RELEASE NO: 99-097

GODDARD TO ADMINISTER EDUCATION COOPERATIVE AGREEMENTS FOR K-12 STUDENTS

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (Greenbelt, Md.) will be partnering with several educational institutions and industry in a Internet learning technology initiative called Leading Educators to Applications, Research and NASA-related Educational Resources in Science (LEARNERS). This initiative proposes new and innovative approaches for the use of Internet-based technologies, addresses national standards and includes teacher training. These standards-based products are expected to enhance the educational process and empower and support educators.

Teams supported under these cooperative agreements will rely heavily on the Internet and other technologies to communicate and develop their products. Subjects to be covered in the project include: solving intriguing space mysteries, studying agricultural processes using satellite images, designing and operating robots built from Legos, and analyzing seasonal environmental changes using real time NASA Earth science data.

Goddard will enter into seven cooperative agreements with institutions to enhance elementary and high school science, mathematics, technology and geography education using knowledge gained through NASA’s scientific and engineering endeavors. The cooperative agreements have a total value of $3 million over three years. The awards cover 12 states, and participants include educators, researchers and technologists.

Educational teams include: Vallejo High School, Vallejo, Calif.; Analy High School, Sebastopol, Calif.; Northwestern High School, Hyattsville, Md; Hoover School, Hoover, Al.; Hampton City Schools, Hampton, Va.; Houston Independent School District; Sonoma State University, Sonoma, Calif.; Pennsylvania State University, State College, Pa.; University of  Hawaii, Manoa, HI, Tufts University, Medford, Mass.; Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pa.; University of Nebraska, Lincoln and Omaha; Rice University, Houston, Texas, City College of New York, N.Y.; and Christopher Newport University, Hampton, Va.

Other partners are: Science Museum of Minnesota; Videodiscovery, Inc., Seattle, Wash.; U.S. Satellite Laboratory, Tarrytown, N.Y.; D.C. Link and Learn, Washington, D.C. and Chevron Corporation.

LEARNERS is sponsored by the NASA Education Division in cooperation with the Learning Technology Project, an element of the NASA High Performance Computing and Communication Program. LEARNERS office in Goddard's Earth Science Directorate will manage the cooperative agreements. Goddard, Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, Calif. and Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va. also will collaborate in the educational projects.

More information on the LEARNERS initiative can be found at the website:

http://learners.gsfc.nasa.gov