...For NASA and the Navy, ensuring there’s a pool of talent versed in science, technology,
engineering and math is crucial, and both agencies have programs in place to pique the interest
of the next generation of workers.
...The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, with a center at Stennis Space Center,
and the Department of the Navy, with operations at SSC and Gulfport, are reaching
Mississippi students through several programs.
...“Encouraging students to pursue STEM disciplines is so very important. It offers students
exciting job opportunities,” Leland Melvin, NASA’s associate administrator for education, said
in a Nov. 16, 2011 release. “For NASA and the nation, building the STEM pipeline will ensure
that we have a robust, high-tech workforce for the future.”
NASA
...NASA’s educational programs sport some significant numbers. The nation’s 10 NASA
centers reached a combined 9,977 educators and served 105,812 students through 2,939
programs between Jan. 1, 2011 and Nov. 11, 2011.
...Stennis Space Center alone has impressive numbers. Between Jan. 1, 2011 and Nov. 11,
2011, nearly 1,000 educators and 10,000 students have been served through 168 programs. In
a single year between September 2010 and the same month in 2011, there were 30 educator
workshops for 730 teachers. A whopping 96 percent said the workshop were valuable.
...During the same one-year period, 9,542 students were reached through events and
presentations. Astro Camp had 20 sessions, including Saturday camps and week-long summer
sessions involving 673 students ages 7 to 15.
...“STEM is very important,” said Katie Wallace, education director at NASA SSC. She’s read
the studies and is concerned about retaining the skills needed in light of globalization and the
computerization of the world.
...At SSC, 34 percent of the workforce has scientific/technical skills, 24 percent have
business/professional and 22 percent have skills in technical/crafts/production. Six percent are
clerical and 14 percent are “other.”
...The education level is also high: 5 percent have doctorates, 16 percent masters, 33 percent
bachelors and 11 percent associates. There are another 15 percent with “some college” and 19
percent with high school diplomas, according to an SSC study.
...In addition to its own outreach, NASA supports programs operated by others. One of the
best known is the FIRST program for middle and high school students. FIRST, or For
Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, was founded in 1989 by inventor
Dean Kamen. It’s designed to get young people interested in science and technology.
...A Brandeis University study compared FIRST robotics competitors with non-FIRST
students with similar academic background and found FIRST students more than three times
as likely to major in engineering and 10 times as likely to have had an apprenticeship,
internship or co-op job in their freshman year. They were more than twice as likely to expect
to pursue a career in science and technology.
...At Stennis Space Center, the need goes well beyond NASA. It’s home to a large
concentration of oceanographers, meteorologists, marine scientists and more. Tenant agencies,
like the Navy, are technology driven.
...“They have the same workforce concerns,” Wallace said.
The Navy
...This past October, educators gathering in Jackson for the 2011 Mississippi Science Teacher’
s Association Conference learned more about a Navy-sponsored academic outreach that will
be offered in Mississippi during the 2012-2013 school year.
...“Mission Ocean” will coincide with the 2012 commissioning in Gulfport of the nuclear-
powered attack submarine USS Mississippi (SSN-782).
...The year-long submarine-related science curriculum, approved by the Mississippi
Department of Education for 6th and 7th grades, was developed by Purdue University in
1997. It focuses on science activities and missions in a simulated submarine control room.
...Like FIRST, participation in the Mission Ocean program has produced statistically significant
improvement in standardized test scores in the content areas of science, mathematics and
social studies, according to officials.
...Dr. Bob Rivers, Director of the Center for Science and Technology Education at Purdue
University Calumet, said officials from the program will meet with the Mississippi Department
of Education and representatives from math/science partnerships from around the state in
February to develop plans to disseminate the program.
...Among the things still to be done is identifying a science center in the state with a theater
environment that could support the 3-D undersea visual environment for student’s final
mission. “We’re going to provide the visualization and any equipment that the center does not
have to mount it. In addition, an educational agency or corporation in the state needs to step
up and provide for a professional developer to work with teachers for an extended time to
implement the program. Finally, schools that would like to pilot the program will be identified,”
Rivers said.
...“Mission Ocean” is just one of the ways the Navy is reaching out to students to pique their
interest in careers in science, technology, engineering and math. Another program, SeaPerch,
focuses on robotics. Sponsored by the Office of Naval Research and managed by the
Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International Foundation, SeaPerch’s goal is to
find the next generation of naval architects, marine engineers, naval engineers and ocean
engineers, priorities for the Navy.
...SeaPerch trains educators to teach their students how to build an underwater Remotely
Operated Vehicle (ROV). Students build the ROV from a kit of low-cost parts, following a
curriculum that teaches basic engineering and science concepts with a marine engineering
theme.
...The training of teachers is done at no cost to the school district. They participate in a two-
day program that carries continuing education or professional development credits.
...It’s the training of teachers that is a key component of NASA SSC’s outreach, officials said.
...NASA SSC’s educator resource center specializes in providing training to teachers through
25 to 75 credit-bearing workshops per year. A lot of the training is done at SSC, but some is
done outside SSC, including at universities. Wallace estimates that NASA SSC reaches
between 600 and 1,200 teachers a year through the workshops.
...Many of those teachers become advocates and spread the word to other teachers. Wallace
said that as a result of the workshop they attended, two teachers went back to their school and
taught the same workshop to 25 more teachers. Those are the numbers that aren’t tabulated,
but are significant.
...“We know that we reach even more than what’s captured in our numbers,” Wallace said.
