With summer being a time for many teachers to engage in professional development, one Gwinnett County Public Schools teacher will take that experience to new heights.
Rebecca May, a computer science teacher at Paul Duke STEM High School, has been selected to participate in the NASA’s LiftOff Summer Institute to be held at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
This nationally competitive program sponsored by NASA’s Texas Space Grant Consortium selects teachers who will increase their knowledge of science, technology, engineering and math through space education. Educators selected will come together June 23-28 to conduct experiments, tour facilities, and network with other educators while sharing innovative lesson plans and ideas.
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LiftOff 2019’s theme is The Legacy of Apollo! The workshops provide teachers the rare— and for most, unique— opportunity to spend a week working with professional scientists and engineers at the cutting-edge of space exploration.
Since its founding in 1958, NASA has reached that goal numerous times. From walking on the moon to landing on Mars, NASA has brought the wonders of space to people on Earth for decades. Thousands of people have been working around the world – and off it – for decades, trying to answer some basic questions. What’s out there? How do we get there? What will we find? What can we learn there, or learn just by trying to get there, that will make life better here on Earth?
Teachers selected for LiftOff will return to their school districts to not only use materials received in their own classroom, but to train other educators. The LiftOff workshops prove that the excitement teachers, and more importantly, their students, feel about earth and space science can be used to enrich STEM education and inspire the next generation of explorers.
Information: www.tsgc.utexas.edu/liftoff/
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