NASA launched a major new education initiative today. The NASA Explorer Schools Program premiered at the 2003 National Educating Computer Conference in Seattle.
The multimedia event kicked-off an innovative program that will invite science and mathematics teachers “back to school” during the summer at NASA Centers. NASA experts, materials, and other resources will be available to help educators acquire new teaching tools to make science, mathematics, and technology more appealing to students.
The new initiative is sponsored by NASA’s Education Enterprise in collaboration with the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA). It establishes a three-year partnership between the agency and 50 NASA Explorer Schools’ teams, consisting of teachers and education administrators from diverse communities across the country.
The 50 selected school teams represent 30 states. Eighty percent of the schools are located in high poverty areas, with 75 percent representing predominantly minority communities. Of the 50 competitively selected school teams, 58 percent are located in both high poverty and high minority districts.
“NASA’s mission is to inspire the next generation of explorers by helping to make learning science and math more fun,” said Dr. Adena Williams Loston, NASA’s Associate Administrator for Education. “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,” she said.
For the list of NASA’s first 50 Explorer Schools, visit:
http://explorerschools.nasa.gov