Mission EPO Programs

For elementary, secondary, and undergraduate education, GIFTS-IOMI Education and Public Outreach (EPO) has formulated an extensive educational outreach plan. The plan includes curriculum materials and Web chats and online classroom visits through NASA's Quest, CONNECT TV, The "WHY?" Files, and the Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) program.

For undergraduate/graduate education, The GIFTS-IOMI mission offers lecture series on technologies and newsletter articles to graduates in engineering schools. Curriculum materials on GIFTS technologies and measurements are being developed for incorporation into remote sensing classes. And, LaRC offers summer research opportunities for undergraduates and graduate students in the GIFTS-IOMI Office for Langley Aerospace Research Summer Scholars program.

For educators in general, GIFTS-IOMI offers teaching guides that incorporate the mission's technology and measurement concept objectives. There is also an Educator's Guide for CONNECT TV, a program that provides an award-winning math, science, and technology series. Lesson plans and educator activities will be posted on the UW-Madison and LaRC EPO websites. Additionally, the Rocky Mountain Space Grant Consortium will host teacher workshops. UW-Madison and JPL will host International Technology Education Association and National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) workshops. UW-Madison will offer distance learning programs for pre- and in-service science teachers as well as GLOBE training support. A paper model of the GIFTS-IOMI spacecraft instrument, and lesson plans on GIFTS interferometer are available on Space Dynamics Laboratory's (SDL) website. And, an animation of the interferometer is available at LaRC's GIFTS education and outreach website.

For under-represented groups, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, LaRC, UW-Madison, Norfolk State, and SDL are developing programs for minorities and underserved groups, such as historically black colleges and universities (HBCU), Native American communities, and Girl Scouts. To accomplish the HBCU programs, NSU will screen the video, "CONNECT: Heads Above the Clouds," and will offer a class on applications of remote sensing. The Minority University-SPace Interdisciplinary Network, called MU-SPIN, will hold future teacher workshops, and the Cooperating Hampton Roads Organizations for Minorities in Engineering, called CHROME, along with NSU, will host teacher candidates workshops. Other opportunities include summer programs for minority middle and high school students, and summer HBCU undergraduate internships. To accomplish the Native mission EPO leaders will work with reservation schools and tribal colleges. Additionally, to serve scouting, materials and activities are being developed for Girl Scout leader workshops. And, UW-Madison hosts up to 25 sessions of NASA's Quality Education for Minorities Summer High-school Apprenticeship Research Program, called QEM SHARP, Plus. The GIFTS-IOMI project staff will work with some of these Program sessions.

For the general public, GIFTS-IOMI will bring its mission information to the public through participation in state fairs, museum exhibits and displays, presentations at science centers and professional meetings, and through World Wide Web resources. Additionally, a "traveling" exhibit is available. In October, 2001, the mission will unveil a GIFTS kiosk at the Virginia Air and Space Center. This exhibit will remain available to the public indefinitely. Other museums and libraries, through a community partnership with NMP's outreach Web resource, The Space Place, will host mission exhibits. In addition to these exhibits, GIFTS posters, lithographs, and fact sheets developed by SDL will be periodically available on GIFTS Web resources.

GIFTS-IOMI detailed information will be presented to members of such professional organizations as the American Geophysical Union, the International Geoscience and Remote Sensing symposium, and the American Meteorological Society.