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A suite of educational resources and programs engages the Voyage exhibition as a focal point for sustainable community-wide science education, for students, families, teachers, and the public.
A customized tour brochure—the Outdoor Exploration Guide—enhances the visitor experience with visitor orientation, touring, and other relevant information. The Guide includes: an overview of the Voyage exhibition, a site map, tips for self-guided touring, approaches to tactile learning using the exhibition’s secondary Tactile Model Solar System, information for teachers, and URLs allowing the visitor to Continue the Voyage at home. The Guide also facilitates use of the exhibition as a laboratory for inquiry-based exploration, by inviting the visitor to be the explorer through challenges for each stanchion. The customized Guide is purchasable in bulk from the Center.
Extending the paradigm to the classroom, the
Grade K-12 Voyage Lessons were developed
from the ground up from national science education standards and
benchmarks, and are comprehensive enough to be adopted by school
districts as the space science curriculum. Lessons, target
core standards and benchmarks through inquiry-based, hands-on
activities whose objective is deep conceptual understanding of both
content and process. The lessons are also meant to work in concert
with a trip to the exhibition, serving as pre- and post-visit
activities. Activities for Families extend the
experience to the home.
A Workshop for Educators (for up
to 60 attendees) on all Voyage educational materials is
conducted by a science educator/planetary scientist team that
provides authentic expertise in both content and pedagogy.
A Presentation for Families and the Public (for
200 to 2,000) is conducted by a researcher that is passionate about
her/his research on the frontier and gifted at conveying that
passion to audiences of all ages. The presentation is more of a
'performance', with the audience fully engaged in helping to tell
the story.
Added resources are also provided on an ongoing
basis: New Voyage Lessons as they are
developed; Access to the Center's Educators and Planetary Scientists; and access to Resources at the Program
Web Site including materials from other organizations and
announcements of opportunity for teachers and students. |
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Communities can obtain sustained programming
on-site, and via distance learning, through Journey through the
Universe, including: more expansive educator professional
development; family and public programs; and Classroom
Programs for 3,000 to 10,000 Grade K-20 Students.
The classroom programs are delivered by a team of
researchers conducting typically 100 to 200 presentations during
Journey through the Universe Week, each presentation a
very personable and personal window on their life as a researcher.
It is an approach revealing the very personal means by which
researchers ask questions of the world, empower themselves to
create a pathway to an answer, and hopefully bear witness to
something new to the human race.
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