Informal Education and Public Outreach Programs

The NC Space Grant Informal Education and Public Outreach Programs are designed to facilitate the appreciation and knowledge of aero/space-related issues of the general population of North Carolina.

PLANETS in Motion PI: Dr. CrystaL Harden, UNC - Chapel Hill

Morehead Planetarium and Science Center’s PLANETS (Portable Learning for All of North Carolina’s Elementary Teachers and Students) program is a unique, space-themed, educational program that utilizes North Carolina’s first portable full-dome digital planetarium. PLANETS in Motion will bring this traveling science program to approximately 3,600 K-3 schoolchildren living in the most economically distressed counties in eastern and northeastern North Carolina. Participating teachers will choose from two planetarium shows and will be provided materials to conduct related cross-curriculum activities in their classrooms before and after the PLANETS visit.

Science Saturday Program on Space Biology, Materials, and Medicine PI: Dr. Roger Narayan, UNC - Chapel Hill

Informal science education programs play an important role in providing information on science and scientific research to both students and teachers. In addition, these programs serve to inspire young people to pursue science, technology, engineering and math careers. The proposed Science Saturday Program will involve the creation of a series of lectures and scientific demonstrations that will take place on Saturday mornings at North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Funding will be used to support a series of four lectures in October 2009 and a series of four lectures in February 2010.

Engaging American Indian Youth with NASA’s Microgravity Research Program PI: Dr. Tim Ritter, UNC - Pembroke

Over the past six years a joint team of students from UNC Charlotte and UNC Pembroke have participated in NASA’s Reduced Gravity Student Flight Opportunities Program. The teams have consisted mostly of American Indian undergraduate students with a variety of majors. A very important part of the program is community outreach. The team reaches out to the state wide American Indian community through presentations at schools, YMCAs, after school programs, science museums, etc. in order to inspire the next generation of space scientists and engineers. The presentations provide some of the basic principles of gravity, space flight, fluids, and density. To accomplish this goal we use hands-on applications and a formal presentation showing the team doing research, operating the outreach experiments and having fun in 0-g.