ED041-06
Airborne Astronomy Ambassadors: Integrating NASA Assets into Learning Environments

Monday, 14 December 2020: 18:05
Virtual
Dana Edward Backman, SETI Institute Mountain View, Mountain View, CA, United States, Coral Clark, SETI Institute Mountain View, Education, Mountain View, CA, United States and Pamela K Harman, SETI Institute, Mountain View, CA, United States
Abstract:
The Airborne Astronomy Ambassadors program aims to measurably enhance student STEM learning & engagement via professional development (PD) for high school science teachers in selected school districts containing substantial numbers of underserved and underrepresented populations. A 9-month AAA teacher PD sequence culminates with a week-long STEM immersion experience at NASA’s science research aircraft facility in Palmdale, California and participation in research flights on NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA).

AAA teachers are required to incorporate into their science courses a 10-day infrared light & multi-wavelength astronomy curriculum module written by AAA staff. This module is aligned with Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and includes hands-on student activities plus a SOFIA Science Case Studies student reader. The Case Studies reader in particular engages students by providing NASA science content plus examples of science & engineering practices to help students make sense of phenomena in the natural and designed world.[1]

A randomized controlled trial (RCT) administered by WestEd verified that AAA teacher PD and subsequent delivery of the curriculum module did in fact spark significant student STEM learning and engagement.[2] The RCT compared outcomes for a treatment group of 1473 students who received the curriculum module from teachers who had already flown on SOFIA versus a control group of 870 students who received ”business as usual” electromagnetic spectrum instruction from teachers who had not yet flown on SOFIA. The treatment group’s mean post-curriculum content test score was a factor of 1.18 higher than that of the control group, a difference of more than 9 standard errors.

Funded by NASA Cooperative Agreement NNX16AC51

[1] NGSS Lead States. Next Generation Science Standards: For States, By States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2013.

[2] Student Outcomes from the Airborne Astronomy Ambassador Teacher Program: Results from Student Assessment in a Randomized Controlled Trial during the 2017-2018 School Year; Josh Valcarcel, Ted Britton, and Bryan Matlen, 2018.

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