Educators from around the country are studying such NASA
missions as 2001 Mars Odyssey, currently en route to the red
planet, during an institute sponsored by NASA’s Jet Propulsion
Laboratory in Pasadena, from Aug. 9 to 11.
Thirty-three educators are participating in the Solar
System Educator Program Institute. Most are teachers from
kindergarten through high school levels. Others are from
museums, science centers or planetariums. All of them come
with a strong background in teaching science or math and a
passion for training teachers.
This nationwide network of highly motivated educators is
at the heart of the program. Each educator agrees to lead at
least three workshops per year in their home states. Over the
course of a year, the program trains thousands of educators,
teaching them ways to incorporate space education into their
lesson plans.
“The program goal is to inspire America’s students,
create learning opportunities and enlighten inquisitive minds
by engaging them in the planetary exploration efforts
conducted by JPL,” said Terri Formico, program coordinator at
JPL.
More information is available at http://www.ssep.org/ .
Space Explorers Inc. and the Virginia Space Grant
Consortium manage the program for JPL.
NASA/JPL missions and programs participating in the institute
include the Cassini mission to Saturn, the Stardust and Deep
Impact comet missions, the Galileo mission to Jupiter, the
Mars Exploration Program, the Outer Planets program and Europa
Orbiter mission and the Deep Space Network of ground-based
antennas that communicate with spacecraft, the JPL Education
and Public Outreach Office and NASA’s Solar System Exploration
Education and Public Outreach Forum.
