NASA Logo

NTRS

NTRS - NASA Technical Reports Server

Back to Results
Expedition Earth and Beyond: Using NASA Data Resources and Integrated Educational Strategies to Promote Authentic Research in the ClassroomTeachers in today s classrooms are bound by state required skills, education standards, and high stakes testing. How can they gain skills and confidence to replace units or individual activities with curriculum that incorporates project and inquiry-based learning and promotes authentic research in the classroom? The key to promoting classroom authentic research experiences lies in educator professional development that is structured around teacher needs. The Expedition Earth and Beyond Program is a new geosciences program based at the NASA Johnson Space Center designed to engage, inspire and educate teachers and students in grades 5-14. The program promotes authentic research experiences for classrooms and uses strategies that will help NASA reach its education goals while still allowing educators to teach required standards. Teachers will have access to experts in terrestrial and planetary remote sensing and geoscience; this will enhance their use of content, structure, and relevant experiences to gain the confidence and skills they need to actively engage students in authentic research experiences. Integrated and powerful educational strategies are used to build skills and confidence in teachers. The strategies are as follows: 1) creating Standards-aligned, inquiry-based curricular resources as ready-to-use materials that can be modified by teachers to fit their unique classroom situation; 2) providing ongoing professional development opportunities that focus on active experiences using curricular materials, inquiry-based techniques and expanding content knowledge; 3) connecting science experts to classrooms to deepen content knowledge and provide relevance to classroom activities and real world applications; 4) facilitating students sharing research with their peers and scientists reinforcing their active participation and contributions to research. These components of the Expedition Earth and Beyond Education Program will be enhanced by providing exciting and diverse research opportunities that are inspired by views of Earth from space taken by astronauts on board the International Space Station. The interest and connection to viewing our home planet from space will inevitably spark questions that will drive students to pursue their research investigations, as well as forming a basis for comparisons to the exploration of other planetary bodies in our solar system.
Document ID
20090035551
Acquisition Source
Johnson Space Center
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Graffi, Paige Valderrama
(Jacobs Technologies Engineering Science Contract Group Houston, TX, United States)
Stefanov, William
(Jacobs Technologies Engineering Science Contract Group Houston, TX, United States)
Willis, Kim
(Jacobs Technologies Engineering Science Contract Group Houston, TX, United States)
Runco, Sue
(NASA Johnson Space Center Houston, TX, United States)
Date Acquired
August 24, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 2009
Subject Category
Earth Resources And Remote Sensing
Report/Patent Number
JSC-CN-18934
Meeting Information
Meeting: American Geophysical Union Conference
Location: San Francisco, CA
Country: United States
Start Date: December 14, 2009
End Date: December 18, 2009
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other

Available Downloads

There are no available downloads for this record.
No Preview Available