National Aeronautics and Space Administration

3.1 Development of Printed and Other Materials

In the Fall of 1997, we created the first in a series of posters and related activity booklets for distribution to the education community. One set was targeted for grades K-8; a second set was targeted for grades 9-12. The topic chosen was the Life Cycles of Stars. These materials were developed as a result of a survey by an independent assessment of our Web materials. Educators said that the one thing they would like to see to accompany our Web materials were printed materials that could be used in the classroom. Educators were brought in to work with us on creating and testing the materials in a classroom setting. All of the materials were related to National Mathematics and Science Standards. They have proven to be enormously popular and we are now poised to begin the development of the second sets, which will be about Black Holes. Our goal is to produce new sets once a year.

In order to provide our Web materials to schools and educators with no or limited access to the Internet, we also captured our websites on a CD-ROM which was distributed to educators. We produced and distributed 12,000 copies of our first CD. We have just released the second version, which captures all of the changes and developments which have occurred in the sites during the past 13 months. A new CD will be produced each year so that those who receive the materials that way can "keep up" with those who have Internet access. Requests for copies of the latest CD should be sent to ideas@heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov.

3.2 Workshops and Conferences

During the past 6 months, we have presented a 1-hour workshop at various national, state, and local teachers' meetings. It proved to be well-received and an excellent way to foster relationships within both the formal and informal the education communities. We intend to develop a new workshop each year which we can present at the many meetings we support (such as the National and Regional NSTA meetings, the California and Virginia State Science Teachers meetings, the National NCTM meeting, the National Science and Technology Symposium, NEWMAST, and NTTI workshops). These workshops have proven to be a very effective vehicle not only to get our materials into the hands of teachers, but also to hear from teachers what they like/dislike, need/want, can use/not use.

We have also been exhibiting at conferences since December 1996 in order to interact directly with even larger groups of educators from all over the world, not only to let them know about our efforts, but to get response back from them. In the past 14 months, we have attended 19 meetings, interacting with over 64,000 formal and informal educators.

3.3 Independent Evaluation and Assessment

During the past year, we engaged SLi, a nationally recognized educational resources evaluation company, to perform an independent evaluation and assessment of our websites and CD-ROM. The results have proven instrumental in changes and new developments in our programs. SLi will continue to perform these reviews of all our materials on a periodic basis.

It is firmly believed that high-energy astronomy can and should be taught in the pre-college classroom. It has not been taught previously only because the field is so young (achieving a significant level only in the 1970s) and education materials have been scarce. However, what we learn about our Universe at these energies is unique, exciting, and will become more and more commonplace in the 21st century. We need only take the time to explain our subject, both to the education community and to the general public, in order for them to get as excited about it as we are. Given this, one of our guiding principles has been a strict requirement for educator involvement in our efforts. This was, and remains, crucial in assuring that the product we generate is useful in the classroom as well as accessible for the general public. It is often quite difficult for professional scientists to discern if they are communicating effectively with the general public about their scientific pursuits. Thus, we have put together a network of educators to provide us with regular feedback about our materials. These educators come from Maryland, Georgia, Florida, Virginia, Alabama, Maine, and Vermont; they represent a broad range not just geographically, but also in computer resources and literacy. They provide us with invaluable advice in the development of our materials.