Gretchen Cook-Anderson
Headquarters, Washington
(Phone: 202/358-0836)
Dawn Kappel
Adler Planetarium, Chicago
(Phone: 312/322-0524)
Students from dozens of Chicago-area public and private
schools will participate in a webcast Thursday, May 22, with
current International Space Station crewmembers.
The event will “connect” the students with Expedition Seven
astronaut Ed Lu and cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko from 9:55 a.m.
to 10:15 a.m. CDT, via NASA downlink, and will be hosted by
Chicago’s Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum.
The webcast will offer eighth graders from economically
disadvantaged Chicago schools the opportunity to see science
in action and to be inspired by the International Space
Station crew. At the Adler Planetarium, 1300 South Lake Shore
Drive, 40 students will participate in the webcast, along
with educators, Adler trustees and local radio personalities.
“This webcast, in partnership with Adler Planetarium, will
enable students from underserved communities to interact live
with our astronauts,” said Debbie Brown Biggs, Team Lead for
NASA’s Teaching from Space Program, which enables the
downlinks. “This opportunity allows NASA to reach out to the
community to help inspire the next generation of explorers by
bringing outer space into the nation’s classrooms,” she said.
The webcast is part of Astronomy Connections, a professional
development program for educators created by the Adler
Planetarium. The program illustrates ways in which Internet-
based technologies, museum resources and astronomy-themed
instruction programs can be used by educators to help their
students better understand astronomy.
The Space Station webcast is one in a series of downlinks to
educational organizations across the country, and an integral
component of NASA’s Teaching from Space Program, managed by
the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
The Teaching from Space Program facilitates educational
opportunities using the unique environment of human space
flight. The program builds partnerships with education
communities to create unique learning opportunities through
the use of NASA and educational technology.
For more information on the Internet about the Adler
Planetarium, visit:
http://www.adlerplanetarium.org
For more information about NASA’s Teaching from Space
Program, visit:
http://education.jsc.nasa.gov/Educators/tfsp.htm
For information about other NASA Education programs, visit:
