Press Release      << Back

East Midlands Team Invited to Teach NASA

19/01/2010

The National Space Centre's Space Academy team has been invited to take centre-stage at the world's largest space education conference at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

In addition, the National Space Centre has been invited to forge a long-term partnership with NASA's longest running education programme.

The collaboration between the Space Academy project and NASA's Aerospace Educator Services Project (AESP) is the first US-UK space education partnership of its kind and is firm testament to the quality of scientists, teachers and other personnel involved in the Space Academy project; one which it is hoped will soon expand to benefit students and teachers throughout the UK and the United States.

Anu Ojha, the Space Academy Project Director, said; "The Space Academy programme has exceeded all its targets in its first year, has benefited thousands of students and hundreds of teachers and has now been asked to collaborate with NASA. We are delighted that education programmes of the world's largest space agency are keen to work with us in developing new ways of using space to inspire the next generation of scientists."

The team's successful presentations in Houston last year, which gained the highest evaluation scores of any of the conference sessions, have meant that the Space Academy team has been invited to lead two of the largest sessions at the annual Space Exploration Educators Conference (SEEC) which draws in more than 600 teachers, space scientists and engineers from all over the United States, Canada, Europe and Japan.

Andrew Morgan, Skills & Communities Director at East Midlands Development Agency (emda), said "The collaboration between the Space Academy and NASA is fantastic for the region and I'm sure many science and engineering students and teachers will benefit greatly in the future."

The Space Academy team's presentations on the European Space Agency's Rosetta mission to Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko, are being recorded for use by the British National Space Centre, the Government department at the heart of UK space policy, and have also been selected by Space Center Houston to be streamed live on the Internet.

National Space Centre Education Director Anu Ojha, Space Academy Project Manager Dr Sarah Hill, Project Scientist Dr Catherine Muller from the University of Leicester and science teacher Ruth Williamson from the Priory Academy LSST in Lincoln have all been invited to present at the conference.

Plans are also being drawn up for follow-on training sessions led by other Space Academy scientists and teachers at various NASA centers during 2010.

Ends/.

  

Editor's Notes

•  The National Space Centre has pioneered the use of space in science education since opening in 2001 with over 50 000 school children and 2000 teachers annually undertaking short education visits to the Centre. The Space Academy will  build on  these existing programmes by providing progressive, sustained curriculum support for 14-19 year olds and their teachers whilst sharing with them the excitement and discoveries of space scientists from our region's world leading space universities. 

Other leading institutions in the Space Academy Partnership include:

East Midlands Development Agency- Funding support of £990K over three years -Space Academy is a major plank in the Agency's wider Science Technology Engineering and Maths (STEM) agenda. 

ABOUT THE UNIVERSITY OF LEICESTER
- A member of the 1994 Group of universities that share a commitment to research excellence, high quality teaching and an outstanding student experience.

•  Winner of Outstanding Student Support award, Times Higher 2009/10

•  Named University of the Year by Times Higher (2008/9) Shortlisted  (2006, 2005) and by the Sunday Times (2007)

•  Ranked top with Cambridge for student satisfaction amongst full time students taught at mainstream universities in England

•  Ranked as a Top 20 UK university by the Sunday Times, Guardian,Times and UK Complete University Guide, published in The Independent

•  Ranked in world's top 3% of universities by Shanghai Jiao Tong International Index, 2005-08 and the Times Higher Education-QS World University Rankings

•  Students' Union of the Year award 2005, short listed 2006 and 2007

 

University of Nottingham - The University of Nottingham is Britain's University of the Year (The Times Higher Awards 2006). It undertakes world-changing research, provides innovative teaching and a student experience of the highest quality. Ranked by Newsweek in the world's Top 75 universities, its academics have won two Nobel Prizes since 2003. The University is an international institution with campuses in the United Kingdom, Malaysia and China.

Science Learning Centre East Midlands - based at the School of Education, University of Leicester, the Centre provides a programme of innovative Continuing Professional Development for all those involved in science education including primary, secondary and FE teachers as well as technicians and classroom assistants. The courses are presented by leading academics, scientists and educationalists who set out to bring cutting-edge research and innovative pedagogy into schools.

STEMNET aims to ensure that more young people in the UK make a choice to enter science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) related careers at all levels, and future generations are properly informed about the science and technology that surrounds them.

With the support of its partners, STEMNET achieves this in two ways:

For further information, images, interviews or media opportunities please contact Malika Andress on

0116 258 2103 or malikaa@spacecentre.co.uk