NASA Explorer Schools Program Launched In Seattle

On Monday, June 30, NASA launched a major new education initiative. The NASA Explorer Schools Program was presented to an audience of nearly 1,000 educators, policy makers and educational technology industry representatives at the National Educational Computing Conference in Seattle at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center.

The multimedia event kicked-off an innovative program that will send the Nation's science and mathematics teachers "back to school" at NASA Centers during the summer to acquire new teaching resources and technology tools using NASA's unique content, experts and other resources -- to make learning science, mathematics and technology more appealing to students.

The new initiative, sponsored by the NASA Education Enterprise in collaboration with the National Science Teachers Association, establishes a three-year partnership between NASA and 50 NASA Explorer School teams, consisting of teachers and education administrators from diverse communities across the country. During the commitment period, NASA will invite teams to NASA Centers in an effort to spark innovative science and mathematics instruction directed specifically at students in grades 5 through 8.

During the week of July 12-18, Goddard will host five of the 50 schools selected for this "back to school" initiative. This year's selections for the northeast region are Anne Beers Elementary School, Washington, D.C.; Central Park Middle School, Schenectady, New York; Matthew J. Kuss Middle School, Fall River, Massachusetts; North Country Union Junior High School, Derby, Vermont; and Sheridan Communications and Technology Middle School, New Haven, Connecticut. Representatives from each school will spend a week at Goddard acquiring new teaching resources and technology tools to inspire the inspirers.

The 50 selected school teams represent 30 states. Eighty percent of the schools are located in high poverty areas, with seventy-five percent representing predominantly minority communities. Fifty-eight percent of the competitively selected school teams are located in both high poverty and high minority districts.

Prior photo of Dr. Loston at event for Space Week

As part of the annual conference hosted by the International Society for Technology in Education, NASA Associate Administrator for Education Dr. Adena Williams Loston, was joined by Astronaut Don Pettit and other special guests, to formally announce the first 50 competitively selected NASA Explorer Schools.

"NASA's mission is to inspire the next generation of explorers by helping to make learning science and math more fun," stated Dr. Loston. "The NASA Explorer Schools Program will provide us with yet another promising avenue to positively and uniquely impact science and math instruction in the Nation's classrooms…as only NASA can," stated Dr. Loston.