Space Foundation Delivers Educator Professional Development in Charles County, Md.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Jul. 21, 2010) — The Space Foundation is providing professional development to teachers in Charles County, Md., with three weeks of Space Across the Curriculum courses.

This week, educators in the “Lunar/Mars Exploration and Base Construction” course are learning to incorporate science concepts and standards into one comprehensive classroom project. Participants in this class are learning what it would take to establish and maintain a human presence on our Moon and Mars, including advanced life support concepts, oxygen and energy production, waste removal and recycling, food production, and surface exploration.

For each topic, the teachers are also learning hands-on activities that are immediately transferrable to the classroom. And for the final project, participants will design and build a model of a theoretically functioning Lunar/Mars base.

At the same time, another group of educators in Charles County is studying “Rocketry: Space History and the Future of Spaceflight.” Next week, the Space Foundation will be teaching “Biological and Physical Research: Long Term Space Travel” and “Earth Systems Science: Our Earth Revealed.” The two courses being offered the first week of August are “Astronomy Principles for the Classroom: Kinesthetic Astronomy” and “Space Technologies in the Classroom: Robotics and Nanotechnology.” Watch the Space Foundation website for more coverage of these classes.

The Space Foundation’s education programs support teachers and PreK-12 students with standards-based curriculum that integrates science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) into all content areas. Click here for more about Space Foundation education programs.

Pictured: Teachers in Charles County, Md., work on a group activity in the Space Foundation professional development class, “Lunar/Mars Exploration and Base Construction.”