The Challenger Center for Space and Science Education had made Christa McAuliffe’s lost lesson plans available online.
The lesson plans show what Christa was planning to teach on the STS-51L lesson plan. Unfortunately, NASA’s Teacher in Space plans were shelved after the Challenger accident and the lesson plans along with it.
Teachers and others can view the lesson plans at Challenger Center website.
Teacher in Space trainee Pam Leestma has been named by the US Department of Education to receive the National Award of American Stars of Teaching. The award was presented at the National Private Schools Conference in Washington, DC.
Pam, who has been teaching for 33 years, was chosen for the way she incorporates space into her classroom lesson plans. In addition to teaching, she has served as a part-time flight director at the Challenger Learning Center in Carson and a board member of the Orange County Space Society.
Read more about Pam from the City of Bellflower and the Long Beach Press Telegram.
A new astronaut program will help inspire American students to study math and science, countering the decline that has produced what experts call “a generation at risk.”
“For almost 50 years, teachers have told students that if they excelled at math and science, they could grow up to become astronauts,” said Teachers in Space project manager Edward Wright. “Up to now, that has mostly been a false hope.
“Even at the height of the Shuttle program, a student had a better chance of becoming an NBA basketball star than a NASA astronaut. What kind of message does that send to the next generation?”
“We want to turn that around,” said Rick Tumlinson, co-founder of the Space Frontier Foundation and a Teachers in Space advisor. “American industry is developing a new generation of reusable suborbital spacecraft, which promise dramatic improvements in cost and safety. We will use these spacecraft to fly large numbers of teachers in space and put those teachers right back into the classroom where they can share the excitement, knowledge, and experience of space travel.
“Imagine a thousand astronaut teachers in American classrooms, touching millions of students. What effect will that have on math and science education?”
To accomplish that goal, Teachers in Space will eventually need to raise $20 million a year. “That will allow us to fly 200 teachers a year, four from each and every state in the Union,” Wright said.
Response has been positive so far. Five aerospace companies that are developing suborbital vehicles have pledged flights to the program, and the United States Rocket Academy has purchased additional flights for Teachers in Space and other educational programs. Simultaneously, teachers have started to submit applications for the first Pathfinder Teacher Astronaut flights, which are expected to occur in 2010 or 2011.
Pathfinders will be the first Teacher Astronauts to fly in space and return to the classroom. Later, they will be invited to return each summer to help teach the next class of astronaut teachers.
The deadline for teachers to submit Pathfinder astronaut applications is December 4, 2008. Finalists will be announced and training will begin on selected weekends in 2009. Teachers who are selected will not have to give up their day jobs.
More information about Teachers in Space is available on the project website.
Teachers in Space is a joint project of the Space Frontier Foundation and the United States Rocket Academy.
Nyack, NY - September 22, 2008
Teachers all across the country are applying for a new astronaut program.
Teachers in Space is seeking two Pathfinder Astronauts who will become the first astronaut teachers to fly in space and return to the classroom.”Unlike the Educator Astronaut program, which takes teachers out of schools to join the NASA astronaut corps, we want to put astronaut teachers into American classrooms,” said Teachers in Space project manager Edward Wright.
“TIS will allow teachers to keep their day jobs,” Wright said. Pathfinder Astronauts will train on weekends and during the summer, so they will be able to keep their their full-time teaching jobs. “There will be about three weeks of training in total,” Wright said, “which will include both spaceflight training and professional development activities to improve their abilities as teachers.”
After they fly in space, Pathfinder Astronauts will be invited to return each summer to help teach the training course for new astronaut teachers. Eventually, Teachers in Space would like to fly 200 teachers a year, four from each and every state in the Union.
Teachers in Space began as a NASA project to fly a single teacher aboard the Space Shuttle. The original TIS project ended when the Challenger accident claimed the life of teacher Christa McAuliffe. NASA replaced Teachers in Space with the Educator Astronaut program, in which former teachers become full-time NASA employees. The original vision of putting an astronaut back into an American classroom was lost. That vision is now being revived by the new Teachers in Space program, a non-profit project of the Space Frontier Foundation and the United States Rocket Academy.
Rather than relying on the Space Shuttle, the new Teachers in Space program will use the new reusable suborbital spacecraft now being developed by American industry. These new spacecraft, which promise dramatic improvements in cost and safety, will enable large numbers of teachers to fly in space. “We want to put a thousand astronaut teachers into American schools, within the next decade,” Wright said.
The Pathfinder Astronauts will be the leaders who blaze the path for the large number of teachers who follow.
More information about Teachers in Space is available on the project’s website.
Teachers can submit applications for the Pathfinder program any time between now and December 4, 2008. Finalists will be announced and training will begin in 2009, which Pathfinder spaceflights expected to take place some time in 2010 or 2011.
If you’re in Washington DC, you’ll have a special chance to hear about Teachers in Space on the evening of Wednesday, July 16.
The Space Policy Institute at George Washington University will be hosting a Teachers in Space roundtable. The event, which is co-hosted by the Space Frontier Foundation and the NewSpace Alliance, will begin at 6:30 PM.
Speakers at the roundtable will discuss the current status of the Teachers in Space program, plans for the future, how Teachers in Space can help improve American education, and government policy alternatives for Teachers in Space. Following the 90-minute roundtable, guests and speakers will have a chance to mingle at a catered gourmet reception.
Admission is free. The roundtable and reception will take place in Room 213 at 1957 E Street NW.
Click here for a Google map to the event.
Watch this space for a list of speakers and further information.
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.
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.