One Small Step for Education
HOLLOMAN AIR FORCE BASE, N.M., Oct. 26 /PRNewswire/ — The nonprofit Teachers in Space program announced one small step for education today: the start of a competition to select two teachers who will be the first astronauts to fly in space and return to teach in American classrooms.
What comes next could be a giant leap.
“The private sector is developing reusable suborbital spacecraft that promise dramatic improvements in the cost and safety of human spaceflight,” said Teachers in Space project manager Edward Wright. “These new spacecraft will be terrific vehicles for education.
“For fifty years, since the dawn of the space age, teachers have used space to inspire. Students have been told that if they excelled at math and science, they could become astronauts and go into space. Until now, that has been a false hope: a student has a better chance of becoming an NBA basketball star than a NASA astronaut. What message does that send?
“We want to turn that around and show students that they have a real chance to go into space. Imagine hundreds of teachers, from all parts of the country flying in space every year. Imagine thousands of astronaut teachers in American schools, touching millions of students, in less than a decade. What impact would that have on education?”
Before that can happen, however, the Teachers in Space program needs to raise more money, develop curriculum, and prove its educational concepts on a smaller scale. For that reason, Teachers in Space is recruiting a small group of teachers to become “pathfinder” astronauts. Pathfinders will fly on flights donated to Teachers in Space by suborbital companies. They will also help develop training programs for the large numbers of teachers who follow.
The first two pathfinder competitions, announced today, will demonstrate two different ways of selecting teachers to fly in space. One competition will be for STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) teachers; applicants will be asked to submit a proposal for an experiment that can be performed on a suborbital spaceflight. The other competition will be for K-12 teachers in all subject areas; applicants will be asked to submit a lesson plan or educational module based on some aspect of human spaceflight. All submissions will be posted to a Wiki website where they will be available to the entire educational community. Additional pathfinder competitions may be announced in the future.
Teachers in Space is a project of the Space Frontier Foundation and the United States Rocket Academy. For application procedures and other information, visit http://www.teachersinspace.org/.
Contact: Jeff Krukin or Bob Werb, (800) 787-7223
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Teachers in Space
CONTACT: Jeff Krukin or Bob Werb, +1-800-787-7223, both of Teachers inSpace
Web site: http://www.teachersinspace.org/