NAIs Education and Public Outreach Program

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NAIs Education and Public Outreach Program
National Aeronautics and Space Administration

• Daniella Scalice
• NAI Education, Outreach, and Communications Lead
• 25 July 2007

www.nasa.gov
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Education and Public Outreach

• To the first Earthlings on Mars, who may be
  reading this book.
• Are you one of them?
• -dedication from the new childrens book
  Astrobiology by Fred Bortz

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NAIs E/PO Program

• WHAT IS E/PO?
• Formal Education, Informal Education, and Public
  Outreach NASA defines E/PO - originally only
  included K-12 and the public, now expanded to
  include undergraduate and graduate student
  training
• STRUCTURE OF NAIS E/PO PROGRAM E/PO LEADS
  NAI CENTRAL
• E/PO Leads seated at the teams each has a
  unique E/PO plan specializations and projects
  vary by team (teacher professional development,
  exhibit design, K-4 product development, etc.)
• NAI Central is a nexus for support and
  collaboration across the NAI E/PO program, the
  broader astrobiology community, and NASA-wide.
• supports the teams by facilitating
  communication, coordinating activities, providing
  supplemental funding for projects, leveraging
  partnerships, supporting their professional
  development
• provides leadership and direction for the
  program, interfaces with and reports to NASA on
  team activities, serves as main POC for
  collaborative projects with the broader
  astrobiology community, and external partners
• E/PO LEADS - EDUCATION PROFESSIONALS
• Most are PhD-level, many are former classroom
  teachers, each has unique expertise leaders in
  their field pioneered programs conduct
  educational research on how to teach/learn
  astrobiology (UA/CAPER) input to NRC and
  congressional review committees on NASAs E/PO
  programs

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NAIs E/PO Program Best Practices...Better E/PO

• Leverage, leverage, leverage
• A wide range of partners universities,
  national parks, museums, planetaria, filmmakers,
  etc.
• E/PO leads for NAI are also E/PO leads for other
  NASA missions Kepler, SOFIA, MESSENGER,
  Stardust, Deep Impact, LRO, other Earth Science
  and Astrophysics missions/instruments, etc.
• Employ diverse mechanisms to serve diverse
  end-users and populations teachers, museum
  exhibit developers, journalists, Native
  Americans, rural and inner-city students
• Design and deliver programs based on end-user
  needs!
• Train the trainers for highest impact
• Provide a range of experiences from exposure to
  in-depth training
• Improve through extensive evaluation
• Cross-team collaboration
• Scientist involvement

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NAIs E/PO ProgramThen and NowFrom Investment
to Coordination

• E/PO Program has evolved as the Institute has
  grown shift in philosophy
• THEN NOW
• Blank Slate Thriving Program
• Central investing in product development Central
  coordination helps teams leverage
  investments
• Central conducts outreach Central Funds
  support teams work
• Focused on getting word out Partners approach
  NAI for content products are often no cost
  to NAI

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NAIs E/PO Program Regional StrengthBuilds
Community

• Strong regional focus is the foundation
• E/PO leads and scientists on every team are
  engaged in sharing astrobiology with their
  community
• Local public outreach events (Astrofest, Space
  Day, Sally Ride Festivals), science fair judging,
  Girl Scouts, Elderhostel, adult education
  classes, public lecture series, local school
  district teacher days
• IPTAIs ShAdES
• PSUs Space Day

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NAIs E/PO ProgramFocus on Teachersto Reach
StudentsTraining the Trainers

• Teacher Professional Development is the
  Cornerstone of NAIs E/PO program
• One- to several-hour long interactions
  professional educator conferences (NSTA, NABT,
  AAPT) local school districts science
  conferences (NAI General Meetings, Bioastronomy)
• Several days to week-long, intensive teacher
  trainings lectures, field and lab studies,
  pedagogy, training with classroom materials (SI,
  UH, CIW, PSU, MBL, GSFC/IPTAI)
• Semester-long, online course for teachers UAs
  Astrobiology for Teachers and Advanced
  Astrobiology for Teachers 1 2

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NAIs E/PO ProgramCoordinating and Leveraging
Assets

• Going Beyond ProductsTo Training and
  Implementation
• SETI Institutes Voyages Through Time
  curriculum ASSET teacher workshop
• high quality product and flagship workshop NAI
  Central supported E/PO leads to participate and
  replicate experience in their own programs E/PO
  leads support their local teachers to attend as
  well
• Coordinating astroMICROBIOLOGY materials into
  topically focused teacher training workshops
• highly specialized materials teachers having
  difficulty and need context and training join
  forces to create unifying context and design
  effective workshop experience

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NAIs E/PO Program Cross Team Collaboration

• DePaul University Collaboration
• 2006 - NASA SMD Broker/Facilitator
  Astrobiology Symposium for Chicago Public
  School District teachers NAI Central funds
  supported 4 E/PO leads and a scientist to
  participate (SI, UCLA, CIW, MBL) train teachers
  with astrobiology materials
• 2007 - DePaul University Master of Science in
  Science Education course Astrobiology MBL team
  participated via videoconferece/Webex
•  
• It's very cool for me as the course instructor
• to be able to just go to the computer lab and
• have my teachers be able to interact with top
• notch researchers 1,000 miles away.
• The teachers loved that they could see
• the speakers on the big screen, follow
• the Powerpoint on their terminals, and ask
• questions via the Webex chat function.

