NASA Educators Online Network (NEON) is a part of the NASA Aerospace Education Services Project (AESP). The network provides professional development opportunities for K-12 educators to support science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education.
NASA’s Aerospace Education Services Project will provide additional free webinars in July and August of 2012. All webinars can be accessed online. Educators can join aerospace education specialists during the events to learn about activities, lesson plans, educator guides for each topic. These webinars and the interaction with education specialists are designed to make it easy for you to use NASA materials in your classroom. Try a free professional development opportunity this month!
Putting NEON to Work for You, Part 2 (Grades K-12)
July 31, 2012, 7 – 8 p.m. EDT
Aerospace education specialist Anne Weiss explains how to use the NASA Educators Online Network, or NEON’s, most important feature: the interest groups. Participants will role-play several scenarios to find out how NEON’s various tools can be used to find NASA activities that align to state-specific standards.
Toys in Space (Grades 4-9)
Aug. 1, 2012, 11 a.m. -noon EDT
Aerospace education specialist Steve Culivan will share NASA’s Toys in Space videos and activities. In this program, astronauts took toys from around the world with them into space. Students predict, observe and record how the toys behave without the effects of Earth’s gravity, putting Newton’s Laws of Motion to the test. Participants will receive copies of the astronaut videos for use in the classroom.
Physics Resources for Secondary School (Grades 6-12)
Aug. 1, 2012, 4:30 – 5:30 p.m. EDT
Join aerospace education specialist John Weis as he demonstrates simple activities and resources for teaching physics at middle and high school levels. Topics and resources covered will include Newton’s Laws of Motion, energy, light and gravity. Lesson plans and modification strategies will be discussed.
Exploring Our Earth From Above (Grades 4-12)
Aug. 2, 2012, 10 – 11 a.m. EDT
Aerospace education specialist Steve Culivan will integrate science, technology, engineering, mathematics and geography, or STEM-G, with Earth observations, remote sensing and maps. NASA curriculum products, missions and other resources will be utilized to demonstrate an inquiry-based teaching strategy to better understand Earth and the processes that shape it.
Curiosity: Roving Mars (Grades 2-8)
Aug. 2, 2012, noon – 1 p.m. EDT
Aerospace education specialist Rick Varner will share an overview of the Mars Science Laboratory mission and its rover named Curiosity. Scheduled to land on Mars on Aug. 6, 2012, Curiosity is twice as big as rovers Spirit or Opportunity and weighs nearly a ton. The work the mission is designed to accomplish is equally large.
Exploring Our Earth From Above (Grades 4-12)
Aug. 9, 2012, 4:30 – 5:30 p.m. EDT
Aerospace education specialist Steve Culivan will integrate science, technology, engineering, mathematics and geography, or STEM-G, with Earth observations, remote sensing and maps. NASA curriculum products, missions and other resources will be utilized to demonstrate an inquiry-based teaching strategy to better understand Earth and the processes that shape it.
“Flying to Mars… In an Airplane?” (Grades 3-9)
Aug. 16, 2012, 4 – 5 p.m. EDT
Aerospace education specialist Brian Hawkins will present an overview of the Mars Science Laboratory mission with its Curiosity rover and explore the proposed Aerial Regional-Scale Environmental Survey of Mars, or ARES, mission. ARES is also known as the Mars Airplane. Two hands-on activities will be demonstrated during this session.
For more information about these webinars, and to see a full list of webinars taking place through August 2012, visit http://neon.psu.edu/webinars/.