Phase I: Teacher and faculty preparation and enhancement

The Ambassador Program began in the Summer of 1994 and continued through the end of the 1996 school year. Teams of Maryland secondary school science teachers participated in the Maryland GSFC Earth and Environmental Science Teacher Ambassador Program. This program was designed to help the teachers enhance their teaching and to serve as ambassadors to other teachers and to their local school district. During the four weeks at the Goddard Space Flight Center and at the University of Maryland the Ambassadors received training in: gathering data by satellites to monitor conditions on Earth; the Maryland environment; the use of E-Mail and the Internet ; the integrated sciences of the Mission To Planet Earth Program; and the use of computers to enhance teaching. Sixty-five teachers completed the Ambassador Program. Forty-three of these teachers are high school teachers and twenty-two are middle school teachers. These teachers represent twenty-one Maryland educational jurisdictions.

During the ensuing school year, each teacher was given an e-mail account, Internet access, and participated in several one day seminars conducted by the Ambassador Program. Each teacher developed an action plan and a teaching project. Monthly progress reports and activities updates were received from each.

Phase II. Curriculum support

The 1997 Project has extended the Ambassador program to address the concerns identified by the Maryland Science Teacher Ambassadors. The Project is being conducted at the Goddard Space Flight Center from July 7, 1997 through August 1, 1997. Twenty Earth and environmental science teachers, selected from among the most outstanding teachers in the 1994 - 1996 Ambassador Programs, are identifying and developing the Earth System Science investigations. A Mission To Planet Earth scientist is available in each of the content areas to provide technical assistance. In addition, two Earth science teachers, not associated with the Ambassador Program, a preservice teacher, and a team of Aerospace Education Specialists are helping evaluate the investigations as they are being developed.

The Ambassadors have been divided into five working groups. Each group will select a principal investigator for each investigation and will work on two investigations per week. Each group member will be the principal investigator for at least two investigations and these two investigations will not be in progress during the same week. As each investigation is written, it will be put on line in its' "under construction state". Each investigation will have a least one scientist advisor who will review the investigation, based on science criterion, and report on an electronic evaluation form. After the authors and scientists have completed their work, a team consisting of one teacher evaluator and one Aerospace Education Specialist will perform the investigation and make recommendations, based on use criterion, on an electronic evaluation form. Additionally, one student pre-service teacher will evaluate investigations, based on learner criterion, and report on an electronic evaluation form. After each evaluation, the authoring team will discuss and make adjustments to the investigation as needed.

Phase III: Comprehensive organizational reform and systemic change

Each Ambassador working in concert with their county science supervisor and county superintendent may propose a plan of action to be funded by the project. Each plan will address the enhancement of Earth science literacy of teachers in the local school system. The enhancement will be based on the use of technology and training in Earth system science and Mission To Planet Earth curriculum materials. The criteria for these grants will be developed consistent with the reform effort in science of the Maryland State Department of Education, the National Science Standards, and NASA GSFC enterprises and missions. Training will also be provided to educators in the use and implementation of the NASA Evaluation Program (EDCATS). In addition the Project will support eight Regional Earth Science Activities to be conducted during the 1997-1999 school year. There will be two activities held in each of Maryland's four geographic regions.

Phase IV: Education technology research and development

The project will meet the program goal of enhancing the teaching of Earth and environmental science through the use of technology and the use of the Internet and to meet the program objective of sharing materials, strategies, and scientific data with other teachers by electronic means in the following ways:

• using current data from NASA missions in the development of the Earth and environmental science investigations.
• making these investigations, developed by Maryland Science Teacher Ambassadors, available on the Internet for all teachers and learners for the enhancement of secondary school Earth system science.

Principal Investigator - Steve Gilligan
Co-Investigator - Vern Smith
Curator - Brian Smith
Last Updated - July 7, 1999