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NAIs E/PO Program The Power of Partners

• Minority Institution Astrobiology Collaborative
  (MIAC)/ Astrobiology in Secondary Classrooms
  Project
• A collaborative project led by the GSFC team
  involving secondary school teachers and HBCU
  faculty from MIAC, and GSFC team scientists
• Two years of curriculum development and field
  testing (workshops at GSFC and South Carolina
  State University), followed by three years of
  teacher training workshops (Tennessee State
  University, Miami-Dade County, TBD year 5)
• IPTAI E/PO leads supported workshop, and CIW
  teams supported local teachers to attend
  workshops and field test the curriculum
• Project is now the subject of a newly selected
  NSF grant for educational research

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NAIs E/PO ProgramExhibits Interpret Astrobiology

• Traveling Astrobiology Exhibit Alien Earths
• NSF-funded traveling exhibit NAI Central
  supported the development of supplementary
  educational programs for the exhibit most NAI
  E/PO Leads participated in PD experience with the
  exhibit IPTAI, MBL, SI teams participated in
  museum staff/docent and local teacher trainings
  at different exhibit venues
• Astrobiology Exhibits at the New York Hall of
  Science The Search for Life Beyond our Planet
• NSF-funded permanent exhibit contributions from
  IPTAI, ARC, MBL teams funding from NASA HQ, NAI
  Central museum provides local teacher
  professional development with NAI materials

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NAIs E/PO ProgramInnovative Ideas Reaching
Diverse Audiences

• Astrobiology Workshops for Journalists
• Led by Colorado team annual event provides
  framework of understanding for newspaper
  journalists and writers for other popular
  periodicals supports their ability to interpret
  mission news, science, and discoveries for their
  readers
• 2003 NASAs Mars Exploration Rovers (MER)
  mission
• 2005 Astrobiology of Yellowstone (collaborated
  with ARC team)
• 2006 Extrasolar planets

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NAIs E/PO ProgramServing Diverse
PopulationsNASA and the Navajo Nation Project

• Started with results from NASA-funded focus group
  with Navajo educators and politicians
• Navajo leaders desire their youth to become
  fully contributing members of society but not at
  the expense of their cultural identity science
  and culture knowledge presented equally
  community based education is key
• Grant from NASAs Office of Education at HQ
• Collaborative project including NAI Central, UCLA
  and UA teams, ASU Mars Education Program,
  ArtReach International, Navajo Nation Division of
  Diné Education
• Included local teachers on the reservation,
  community leaders, Medicine Men

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NAIs E/PO ProgramServing Diverse
PopulationsNASA and the Navajo Nation Project

• Collaboratively drafted, field tested, and
  finalized a workbook with 6 hands-on activities
  and a short film weaving together
  astrobiology/origins science with Navajo cultural
  knowledge
• Products internally distributed to all schools on
  the reservation (300) project represented by
  Navajo partners at Indian education conferences
  film screened at Native American Film Festival
• New proposal in to SMD to continue the
  relationship and expand the project to include
  new activities and new content

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NAIs E/PO Program

• BACK UP CHARTS

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NAIs E/PO Program External PartnersHigh
Quality Products

• Aliens of the Deep IMAX Film
• Disney production NAI Central, UW, ARC, and MBL
  teams consulted on the companion educator guide
  NAI Central supported the UCLA, IPTAI, SI, and
  ARC teams organized and supported events to bring
  the film and its scientist stars to teachers,
  and doing outreach at film screenings
• Looking for Life Astrobiology PBS Program
• NASA-funded, Independently produced NAI Central
  consulted on concept and content IPTAI, SI, CAB,
  ACA and ASTEP scientists participated NAI
  Central funded production of 4000 DVDs for
  distribution within the NAI E/PO community
• Origins PBS Series
• NOVA production featuring NAI scientists NAI
  Central provided coordination support and helped
  produce activities for the companion website
• Astrobiology
• A new book for middle grade readers from Lerner
  Publishing Group NAI Central was contacted by
  the authors and given free copies for the teams

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NAIs E/PO Program A Range of Informal
EducationPrograms

• Astrobiology Discovering New Worlds of Life
  Kiosk
• Led by CIW team free-standing kiosk with
  interactive video about hydrothermal vents
  companion Poster leveraged by UH, PSU, MBL Teams
  and others to complement existing programs
• Astrobiology Portable Planetarium Show
• NAI Central-funded project through UW team
  currently in development at the Pacific Science
  Center in Seattle collaborations with NASA
  Kepler mission content will focus on extrasolar
  planets field tests will be with Project
  Astrobio schools in Puget Sound area
• Life on Other Planets Searching for ET Summer
  Camp
• Led by PSU team PSU scientists provided
  instruction, content expertise, and resources for
  the week-long event funds from NAI Central
  supported 20 under-represented 4-8th grade
  students to attend
• Live from the field interactions
• webcasts/webchats, blogging (CIW, UH),
  ship-to-shore classroom interactions (UH)
  reaching the public as well as making specific
  connections to classrooms/students

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NAIs E/PO Program Engaging the Public

• microscope
• Led by MBL team online catalogue of microbial
  life displaying images and info on 10,000
  microbes numerous contributors now leveraged
  into Microbial Life Educational Resources
  website, uBio, Encyclopedia of Life..
• Are We Alone? SETI Institute Radio Show
• Led by SI team NAI Central support funding
  weekly radio show featuring astrobiology research
  and latest news many NAI team researchers and
  other community members participate