. The project will result in the development of vMAX world, a virtual world with simulations related to exoplanet astronomy designed for use as the core content of a 30-hour out-of-school learning experience for middle school students. An Educator Implementation Guide will be developed and made available online for download by secondary school teachers and science museum educators. In addition, an interactive, multiuser exhibit kiosk, utilizing the simulations created for vMAX world, will be developed and made available to interested Visitor Centers, museums and planetariums.
The Michigan Science Center (MiSci) Sunstruck! An Integrated Solar Education Experience project includes an interactive heliostat exhibit, Dassault Systemes Planetarium program for primarily middle school students and the general public emphasizing the sun and its effects on Earth and the solar system, a educational lobby kiosk, and educational materials for classroom use aimed at helping them understand the importance of understanding our nearest star and the ‘space weather’ that it creates. The Michigan Science Center is the lead institution, with the project led by PI Dr. Tonya Matthews, President/CEO and Co-PI Julie Johnson, Director of Education and Outreach, and science advisors representing University of Michigan College of Engineering Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences, and in collaboration with the Ford Amateur Astronomy Club, the Detroit Public Schools Science Department and University Prep Science and Math faculty. The project Sunstruck! An Integrated Solar Education Experience will use the latest research and discoveries from IRIS (Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph) and SOD (Solar Dynamics Observatory ) missions to engage the general public in the dynamics of our star, the Sun. The project will help the audience understand the Sun’s importance, it’s direct impact on our lives and the potential hazards such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections that we refer to as ‘space weather’. This project is scheduled to be completed in 2015 with testing of materials and the planetarium show to begin late 2014.
STEMtastic: NASA in Our Community is a two-year project designed to educate and inspire teachers, students and life-long learners to embrace NASA STEM content. The project will increase awareness of NASA activities, while educating and inspiring students to train for careers that are critical to future economic growth of the country in general, and NASA’s future missions in particular. The Virginia Air & Space Center (VASC) will partner with the Virginia Space Grant Consortium and Analytical Mechanics Associates, Inc. to accomplish this project. VASC will deliver NASA STEM content through (1) STEMtastic Teacher Institutes and Education Modules: (a) a series of two five-day professional development institutes for educators which will result in the (b) development and dissemination of new education modules for grades 4-9; and (2) STEMtastic Exhibits and Demonstrations: new interactive exhibits to used for live demonstrations at VASC; those demonstrations will also be delivered to traditionally underserved schools in the region. All classroom and teaching materials—educator institutes, education modules, exhibit software and demonstration modules—will be developed using NASA content and shared with other institutions to promote the expansion of knowledge about best practices in providing STEM education in both formal and informal education settings. STEMevals, a robust evaluation plan, will be implemented to assess success in each project area. Adjustments will be made along the pipeline to increase effectiveness in reaching the target audience. The project has the potential to reach countless educators, students and museum visitors throughout the U.S."
Pipeline for Remote Sensing Education and Application (PRSEA), will increase awareness, knowledge and understanding of remote sensing technologies and associated disciplines, and their relevance to NASA, through a combination of activities that build a “pipeline” to STEM and remote sensing careers, for a continuum of audiences from third grade through adulthood. This program will be led by Pacific Science Center. The first objective is to engage 50 teens from groups underrepresented in STEM fields in a four-year career ladder program; participants will increase knowledge and understanding of remote sensing as well as educational pathways that lead to careers in remote sensing fields at NASA and other relevant organizations. The second objective is to serve 2,000 children in grades 3-5, in a remote sensing-based out-of school time outreach program that will increase the participant’s content knowledge of remote sensing concepts and applications and awareness and interest in remote sensing disciplines. PRSEA’s third objective is to engage 180 youth, grades 6-8, in remote sensing-themed summer intensive programs through which youth will increase knowledge of remote sensing concepts and applications and increase awareness and interest in educational and career pathways associated with remote sensing and NASA’s role in this field. The final objective is to engage 10,000 visitors of all ages with a remote sensing-themed Discovery Cart on Pacific Science Center’s exhibit floor. By engaging in cart activities, we anticipate visitors will increase their level of awareness and interest in the topic of remote sensing and NASA’s role in contributing to this field.
The NASA Saturday in the Pee Dee, an underserved region of South Carolina, is a three year project led by ScienceSouth, partnering with The Dooley Planetarium at Francis Marion University, to deliver hands on programming, astronomical viewing sessions, and planetarium programs to increase public awareness of NASA and its on-going missions, and to generate an interest in the areas of STEM education and the pursuit of careers in these fields. The audience is the residents in a ten-county region of South Carolina known as the Pee Dee, with Florence, South Carolina as the economic hub of the region. The Pee Dee has a very high percentage of minority residents, people living at or below the poverty level, and poor performance on standardized test especially in the STEM related topics. There will be a total of ten hands-on programs directly related to on-going NASA missions, including astrobiology, near earth objects, robotics, rocketry, geocaching, deep space, weather systems on Earth, the sun and distant stars, telescopes, and planetary objects. These programs will be held at the ScienceSouth Pavilion or Dooley Planetarium. The programs will be complemented initially with eight observation sessions the first year, with the number expanding in the following years to include more rural areas in the Pee Dee. The Florence County Library system and Florence School District One have agreed to assist in increasing public awareness of programs and provide additional resources for further information about related topics.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Stephen WelchJeannette MyersNathan FlowersAnthony Martinez
NASA‘s Johnson Space Center (JSC) and Space Center Houston (SCH) will build upon the successes of NASA‘s Summer of Innovation initiative and SCH‘s highly successful Exploration Academy by developing, planning and implementing a newly defined STEM experiential program – Spaceflight Explorers. This program will not only be sustainable for the future, but will also be able to be replicated throughout the nation‘s network of museums and science centers. The Spaceflight Explorers program will: - Provide customizable STEM education content (up to 40 contact hours) to support the implementation of STEM learning programming with an emphasis on Human Spaceflight (content to include experiential STEM experiences) - Engage underrepresented and underserved middle school students in STEM learning by utilizing NASA material - Provide professional development to educators patterned after our 18 years of experience with SEEC (Space Exploration Educators Conference) our highly successful Educators Conference held here for over 500 teachers from around the country. - Create a network of visitor centers, museums, and science centers that have an interest in promoting and sharing the excitement of human spaceflight with students, educators, and the general public. Upon receiving these resources, each museum or science center will be expected to offer summer STEM learning experiences, as outlined in the Spaceflight Explorers curriculum, at their facilities targeting underserved/under-represented populations of middle school students. By adopting and utilizing The Exploration Academy concept at their facility museums and science centers are making a commitment to support current and future NASA Human Space Flight endeavors and increase student and visitor awareness of Human Spaceflight.
The Expanding Children’s Interest through Experiential Learning (EXCITE) Project will target K-8th students in expanded learning programs to increase ongoing NASA STEM informal education opportunities for organizations that serve primarily underrepresented and underserved student populations. The AERO Institute will leverage existing collaborations to build capacity of participating organizations in NASA inspired STEM activities. Major partners include Navajo Nation in Arizona, the Beyond the Bell branch of the Los Angeles Unified School District, and the Region 8 of the California After School Program housed in the Ventura County of Education. In addition, the EXCITE Learning Project plans to work with libraries to broaden the scope and impact of NASA’s Education materials and opportunities within underrepresented and underserved local communities. AERO Education specialists will train educators and librarians using the Train-the-Trainer approach. The training sessions will be filmed and made available online via the AERO website and its network on YouTube so that educators and librarians can refresh their understanding as needed.
