Partner Schools program transports
teachers to another world

Tripoli Teachers Paula Carlson (left) and Stacey Snyder atop the test stand at Marshall Space Flight Center in 2007

Pass it on.  That could be the motto of the Iowa Space Grant Consortium's Partner Schools program.  Now in its fourth year, the program connects schools to NASA learning opportunities and career information.

Through a competitive process, teachers (mostly from Iowa) are selected to attend training sessions at one of the NASA centers.  This year's participants will go to Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., or Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla.  They then bring the experiences back to their classrooms, schools, and colleagues.

"Our long-term goal is to reach a critical mass of teachers who will be capable of making the program self-sustaining because each of them will teach what they have learned to their colleagues, who will in turn teach other colleagues," said Jay Staker, ISGC associate director and program director of E-SET (ISU's Extension-Science, Engineering and Technology).  He estimates that so far, 32 teachers have been selected for the program.

Applicants must apply in teams of two with a minimum of one science teacher.  They are selected in a competitive process based on the subjects they teach, their responses to essay questions about their role as a teacher and education leader in their region of the state, as well as their commitment to share the information and resources they received.  The ISGC provides each participant with round-trip airfare, lodging, admission fees, and transportation for the duration of the workshop, and the school district provides support for a substitute and all other expenses.

For the first time this year, the program will be expanded beyond teachers who compete for a place to visit a NASA center to those who are willing to pay to go.  The latter group of teachers, who may number as many as 50 and may come from states other than Iowa, will go to Kennedy Space Center in July, a trip that gives them greater scheduling flexibility.  (The visit to Marshall is scheduled for February.)  Staker estimates that 100 teachers will participate in this year's program, 12 to 15 of whom are from Iowa.

Space Education Initiatives, a nonprofit company specializing in earth and space science, teacher training, and online program development, has been closely involved with the program from the beginning.  With SEI's involvement, the program is able to work on a regional basis.  The regional aspect of the program has given teachers the added benefit of building a network with colleagues in their region so that they can gain insight from what is happening with science education in other states and districts.

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Baxter teachers Dennis Vaughn (left) and Jason Aker and UNI teaching major Cassandra Bohnet at the Astronaut Hall of Fame at Kennedy Space Center in 2007

The Partner Schools program has remained essentially the same since its inception, Staker said.  "We've tweaked it and refined it by listening to the teachers--adding what they find helpful and taking away what they don't."

At Marshall Space Flight Center this year, the teachers will have the opportunity to interact with actual mission scientists and design engineers as they work on current space exploration projects.  They will also tour the Environmental Control Life Support System, the National Center for Advanced Manufacturing, the Payload Operations Center, and the Historical Test Stands.  Marshall, the birthplace of the Saturn V rocket that carried America to the moon in the late 1960s and early 1970s, is at the heart of NASA's Space Shuttle, International Space Station, and advanced propulsion programs.

At Kennedy Space Center, established as NASA's Launch Operations Center in 1962, teachers will tour the facilities, including the Astronaut Hall of Fame and the Kennedy Visitor Center, and interact with scientists, engineers, and education specialists.

"The Partner Schools program has provided a valuable service for teachers," Staker noted.  "Not only has it given them content information and a better understanding of NASA's current missions as well as their science, it has broadened the horizons of teachers and their students and given them a sense of inspiration."  One measure of how well the program is working, according to Staker, is the number of self-initiated presentations by Partner Schools participants at the annual Iowa Science Teachers Fall Conference.

For more information on the Partner Schools program, visit the ISGC Web site at www.ia.spacegrant.org, click on Precollege, and then 2008 Partner Schools Application.