NASA recently announced that Bear Creek Middle School in Fairburn, Ga., Park Creek Elementary in Dalton, Ga., and Flamingo Elementary in Hialeah, Fla., have been selected to begin a special three-year partnership with NASA. They are among 25 school teams nationwide that were named as new NASA Explorer Schools, or NES.
The goal of the NES program is to use NASA’s unique missions to inspire student learning in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and geography. NASA’s Kennedy Space Center will administer the NES partnership with Bear Creek Middle School, Park Creek Elementary School and Flamingo Elementary School. Representatives from Kennedy will help kick off the program with presentations at each school during the coming school year.
“This program enables schools and their communities to partner with NASA to develop the nation’s future science, technology, engineering and mathematics work force,” said NES Program Manager Rob Lasalvia. “It is today’s students who will help make the nation’s vision of sending humans back to the moon, then on to Mars and beyond, a reality.”
To begin the formal partnership, a team of educators and administrators from the three schools will attend a one-week professional development workshop July 15-20 at Kennedy. Each school team will develop a strategic plan to address its students’ needs in mathematics, science and technology education. Schools also may apply for technology grants of up to $17,500 over the three-year period to help implement their plans.
The NASA Explorer School Program began in 2003 in collaboration with the National Science Teachers Association. The program targets schools in grades four through nine. There are now 200 teams in the program, representing 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
With this program, NASA continues the agency’s tradition of investing in the nation’s education programs. It is directly tied to the agency’s major education goal of attracting and retaining students in the disciplines of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM. To compete effectively for the minds, imaginations and career ambitions of America’s young people, NASA is focused on engaging and retaining students in STEM education programs to encourage their pursuit of educational disciplines critical to NASA’s future engineering, scientific and technical missions.
For information about the NASA Explorer Schools Program, visit:
