THEMIS GEONS Magnetometer Program:
Sustaining Teacher Engagement in NASA Science for over a Decade
Nancy Alima Ali, Coordinator of Education Programs, Multiverse, Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley
The Geomagnetic Event Observation Network by Students (GEONS) program was initiated by the THEMIS mission Education/Public Outreach team in 2004. The GEONS program trained science teachers across the United States on how to teach heliophysics using data collected from mission-related magnetometers that were installed in their schools. Teachers who participated in the GEONS program went on to become engaged in other NASA Science Mission Directorate professional development programs such as the Heliophysics Educator Ambassador program and the Heliophysics Community of Practice. This poster discusses the evidence behind the success of the GEONS program in establishing long-term partnerships between NASA scientists, teachers, research labs and informal education organizations. It addresses evaluation-based strategies for overcoming barriers between collaboration across organizations.
Space Explorers Club and Heliophysics Educator Ambassadors:
Growing District and Teacher Partner Relationships for Sustainable and Significant Impacts
Lindsay Bartolone, Education and Public Outreach Lead, NASA’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) Mission
Sustained funding through NASA’s Science Mission Directorate for nearly a decade from the Interstellar Boundary Explorer Mission (IBEX) allowed rich partnerships between formal, informal and scientific institutions to develop, strengthen, become more efficient and grow effectively. Initial funding allowed for the collaborative development of the GEMS Space Science Sequence for grades 6-8, a product of partnership between NASA scientists and E/PO professionals with Lawrence Hall of Science, Adler Planetarium and NASA Science Mission Directorate Forums. These curricular units were nationally field-tested with local teacher partners and the curricular model was also tested against a control instructional method and showed greater positive cognitive and affective
gains in students. These materials, complemented by additional NASA SMD educational support materials, were used in a variety of collaborative educator professional development programs including the Heliophysics Educator Ambassador program (train-the-trainer and Community of Practice strategies), and the Space Explorers Afterschool Club program, which additionally utilized partnerships with local school distircts, other NASA missions, and partner institutions and teachers. This poster will describe the partnerships, programs, connections and evidence for success of these developing models.
Mars Education:
Providing an Evidence-Based Model for Authentic, STEM-Practice-based Learning
Dr. Catherine Bowman, Raytheon Michelle Viotti, Jet Propulsion Laboratory Sheri Klug-Boonstra, Arizona State University
NASA’s Mars Exploration Program (MPE) has an evidence-based model for engaging teachers and students in authentic, standards-aligned STEM practices, using NASA data and discipline-based tools. Per recommendations from a large-scale external evaluation (SAMPI, 2011), all are guided by NSF’s “Framework for Evaluating Impacts of Informal Science Education Projects” (Friedman, 2008), with logic models and impacts/indicators tables. Reviewed and refined annually, they guide ongoing internal evaluation. Project instruments (questionnaires, interview protocols, rubrics) are developed and tested following evidence-based procedures (e.g. Dillman, Smyth, & Christian, 2009; Lantz, 2004; Maxwell, 2005; Strauss & Corbin, 1998). The latest multi-year evaluation (Bowman, 2014) indicates MPE meets the majority of logic-model-based outcomes, and provides recommendations for the next evaluation phase, contributing to the nation’s research base on effective STEM education models.
Sharing the Adventure:
Observation-Based and Data-Based Examples
Lin Hartung Chambers, Director, CERES S’COOL Project, NASA’s Langley Research Center
The NASA Langley Research Center Science Directorate houses two long-running projects aimed at involving students with the excitement of NASA’s Earth science research. S’COOL is an observation project with a strong interactive aspect, while MY NASA DATA has a data focus. Both projects are integrally tied to NASA science and missions and involve collaboration across organizations at multiple levels: the project teams themselves involve scientist-educator-technologist collaborations; the projects engage teachers and students with NASA; and the projects also involve collaborations across NASA missions and Centers; and even to outside organizations and other agencies. Both projects have also encountered some barriers to optimal collaboration. This poster will introduce the two projects and explore the benefits and challenges of collaboration.
Building Digital Age Resources Through Sustained Partnerships:
MMS and ISTE
Troy Cline, Education and Public Outreach Lead, Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
This poster session will show how the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) Mission contributes to teacher professional development opportunities in partnership with the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). ISTE is the trusted source in educational technology for professional development, knowledge generation, advocacy, and leadership for innovation and represents more than 100,000 professionals worldwide. The MMS team works closely with ISTE to design, develop and disseminate STEM educational materials to K-12 teachers throughout the life of the mission. Featured projects include: The Cyber Café (an online collaborative teacher
workspace), a Computational Thinking Student Activity e-book and companion teacher guide iBooks embedded with self-paced professional development tools, information, and resources. ISTE has a proven record of accomplishment and sustainability and is well positioned to help transform education to meet the needs of students in the Digital Age.
Best Practices from the Earth to Sky Interagency Partnership
Anita Davis, Lead, Earth to Sky Interagency Partnership, SSAI at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Ruth Paglierani, Multiverse, University of California, Berkeley Sandy Spakoff, National Conservation Training Center, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service John Morris, Alaska Region, National Park Service
The Earth to Sky interagency partnership is a ten-year long effort that has grown from its inception as a week-long NASA workshop for informal educators into a national-scale partnership between NASA, National Park Service, US Fish and Wildlife Service and NOAA. The partnership has designed and executed a variety of professional development events for informal educators, in which NASA scientists have participated as presenters and as science advisors. In turn, scientists have grown in their ability to effectively communicate their work to our audience. Alumni from the partnership together with science presenters form a growing community of practice of about 500 individuals. Independent evaluation determined that 86 alumni from two courses in turn reached over 4 million visitors to parks and refuges with content derived from ETS courses, through a variety of products and programs ranging from news articles to exhibits, peer and teacher-training events, ranger-led interpretive programs, and much more.
We will illustrate the best practices of ETS that have enabled us to build, maintain, deepen and expand a successful and effective collaboration between NASA scientists, and the educational institution that is represented by the training divisions and the professional informal educators of both NPS and USFWS. The complementary skills, resources, facilities and programs of the contributing agencies that have made possible a fruitful and sustainable relationship will be illustrated, and the characteristics of each agency partner’s role in the leadership of ETS will be outlined. We will describe the means by which the ETS model has been shared within NASA and its associated educational communities, and the degree to which the ETS project is being accessed and used by NASA education and outreach. Suggestions for addressing challenges to achieving success in cross and within-agency collaboration will be included.
Strategic Partnerships:
The Key to Sustainability and Reach for SMD Education
Bonnie Eisenhamer, Office of Public Outreach, Space Telescope Science Institute The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) Education Team
STScI is the home institution for the education and public outreach activities of the Hubble and future James Webb space telescopes. Over time, STScI’s Office of Public Outreach has established the infrastructure needed for reaching various audiences at the local, regional, and national levels. Partnerships are a critical element of this infrastructure, and sustainability of our program is ensured through our ongoing partnerships with organizations and institutions with staying power and reach. We have learned from past efforts that strategic partnerships can foster innovation, support diversity initiatives, and increase impact in a cost-effective way while providing target audiences with greater access to NASA SMD science and resources. Partners are selected based upon specific criteria such as potential for reach, the percentage of underrepresented educators and students served, complementary program goals, and willingness to collect and share evaluation data and results with us. This poster will highlight our partnership model as well as examples and benefits of strategic partnerships over time.
Empowering Educators to Engage with NASA Mission Science
Dorian Janney, Formal Education Specialist, Global Precipitation Measurement Mission, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
In February, 2014, NASA launched the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission. This satellite is now measuring precipitation as it falls all over the globe, and is able to update the data every three hours. This poster will share information about some of the education outreach projects that were developed to share the science and technology behind this mission. The ”GPM Master Teacher Program” will be the focus as it is a highly successful model for engaging and collaborating with educators around the world using online tools. GPM’s science team members serve as experts as they deliver background science and engineering content to the educators during the monthly webinars. Metrics are collected to determine the effectiveness of using NASA-unique educational resources to bring STEM content and teach NGSS to students in formal education settings
LRO’s Lunar Workshops for Educators:
A Proven Model for Exceptional Teacher Professional Development
Andrea Jones, Education Specialist, Planetary Science Institute, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Lora Bleacher, Education and Public Outreach Lead, Solar System Exploration Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Sanlyn Buxner, Education Specialist, Planetary Science Institute Marti Canipe, Graduate Student in Science Education, University of Arizona
The Lunar Workshops for Educators is an award-winning series of weeklong professional development workshops for grade 6–9 science teachers, sponsored by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and conducted by the LRO Education Team. We will present an overview of the workshop series, a summary of five years of evaluation results, and highlight the strengths of this model for educator professional development, in a program made possible through content and assets unique to NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.
Explore! Engaging Children in Space Science in Libraries and Other Out-of-school Programming
Keliann LaConte, Informal Education/Explore! Program Lead, Lunar and Planetary Science Institute
The Lunar and Planetary Institute’s Explore program builds the capacity of informal educators—especially librarians—to provide Earth and space science and engineering experiences for children and families utilizing unique NASA Science Mission Directorate assets. Hands-on activities, programming resources, and training are developed in collaboration between scientists, evaluators, librarians, and professional library organizations through an advisory board, formative and summative evaluation and research, and field tests. Evaluation and research data show that training participants gained statistically significantly in Earth and space science content knowledge, experienced an increase in confidence and self-reported ability and intention to use the activities, and are actively using Explore materials. Ongoing communication via Explore and partner networks and frequent follow-up opportunities are crucial for sustaining librarian and professional library organization involvement.
NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory Education, Public Engagement and Communications Program
Kathy Lestition, Education/Outreach Coordinator, Chandra X-Ray Center, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory Education, Public Engagement & Communications program utilizes established working relationships with scientists to provide the starting point for all Chandra educational materials. Partnering with organizations such as the National Science Olympiad, the 4-H, the NASA Museum Alliance and the American Library Association, among others, leverages external distribution networks for national impact. Enabling and sustaining a network of “volunpeers” empowered to organize science education events in their communities further strengthens the reach of educational science materials. We summarize a sample of our synthesized suite of programs in informal and formal education that communicate the compelling topics that the high-energy Universe can reveal as well as provide an overview of the guiding research and evaluation results.
Indigenous Education Institute: Collaboration with Integrity
Nancy C. Maryboy, President and Executive Director, Indigenous Education Institute David Begay, Adjunct Faculty, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Northern Arizona University
Indigenous Education Institute: Collaboration with Integrity will feature images and text focused on our more than 20 year history of working in cross-cultural settings, on collaborative projects funded by NASA and the National Science Foundation. We will show the importance of multicultural science education, offer examples of collaborative success, and strategies for scaling up and sustainability. The poster will showcase lessons learned, as our Indigenous institute has collaborated with science centers, NASA affiliates, universities, tribal colleges, museums, schools and planetariums. We will highlight current NASA projects such as Navajo Sky—Education Modules for Digital Planetariums, and MAVEN—Imagine Mars Through Indigenous Eyes.
Connecting GLOBE Students to Satellite Mission Partnerships
Tony Murphy, Director, Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) Program
Along with the ongoing CloudSat and CALIPSO missions, The GLOBE Program is involving educators and students in activities related to two new NASA satellite missions in 2014/15:
- Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM), launched in February 2014; and
- Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP), scheduled for launch in January 2015.
Instruments on the various satellites take measurements of clouds, aerosols, atmospheric chemistry, precipitation, soil moisture and other elements critical to understanding Earth’s changing climate.
Satellite partnerships provide students and teachers the opportunity to contribute to the science of the mission by collecting environmental data on Earth to compare to that of the Earth-orbiting satellites. The partnerships also offer a range of opportunities for collaboration: students with other students; students with teachers; students and teachers with scientists; and cooperating agencies with one another in support of the missions.
NASA/IPAC Teacher Archive Research Program (NITARP):
Evidence of a Successful Partnership Over a Decade
Luisa Rebull, Director and Mentor Scientist, NASA/IPAC Teacher Archive and Research Program G. K. Squires, Assistant Astronomer, Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii V. Gorjian, Research Astronomer, JPL; The NITARP Team
NITARP provides educators with an authentic astronomical research experience by partnering small groups of educators from across the U.S. with a mentor astronomer for a year-long original research project, during which the teams echo the entire research process: writing a proposal, conducting research, writing up and presenting the results at an American Astronomical Society (AAS) conference. Few science teachers have had an authentic research experience. Our goal is to expose teachers to this process, as messy as it can be, but also rewarding, to help them understand what a career in research would entail, and better prepare their students. The most recent formal evaluation looked at both the cognitive and affective impacts of NITARP on teachers, and extent to which NITARP changes teaching styles, or creates a desire to teach science differently.
NASA Astrobiology Institute:
Embedding E/PO in the Place of Science to Maximize Collaboration, Partnerships, and Impact
Daniella Scalice, Education and Public Outreach Lead, NASA Astrobiology Program
The NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI) is a nationally distributed, interdisciplinary institute-without-walls that brings together teams of scientists to study life’s origins and the possibility of life elsewhere in the Universe. NAI’s broad research portfolio is conveyed to learners of all ages in a variety of programs by E/PO leads embedded in each research team. This model maximizes the participation of the astrobiologists themselves—key to achieving participant outcomes—and also allows for long-term partnerships with local institutions such as schools, libraries, and museums—key to designing programs responsive to learners’ needs.
NAI E/PO leads are coordinated by a central office, which facilitates communication and collaboration, and administers services such as supplemental funds and evaluation support. As grantees, the NAI E/PO leads are able to deliver their competitively-selected activities with a supportive, centralized presence; as a community of practice, the NAI E/PO leads are able to collaborate, share resources, leverage partners, and replicate successful strategies.