Engineering for Space Exploration will comprise three major sections of Journey to Space, a 12,000 square foot traveling exhibition about crewed space exploration for families and adults that will travel to more than nine large science centers and museums across North America over 6-1/2 years. The Science Museum of Minnesota (SMM) will develop and circulate the exhibition in collaboration with the California Science Center in Los Angeles, the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, the Museum of Science in Boston, and the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry in Portland. SMM will also collaborate with NASA visitor centers such as the US Space & Rocket Center. The project will develop compelling exhibit experiences that make personal connections to space exploration for a large audience and help them understand the nature of space and the engineering development that is needed to support and sustain humans in exploring space beyond low earth orbit.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Eric Jolly
resourceprojectProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
Engage and Equip to Empower: Building a S-STEM Generation (E³) is a two-part program that seeks to educate the public about living, working, and doing science aboard the International Space Station and to provide professional development in STEM for formal and informal educators. Working with Science Museum of Minnesota, the U.S. Space & Rocket Center will create a new interactive exhibition, Space Station: Science in Orbit, that will give more than 500,000 annual museum visitors an immersive experience of what daily and professional life is like aboard the ISS, and how the ISS is supported by NASA back on earth, using the real voices of astronauts and engineers. In addition, the U.S. Space & Rocket Center will host STEMcon, an annual four-day STEM professional development program for educators, focused on best practices and innovation in hands-on, experiential STEM learning. Funds from this award will be used to provide tuition and travel to 70 educators per year for four years from the five-state service area of Marshall Space Flight Center. The U.S. Space & Rocket Center aims to recruit at least 40% of these educators from underserved/underprivileged schools. Both elements of the program seek to improve public knowledge of NASA’s work in science research and human spaceflight, as well as inform the public about the myriad careers involved in NASA missions. STEMcon aims to foster communication and teamwork between formal and informal educators across the country, while informing educators of resources that are available for curriculum development or classroom use.
Empowering the Next Generation of Explorers is a program that uses space science and technology to provide informal STEM education and STEM career inspiration for students in regional Head Start programs, as well as underrepresented/underserved student groups in schools with a high Native American student population. The program is run by the staff of the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, the Official Visitor Center for NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The goal of Empowering the Next Generation of Explorers is to educate students about NASA’s overall mission, raise student interest and engagement in STEM subjects, and make students aware of STEM career opportunities. In 2012, 252 third through fifth grade students and 344 Head Start children participated in this program. Empowering the Next Generation of Explorers consists of an annual Native American Heritage Day and an annual Head Start Field Trip Day. On Native American Heritage Day, students participate in a guided field trip of the USSRC’s collection of space hardware and artifacts and take part in a hands-on STEM workshop, which includes elements from Native American Culture. Students also hear about the past, present and future of Native Americans in NASA programs, talk with Native American employees of MSFC, and watch a presentation on Native American culture. Head Start Day consists of a guided tour of the USSRC, including hands-on STEM-based activities for pre-K students about NASA’s current missions, like the Mars Curiosity Rover.
CREATE (Creating Relevant Education in Astronomy Through Experience) will immerse and teach astronomy to underserved high school students in Milwaukee who will then become planetarium producers and astronomy mentors to younger students. The Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM) is the lead this effort in conjunction with the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Milwaukee (BGCGM). MPM will also work with NASA and local astronomy institutions (Adler Planetarium & Yerkes Observatory) for educational materials and speakers. CREATE’s goal is to increase participation of high school youth from central-city neighborhoods in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education. The objectives are to: Engage these students who have shown an interest in STEM and leverage NASA resources to produce relevant astronomy education. Have the students become mentors for peers and younger students—thus inspiring themselves as well as their mentees to continue their educational paths in science. Build interest in NASA programs and in STEM careers with the creation of their planetarium shows and educational programs for their mentees. Expand CREATE’s impact by making these programs available nationwide and distribution of the planetarium show. The CREATE project will span three years. The first year will be spent on further development and planning of the program. During years two and three, CREATE staff will work with the students in an intensive 40-week program. Twenty students will be chosen to participate in CREATE each year.