NC Space Grant | K-12 Education Programs

The NC Space Grant K-12 Education Program is designed to inspire secondary school students to pursue STEM careers by providing high quality, hand-on, pre- and in-service educator professional development and other opportunities.


	Bringing Robotics Into the Classroom PI: Dr. Jose D'Arruda - University of North Carolina at Pembroke Bringing Robotics into the Classroom workshop will invite Twelve STEM teachers from grades 6-12 to participate in the program. The workshop will consider teachers from across all of North Carolina, but we will give preference to those teachers located in Bladen, Columbus and Robeson Counties. A stipend will be allocated for each teacher along with a LEGO® MINDSTORMS® NXT robotic kit. The workshop will have two major purposes: (1) To introduce teachers to the use of Robotics in the classroom as a way to rekindle in students the sense of curiosity and enjoyment in learning about how the physical world works. Robotics will be used to show how scientific knowledge is applied to the “real world”. Teachers will first learn how the basic components of a robot operate and then learn to join them together to form a robot. The class strategy is to learn science by “actually doing science”. Teachers will use the Lego Mindstorm robot kit to design, build, test and modify their own robots. In the Labs participants as teams will be challenged to construct robots that will perform tasks such as run an obstacle course or fetch an object or follow a light. (2) To educate teachers on how to make science and technology accessible to the general student population by using robots as a means for students to apply knowledge to something which is both challenging and fun.

	National Institute of Aerospace & Space Grant Educator Training Workshop Dr. William Craft - North Carolina A&T State University Dr. Fred DeJarnette - North Carolina State University The National Institute of Aerospace & Space Grant Educator Training Workshop is an opportunity for middle and high school teachers and administrators to delve into the world of aerospace. The training workshop will be an intense two weeks focused on current and past NASA research in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The work proposed is in support of the 5th Annual NIA/NASA/Space Grant Educator Training Workshop, which will be held July 9-20, 2007. Twelve middle and high school educators from NC were selected competitively to participate and they will join another 12 from VA and four each from MD and GA.

	Project OBSERVE: Observation Based Student Experience in REsearch Via Exploration PI: Mr. Jesse Richuso - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Morehead Planetarium and Science Center's Project: OBSERVE allows North Carolina high school students to become astronomers by using remote, robotic telescopes controlled via the Internet. During the summer of 2007, 30 high school earth/environmental science and astronomy teachers will be trained to implement Project: OBSERVE by learning observational astronomy, remote telescope control, and image processing. Teachers will utilize that training to bring OBSERVE to their classrooms, where students can control an array of six telescopes located in Chile. Run by the Department of Physics and Astronomy at UNC-Chapel Hill and known as PROMPT, these telescopes provide students with a unique opportunity to do hands-on astronomy.

	K-12 Professional Development Program Request for Proposals This program is designed to provide funding to initiate and carry out professional development and training. Funded projects will have the primary goal of better equipping North Carolina educators to inspire the future science, technology, engineering and mathematics workforce to pursue further education and eventually careers in aero/space-related fields. Proposals Due: Feb-March 2008

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