Education & Public Outreach for Earth & Space Science Program Abstracts of selected proposals (NNH11ZDA001N-EPOESS) Below are the abstracts of proposals selected for funding for the Education & Public Outreach for Earth & Space Science program. Principal Investigator (PI) name, institution, and proposal title are also included. 75 proposals were received in response to this opportunity, and 19 were selected for funding. Nancy Alima Ali/University of California Berkeley Five Stars Pathway: Engaging Girls in Science through Multigenerational Mentors The Center for Science Education at the Space Sciences Laboratory (CSE@SSL) at the University of California, Berkeley proposes to partner with Girls Incorporated, a national afterschool program provider for girls, to develop "Five Stars Pathway: Engaging Girls in Science through Multigenerational Mentors". The overall goal of the "Five Stars Pathway" project is to increase the representation of females in Heliophysics by engaging girls in relevant STEM content and providing them with female role models. Our three objectives to achieve the project's goals are: (1.) Develop a Heliophysics-related, multigenerational mentorship afterschool program model which is implemented at two Girls Inc. affiliates in the San Francisco East Bay Area. (2.) Provide professional development training for afterschool program professionals on the multigenerational program model at an additional five Girls Inc. affiliates nationwide. (3.) Disseminate the multigenerational program model to the broader afterschool provider community via a national training workshop, a website which provides resources and training materials, and conferences. The "Five Stars Pathway" project creates a model in which five "generations" of females engage in science together in an afterschool setting, with each "generation" representing one stage in the pathway of pursuing a career in science, technology, engineering, or math (STEM). The five "generations" are elementary school girls, middle school girls, undergraduate students, graduate students and research scientists. The model uses a Heliophysics core curriculum supplemented by additional resources which is presented in an 8-session format to middle school girls in an afterschool setting. Each 2-hour session is presented jointly by female undergraduate and graduate students in Heliophysics-related studies (i.e. physics, astronomy, etc.) who are paired with a trained afterschool program instructor. During the course of the 8-sessions, the undergraduate student instructor will share with the middle school girls her experiences transitioning from high school to college and choosing her major. The graduate student instructor will speak about her area of research and her path to pursue graduate studies. Female scientists whose research is funded by NASA Heliophysics will videoconference with the afterschool program remotely (via Skype or similar technology) to answer questions about the Sun. For the culmination of the program, the middle school girls will choose one aspect of the Heliophysics curriculum to teach to elementary school girls in an afterschool setting. Thus, a pathway of female mentors is established. The model will be field tested in existing Girls Inc. programs, then afterschool program professionals nationwide will be trained on the model both directly through a national workshop and conferences, and indirectly through a project website. This project is carefully designed to align with the goals and objectives of NASA's Informal Education portfolio. Through direct contact with middle and elementary school girls in an informal education setting, this project will enhance participants' skills and proficiency in STEM disciplines as well as inform them about STEM career opportunities. Through dissemination of NASA resources at training workshops and conferences, this project engages informal educators in NASA SMD content and increases their ability to engage their audiences in STEM. Edgar Bering/University of Houston The Mars Rover Model Celebration: Enhancing Formal and Informal STEM Education in Grades 3-8 and Improving Teacher Training Using the Excitement of NASA's Latest Mars Missions The proposed project aims to incorporate up-to-date SMD education resources and science and mission data relating to NASA's explorations of Mars into the Mars Rover Celebration (MRC), an existing low-cost curriculum enhancement program for grades 3- 8. The MRC prototype focuses on the adventure of learning and discovery, asking participating teams to propose their own scientific mission to Mars, design a rover to carry it out, and present a mock-up at an open house. The overarching goal of this program is to leverage the strong hold on children's imagination and intellectual curiosity that NASA missions in general and Mars landers in particular have possessed for decades to inspire and educate on STEM career choices. The current prototype of the program is already extremely popular in the greater Houston area, with more than 180 teams of 2-6 students from 36 schools participating in 2012, ranging from low income inner city schools to outlying rural schools. Programs are beginning in Massachusetts and the Texas Hill Country. MRC is designed to offer a flexible, budget conscious alternative to science fair activities, in order to attract participants from underrepresented groups in low-income communities. We propose to modify and refine this prototype program by enhancing the NASA content and instructional strategies employed, and strengthening the training and support provided so thateducators may more effectively and successfully teach, engage and motivate students in SMD related STEM subject areas. To accomplish these objectives, this proposed program will: 1) Expand and improve the program curriculum to provide more cross referencing to appropriate SMD curriculum materials, MER, MSL and other NASA E/PO activities and updated, more complete alignment with State and National standards; 2) Specifically tackle effective instruction issues by incorporating comprehension, cooperative learning, scaffolding and modeling practices in the curricular materials developed; 3) Expand the current professional development workshops for K-12 teachers to include more STEM/ SMD content training, including training about the results from recent NASA Mars missions and in teaching the engineering design process; and 4) Develop parent education workshops to train parents and community informal educators on how best to support the program. In addition, a detailed formal evaluation process will provide evidence of the program’s effectiveness and guide its expansion process, including assessment of both improvement in teacher skills and in student affect toward STEM disciplines, NASA Mars missions and SMD content/activities. The immediate outputs of the proposed project will include detailed lesson plans, evaluation reports, and teacher training materials. To disseminate these materials, the project team will utilize the existing network of participants as well as reach out to national partners such as AIAA. The long term outcomes of this proposed program will be to test and mature the MRC into achieving permanence and expand widely across the nation as a NASA E/PO activity. This project addresses NASA Strategic Goal 3, by engaging students in the design and development of activities aimed at achieving science outcome 3C.3, and in the process of spacecraft design and interesting them in aerospace engineering careers (Subgoal 3F). Not only will these students learn about scientific fields relevant to the mission (space science, physics, geology, robotics, and more), they will gain an appreciation for how this knowledge is used to tackle complex problems. It provides activities that provide professional development to educators, and provides family opportunities for involvement in K-12 student learning as required on page E.4-3 of the NRA. Julie Blumenthal/WGBH Educational Foundation Beyond the Moon WGBH requests support for BEYOND THE MOON, a transmedia education initiative for youth ages 9-12 that will focus on the science and engineering involved in exploring our astronomical neighborhood. Key features include: 1) Hands-on science and engineering challenges designed for out-of-school settings but with connections for the classroom; 2) Leader notes for educators; 3) Activity sheets for home/family use; 4) Short instructional videos, optimized for mobile devices; 5) Inspirational video profiles of young NASA scientists and engineers, also for mobile; 6) Collaborators to provide content support and for disseminating the resources across the country; 7) Delivery of all resources online through the highly trafficked websites of DesignSquad, PBS Teachers, and Teachers Domain; 8) Real-time educator training opportunities that will build skills and confidence; 9) A self-paced on-line video tutorial for educators; and 10) Evaluation to assess the impact of the project on both youth and educators. WGBH, a leading national producer of educational programs and services, is uniquely qualified to create and implement this initiative. For more than a decade, WGBH has used this hands-on approach to extend the impact of its popular STEM programming including NOVA, Building Big, ZOOM, and others. In 2008, the WGBH award-winning initiative, Design Squad teamed up with NASA to bring the excitement of living and working on the moon to youth in out-of-school venues. The result was On The Moon, an educational resource that