HR: 0830h
AN: ED51C-1213    [PDF]
TI: NASA Education and Public Outreach Initiatives at the MIT Center for Space Research
AU: * Porro, I L
EM: iporro@space.mit.edu
AF: MIT Center for Space Research, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, NE80-6095, Cambridge, MA 02139 United States
AB: Since its inception in 1999, the EPO office of the MIT Center for Space Research (CSR) has fostered direct participation of local scientists in educational initiatives such as teachers workshops and public tours of the Chandra Operations and Control Center. The role played by the CSR EPO office has grown significantly, thanks to the award of a number of EPO grants associated with the Chandra and HETE missions. In the past year about one-third of the CSR research staff was involved in the office's EPO initiatives: more than 500 K-12 students, about half from underrepresented groups, were included in formal education programs and informal education events attracted an estimated 900 people. Today the mission of the CSR EPO office is focused in two areas: professional development for K-12 science teachers, and educational programs in out-of-school time. To be associated with major NASA research missions is beneficial to our mission in several respects, but provides also specific challenges. We present here some of the strategies and intiatives that we have undertaken to overcome those challenges.
DE: 6605 Education
SC: Education and Human Resources [ED]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting