Educator astronaut Barbara Morgan will soon be leaving NASA. Boise State University in Idaho has announced that Morgan will become a Distinguished Educator in Residence at the university:
Through a dual appointment to Boise State’s colleges of engineering and education, will advise, lead and represent the university in its policy development, advocacy and fundraising in STEM-related programs, scholarships and initiatives. She will serve as a Boise State ambassador for scientific literacy in the community and help guide education policy in Idaho. Also, she will direct Boise State’s efforts to bring NASA education programs to area school districts, and serve as a guest lecturer and student mentor in departments across campus.
It’s encouraging to see Barbara Morgan returning to academia. Unfortunately, her retirement underscores one of the problems with the way the Educator Astronaut program is currently constructed. The program seeks out the best teachers and takes them out of the classroom, and they have no chance to return as long as they are part of the program.
Last August, Teachers in Space called on NASA to announce flight dates for the remaining three educator astronauts. NASA partially responded to this call in October, when it announced that two educator astronauts would fly on Space Shuttle mission STS-119. Unfortunately, NASA has not responded to the call to help educator astronauts return to the classroom after flight. If they want to do that, they’re on their own, like Barbara Morgan.
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Teachers in Space is inviting all interested teachers to attend the first Astronaut Teacher workshop, to be held in Washington, DC this July 17-19 as part of the Space Frontier Foundation’s NewSpace 2008 conference.
The goal of the workshop is to begin the design of a three-week spaceflight training course for teachers who are selected to fly in space.
Space vehicle developers indicate that spaceflight participants will need about less than one week of training before a suborbital flight. Teachers in Space has surveyed hundreds of teachers and discovered that most teachers prefer a longer training period. The survey showed most teachers prefer to spend 2-4 weeks training before flight.
Based on this survey, Teachers in Space is baselining a three-week training course for astronaut teachers. The course will include about half a week of company-mandated training and about two-and-a-half weeks of enriched educational activities created by Teachers in Space. These activities will maximize the value of the experience to teachers and increase the scope of knowledge and experience they take back to the classroom.
At the first Astronaut Teacher Workshop, participating teachers will provide input and ideas that help Teachers in Space create an initial outline for this enriched training. Teachers in Space will later validate the outline by presenting it to larger groups of teachers at future Astronaut Teacher Workshops. Future workshops will be held at various locations throughout the US.
The first workshop will also consider ways the Astronaut Teacher training might be adapted for use in other spaceflight-related settings. For example, an abridged version of the Astronaut Teacher course might be presented to teachers who are participating in spaceflight precursor activities such as weightless ballistic flights. A version of the course might even be offered directly to students.
To encourage teachers to attend this workshop, the Space Frontier Foundation is offering a special conference rate to participants. Teachers may register for a single-day conference pass and receive admission to the full three-day conference.
For additional details, teachers may contact Teachers in Space project manager Edward Wright at edward.v.wright@gmail.com or Don McMahon at dmcmaz@msn.com.
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