Free Education Webinar Series from the Aerospace Education Services Project

The Aerospace Education Services Project is presenting a series of free webinars through May 2012. All webinars can be accessed online. Join aerospace education specialists to learn about activities, lesson plans, educator guides and resources to bring NASA into your classroom.

Food for Thought (Grades 5-8) March 12, 2012, 3:30 – 5 p.m. EST

Aerospace education Steve Culivan will share “Food for Thought,” a new NASA educator guide designed to explore space food and the nutritional needs of the astronauts that includes a menu of inquiry activities and other resources to address this exciting topic.

Looking at the Sun: NASA’s Missions to the Sun and the 2012 Study of the Venus Transit (Grades K-12) March 14, 2012, 4:30 – 6 p.m. EST

Aerospace education Rick Varner will discuss the inherent connection between the sun and life on Earth This session is designed to look at NASA’s missions to the study the sun and share sun-Earth activities and resources available for use in the classroom. There will be a particular focus on the Venus Transit taking place June 5-6, 2012, and the Sun-Earth Day activities associated with this event.

Animals in Space (Grades K-5) March 16, 2012, 10 – 11 a.m. EST

Aerospace education specialist Wil Robertson will instruct teachers on how to use stuffed animals as props in telling the story of the animals that preceded humans in space. The program is geared for teachers in K-5 with a special focus of aligning the topic with the Core Literacy Standards for elementary grades. Web resources will be provided.

Mars Uncovered: Revealing the Geological History of Mars (Grades 5-12) March 29, 2012, 4 – 5 p.m. EST

Aerospace education specialist Tony Leavitt will share an activity that uses an inquiry-based, critical-thinking approach to studying the surface of Mars like scientists do. This lesson will teach students to examine geologic features of a planetary surface and use relative age-dating techniques to analyze the information and interpret the geologic history.

For more information about the webinars listed above, and to see a full list of webinars taking place through May 2012, visit http://neon.psu.edu/webinars/.

Questions about this series of webinars should be directed to Gwendolyn Wheatle at Gwendolyn.H.Wheatle@nasa.gov.