– David Tortorano
January 2012
engineering and math is crucial, and both agencies have programs in place to pique the interest
of the next generation of workers.
...The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, with a center at Stennis Space Center,
and the Department of the Navy, with operations at SSC and Gulfport, are reaching
Mississippi students through several programs.
...“Encouraging students to pursue STEM disciplines is so very important. It offers students
exciting job opportunities,” Leland Melvin, NASA’s associate administrator for education, said
in a Nov. 16, 2011 release. “For NASA and the nation, building the STEM pipeline will ensure
that we have a robust, high-tech workforce for the future.”
NASA
...NASA’s educational programs sport some significant numbers. The nation’s 10 NASA
centers reached a combined 9,977 educators and served 105,812 students through 2,939
programs between Jan. 1, 2011 and Nov. 11, 2011.
...Stennis Space Center alone has impressive numbers. Between Jan. 1, 2011 and Nov. 11,
2011, nearly 1,000 educators and 10,000 students have been served through 168 programs. In
a single year between September 2010 and the same month in 2011, there were 30 educator
workshops for 730 teachers. A whopping 96 percent said the workshop were valuable.
...During the same one-year period, 9,542 students were reached through events and
presentations. Astro Camp had 20 sessions, including Saturday camps and week-long summer
sessions involving 673 students ages 7 to 15.
...“STEM is very important,” said Katie Wallace, education director at NASA SSC. She’s read
the studies and is concerned about retaining the skills needed in light of globalization and the
computerization of the world.
...At SSC, 34 percent of the workforce has scientific/technical skills, 24 percent have
business/professional and 22 percent have skills in technical/crafts/production. Six percent are
clerical and 14 percent are “other.”
...The education level is also high: 5 percent have doctorates, 16 percent masters, 33 percent
bachelors and 11 percent associates. There are another 15 percent with “some college” and 19
percent with high school diplomas, according to an SSC study.
...In addition to its own outreach, NASA supports programs operated by others. One of the
best known is the FIRST program for middle and high school students. FIRST, or For
Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, was founded in 1989 by inventor
Dean Kamen. It’s designed to get young people interested in science and technology.
...A Brandeis University study compared FIRST robotics competitors with non-FIRST
students with similar academic background and found FIRST students more than three times
as likely to major in engineering and 10 times as likely to have had an apprenticeship,
internship or co-op job in their freshman year. They were more than twice as likely to expect
to pursue a career in science and technology.
...At Stennis Space Center, the need goes well beyond NASA. It’s home to a large
concentration of oceanographers, meteorologists, marine scientists and more. Tenant agencies,
like the Navy, are technology driven.
...“They have the same workforce concerns,” Wallace said.
The Navy
...This past October, educators gathering in Jackson for the 2011 Mississippi Science Teacher’
s Association Conference learned more about a Navy-sponsored academic outreach that will
be offered in Mississippi during the 2012-2013 school year.
...“Mission Ocean” will coincide with the 2012 commissioning in Gulfport of the nuclear-
powered attack submarine USS Mississippi (SSN-782).
...The year-long submarine-related science curriculum, approved by the Mississippi
Department of Education for 6th and 7th grades, was developed by Purdue University in
1997. It focuses on science activities and missions in a simulated submarine control room.
...Like FIRST, participation in the Mission Ocean program has produced statistically significant
improvement in standardized test scores in the content areas of science, mathematics and
social studies, according to officials.
...Dr. Bob Rivers, Director of the Center for Science and Technology Education at Purdue
University Calumet, said officials from the program will meet with the Mississippi Department
of Education and representatives from math/science partnerships from around the state in
February to develop plans to disseminate the program.
...Among the things still to be done is identifying a science center in the state with a theater
environment that could support the 3-D undersea visual environment for student’s final
mission. “We’re going to provide the visualization and any equipment that the center does not
have to mount it. In addition, an educational agency or corporation in the state needs to step
up and provide for a professional developer to work with teachers for an extended time to
implement the program. Finally, schools that would like to pilot the program will be identified,”
Rivers said.
...“Mission Ocean” is just one of the ways the Navy is reaching out to students to pique their
interest in careers in science, technology, engineering and math. Another program, SeaPerch,
focuses on robotics. Sponsored by the Office of Naval Research and managed by the
Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International Foundation, SeaPerch’s goal is to
find the next generation of naval architects, marine engineers, naval engineers and ocean
engineers, priorities for the Navy.
...SeaPerch trains educators to teach their students how to build an underwater Remotely
Operated Vehicle (ROV). Students build the ROV from a kit of low-cost parts, following a
curriculum that teaches basic engineering and science concepts with a marine engineering
theme.
...The training of teachers is done at no cost to the school district. They participate in a two-
day program that carries continuing education or professional development credits.
...It’s the training of teachers that is a key component of NASA SSC’s outreach, officials said.
...NASA SSC’s educator resource center specializes in providing training to teachers through
25 to 75 credit-bearing workshops per year. A lot of the training is done at SSC, but some is
done outside SSC, including at universities. Wallace estimates that NASA SSC reaches
between 600 and 1,200 teachers a year through the workshops.
...Many of those teachers become advocates and spread the word to other teachers. Wallace
said that as a result of the workshop they attended, two teachers went back to their school and
taught the same workshop to 25 more teachers. Those are the numbers that aren’t tabulated,
but are significant.
...“We know that we reach even more than what’s captured in our numbers,” Wallace said.
– David Tortorano
January 2012
NASA, Navy push STEM training
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