Overview

The Heliophysics Educator Ambassador (HEA) program will focus on in-depth learning experiences around Earth, Space, and Physical Science topics for educators teaching in middle and high school grades.

The Heliophysics Educator Ambassador (HEA) program will focus on in-depth learning experiences around Earth, Space, and Physical Science topics for educators teaching in middle and high school grades. The goal of the HEA program is to develop the capacity and provide the opportunity for educators to train other teachers on NASA Heliophysics science and educational resources. This program will provide educators with a week-long training and follow-up support for several years via teleconference calls and other electronic communications. We expect that the educators involved in the HEA program will implement lesson plans based on NASA Heliophysics education resources in their own classrooms and also train other teachers at local and regional professional development conferences or meetings. The launch of the HEA program will be a week-long teacher professional development workshop in Anchorage, Alaska starting at 5:00pm with dinner and a planetarium show on Sunday, June 21st and ending at noon on Friday, June 26th, 2009. The goals of the workshop are as follows:

1. Educators will work through hands-on, inquiry-based Earth, Space, and Physical science lessons that have been developed by NASA and other educational partners such as the Lawrence Hall of Science at the University of California, Berkeley.
2. Educators will learn about the science of the Sun and its interactions with Earth’s magnetosphere, Earth’s upper atmosphere, the Moon, and the interstellar medium through hands-on lessons and from NASA-funded scientists’ lectures.
3. Educators will learn about designing professional development for teachers of science and will put this learning into practice by designing a 1-hour workshop to present in their state science teacher conferences.
4. Educators will meet and start to build relationships with other educators from around the country with similar interests and teaching duties.

return to menu

Handouts

return to menu