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M. Bobrowsky, J. Goldstein, T. Livengood, K. Offringa, S. Richards, B. Riddle (Challenger Center for Space Science Education)
Each year, Challenger Center's Window on the Universe launches thousands of everyday people---teachers and students, parents---on a fantastic journey through our universe. Recently, for example, we visited Nogales, Arizona, where we trained 350 teachers, talked to 6000 students in classrooms, and 1500 more students and their families as part of ``Family Science Night'' presentations. Window aims to increase community involvement in science education within underserved communities throughout the United States. Challenger Center's national team works with a local team in the participating community to provide training for teachers, classroom talks, and Family Science Night presentations for the community. The national team includes at least one astronomer and one educator from Challenger Center, as well as at least two Visiting Researchers (VRs) from other institutions. (However, in Washington, D.C., there were 40 VRs from 12 different institutions who, along with the national team, visited every 6{}th grade classroom in the city! Window materials have become an essential part of the 6{}th grade curriculum in Washington, D.C.)
VRs are scientists or engineers in the fields of astronomy, space science, or human space flight who are gifted at communicating their passion about research to audiences of all ages. Their research is related to the topics covered in the Window educational modules, which provide the core content for Window on the Universe programming. VRs travel to Window communities during one of the Window weeks, where they visit classrooms and sometimes conduct Family Science Night presentations. Researchers from any institution are invited to participate as VRs in Window programs and showcase their research and their institution. If you or someone from your institution is interested in participating, please visit http://challenger.org/wotu/ and click on ``Find Out More.''
Window on the Universe is funded by grants from NASA's Human Exploration and Development of Space Enterprise and Office of Space Science.
If you would like more information about this abstract, please follow the link to http://www.challenger.org/wotu/. This link was provided by the author. When you follow it, you will leave the Web site for this meeting; to return, you should use the Back comand on your browser.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: mbobrowsky@challenger.org