AGU Poster Session Abstracts

Getting Planetary Data into the Hands of Educators: Recommendations from a Community Discussion
* Shipp, S, Lunar and Planetary Institute, 3600 Bay Area Blvd., Houston, TX 77058 United States
Lowes, L, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, MS 180-109 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109 United States
Hammon, A, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, MS 180-109 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109 United States
Higbie, M, Lunar and Planetary Institute, 3600 Bay Area Blvd., Houston, TX 77058 United States
Klug, S, Arizona State University, Mars Space Flight Facility Box 876305 Moeur Bldg. Rm. 131, Tempe, AZ 85287 United States
Lindstrom, M, NASA Solar System Exploration Division, Code SE NASA Headquarters 300 E. Street SW, Washington, DC 20546 United States
Stockman, S, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, SSAI NASA GSFC Code 921, Greenbelt, MD 20771 United States
Wise, J, Center for Effective Learning, New Roads School, 3131 Olympic Blvd , Santa Monica, CA 90404 United States

In March 2004 a community of approximately 60 researchers, formal and informal education specialists, classroom educators, data archivists, and educational product developers came together for a day-long conference to discuss the challenges in bringing planetary data into the classroom. The conference was hosted by the Solar System Exploration Education Forum and the South Central Organization of Researchers and Educators of NASA's Office of Space Science Support Network. The workshop was intended to: initiate a dialog among those interested in identifying paths for bringing planetary data to educators; better understand key challenges facing educators who are working with planetary data and issues with gaining access to data; identify common aspects of success of programs and products developed to make data accessible in educational venues; and finally, identify the remaining challenges and make recommendations for how the community should move forward to bring these data into the classroom. Presentations by researchers and educational specialists encompassed the facilitation of accessing data, effective use of data in the classroom, availability of data for use by the educational community, and paths for accessing and using mission data. Panel discussions explored the experiences of researchers, educators, and product developers in creating and implementing programs and products and the challenges remaining for integrating planetary data into educational environments. Discussion among participants resulted in a series of recommendations for the development and implementation of successful programs, including: 1) the intended audience should play an active role in the design and development process; 2) program and product implementation should incorporate adequate training and support for intended users; 3) data access needs to be made easier, perhaps requiring the filtering of raw data and new user interfaces; 4) product developers should present data within the context of a lesson or an exploration that is appropriate for the age level, with ties to standards, assessments, and connections to other disciplines such as language arts and math to ease the time burden on the classroom educator; 5) data need to be accessible within a broad context of important scientific questions and understanding; and 6) the potential community involved in the educational use of planetary data is large — resources such as master-teachers, museums, pre-service faculty, minority organizations, amateur astronomers and others should be involved and leveraged. The complete list of recommendations, presentations, and participants can be found at the SCORE site.. This conference was intended to initiate community dialog on the use of planetary data in the classroom. Future conferences and workshops are planned to continue the discussion of issues and challenges.

Learning from the Frontier: Getting Planetary Data in the Hands of Educators

Author(s) (2004), Title, Eos Trans. AGU, 85(47), Fall Meet. Suppl., Abstract

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