-- Nahid Khazenie (nkhazeni@pop100.gsfc.nasa.gov), Earth Science System Program Office, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
From December 11-13, NASA's Office of Earth Science and the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) conducted the second NASA Earth Science Education Products Workshop at Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). Participants included 27 representatives from NASA's Educator Resource Center Network (ERCN), Aerospace Education Services Program (AESP), and NASA's Teaching from Space Program. Products that were included require training for their most effective use. The products and their presenters were:
In addition, presentations were included on: the NASA Earth Science Program (Robert Price, GSFC); Ozone (Gary Morris, GSFC); a tour of the GSFC Global Change Data Center (Blanche Meeson, GSFC); the GSFC Educator Resource Center (Lynda Matys, GSFC); and an overview of the new GSFC Earth Science Exhibit, which is planned to open in February 1998 (by Mitch Hobish, Consulting Synthesist).
These workshops are intended to aid participants in developing and conducting their own teacher training workshops; each participant will conduct a minimum of three teacher workshops using these products. This activity is also planned to be an annual event. The objective is to cycle all of the NASA ERCN and AESP representatives, who are nominated by their Center Education Program Officer, through the training workshop. For more information, contact Nahid Khazenie, nkhazeni@pop100.gsfc.nasa.gov, or Theresa Schwerin, IGES, theresa_schwerin@strategies.org.
DuVal High School (located near Goddard Space Flight Center) has adopted an Aerospace Technology theme for its curriculum, which received the 1997 Maryland High School Program Excellence designation by the Technology Education Association of Maryland.
For students electing the Aerospace Technology strand, the school paired the student's science course in the fall term with an Aerospace Technology Applications course in the spring term. For their current 9th-grade Aerospace students, the applications course in the spring is subtitled "Mission To Planet Earth." The program is actively developing the curriculum around materials that have already been published by NASA. An objective of the applications course is to give students an appreciation of how current satellite missions are providing a global picture of how our environment is changing. The environmental science theme, in conjunction with current and evolving information from the ongoing NASA Earth science initiatives, provides a bridge from the students' 9th-grade Earth Science course to their 10th grade Biology course.
The program is interested in field testing educational programs being developed by NASA Earth science researchers. For example, representatives participated in a Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) workshop at GSFC this past August, and data from the CD-ROM that were provided are being used to develop computer lab activities to expose the students to NASA satellite data. Course content is structured around NASA Earth Science themes.
The program would welcome input from any interested individuals or groups. Contact Carolyn S. Harden, Aerospace Instructional Coordinator, DuVal High School, 9880 Good Luck Road, Lanham, MD 20706. Phone: (301) 918-8600, x284; E-mail: scite@erols.com.
During late summer 1997, NASA requested submissions of education products developed at NASA Centers, grantee, or contractor organizations, to be included in its annual review of education products. The purpose of this review was to determine which Earth science education products were appropriate for national and targeted distribution by the NASA Earth Science Enterprise (ESE).
The results of the 1997 NASA Earth science education products review have been finalized and distributed to the individual product developers and appropriate Center contacts. A description of the overall review process and evaluation forms will be included on the NASA Earth Science Enterprise WWW site at: http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/mtpe. If you are developing a product for potential NASA distribution, you are strongly encouraged to use these review criteria in testing and evaluating your product. For more information, please contact: Nahid Khazenie (nkhazeni@ pop100.gsfc.nasa.gov).
NASA has selected Barbara Morgan, an elementary school teacher from McCall, ID, to join the next astronaut candidate class as a mission specialist.
In a decision that re-emphasizes the importance of NASA's strong commitment to education and its unique position to advance the nation's goals to improve science, mathematics, and technology education, the Agency has determined that it is appropriate to include educator mission specialists in the astronaut corps.
In addition to meeting the astronaut selection requirements, mission specialists with education and teaching backgrounds in science, mathematics, and technology will be selected and trained in the astronaut corps. These mission specialists will carry out educational programs in addition to their other assigned flight duties.
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/elnino
This page presents the latest images and news releases based on observations of the El Niño phenomenon in the Pacific Ocean by the U.S./French TOPEX/Poseidon and other JPL satellites and instruments.
Liftoff To Learning Guides Online
http://spacelink.nasa.gov/Instructional.Materials /Video.Materials/Videoand.Activity.Guides/Liftoff.to.Learning.Series/
New and updated Liftoff To Learning Video Resource Guides are now available on-line. These Resource Guides provide valuable background information for teachers, resources for additional study, and practical hands-on demonstrations of some of the concepts presented in the Liftoff To Learning videotapes. The Liftoff To Learning videos capture the excitement of space flight and explain, in basic and practical terms, the scientific, mathematical, and technological concepts that make space flight possible.
SeaWiFS Images Online
http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEAWIFS/IMAGES/usa_regions.html
Fullresolution (1 km) chlorophyll and truecolor images derived from Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) data acquired by receiving stations around North America are available on-line at the SeaWiFS home page.
TRMM
http://trmm.gsfc.nasa.gov
The latest information on the TRMM project is located at this Web site.
Center for Clouds, Chemistry, and Climate (C4)
http://www-c4.ucsd.edu
The Center for Clouds, Chemistry, and Climate has developed "Forecasting the Future," a classroom curriculum and activity guide focusing on global climate change, with an associated teacher-training program, and "Next Wave," an interactive environmental education center that teachers and students can access via the Internet at http://aqua.ucsd.edu/nextwave/.