Spotlight

Cyber Center is Ready for Teachers

Written by: developer

Cyber Center is Ready for Teachers Teachers from across the nation are descending on Colorado Springs to attend five different Space Across the Curriculum courses conducted by the Space Foundation and held at the Space Foundation Discovery Institute.

Thanks to a donation from Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. the teachers attending the classes will be better able to stay connected with those back home. Ball donated eight desktop computers which the Space Foundation education team has turned into a mini cyber center at the Space Foundation Discovery Institute. The center will enable teachers attending the summer courses to check email and surf the Internet during breaks. Also, teachers who want to take advantage of the Educator Resource Center (ERC) at the Space Foundation Discovery Institute will be able to download digital copies of classroom materials.

"Typically, when teachers visit the ERC the Space Foundation's space education specialists assist the teachers in finding the appropriate curriculum and other education resources," said Bryan DeBates, director-education for the Space Foundation. "Many of those resources are provided by NASA and as NASA goes digital with its curriculum guides, posters, lithographs and bookmarks, it becomes more difficult to attain hard copies of these materials. To make these resources more available for teachers we have set up this cyber center and our space education specialists will continue to assist teachers in downloading what they need."

Another great resource for the teachers is the Space Foundation's Online Science Lesson Bank. "Our lesson bank is a tremendous resource for teachers," said DeBates. "We have more than 400 hands-on lessons, for grades PreK-12, and all are cross-curricular. They are free to anyone, but by downloading them in the cyber center teachers will have the added benefit of having one of our space education specialists help them to find and customize the lessons that are right for their classroom."

For a list of Space Across the Curriculum courses being offered this summer at the Space Foundation Discovery Institute, click here.

For information regarding the Educator Resource Center, click here.

Pictured: Space Foundation Director - Education Bryan DeBates demonstrates the new cyber center at the Space Foundation Discovery Institute in Colorado Springs.

This article is part of Space Watch: July 2011 (Volume: 10, Issue: 7).


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