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The Educator Ambassadors Program

The Educator Ambassador Program consists of 16 educators who work in conjunction with different NASA scientists and E/PO team members at SSU to develop workshops and curriculum materials. These educators were selected via a nation-wide application process. Part of the selection process included not only the qualifications of the candidates, but their plans to disseminate educational materials and information in their local, state, and regional areas. In addition, particular attention was paid to applicants with special abilities to reach under served communities. All educator ambassadors must complete an intensive training held at SSU every other summer.

The 2004 training for the teachers included a ten-day long intensive seminar at SSU and Stanford University to immerse the educators in high-energy and gravitational wave astronomy. In the interim, additional training occurs via learning-at-a-distance modules set up on the Internet by the E/PO team members. The most recent training was July 10-14th, 2006 at Sonoma State University.

SSU E/PO team members and Ambassadors will disseminate curricular materials via workshops and conferences at the national, state, and local levels. Such interactions allow for direct feedback on the quality and effectiveness of the E/PO materials and programs, as well as affording a high-leverage opportunity to teach additional teachers to use NASA mission materials in their classrooms. E/PO team members will develop at least one new workshop each year, along with the Educator Ambassadors, that target both math and science content for grades 6-12. The new workshops will be presented at various educator conferences by the E/PO team and by the Educator Ambassadors.

We now have 15 Educator Ambassadors.

Ambassador name	A teacher at ...	Location
EAs for the GLAST Mission
Jeff Adkins	Deer Valley High School	Antioch, CA
Teena Della	Terry Fox Secondary	Port Coquitlam, British Columbia
Sharla Dowding	Newcastle High School	Newcastle, WY
Michiel Ford	Holton High School	Holton, KS
Mandy Frantti	Munising Public Schools	Munising, MI
Mary Garrett	Various	Michigan
Walter Glogowski	Ridgewood High School	Norridge, IL
Linda Smith	Paulsboro Public Schools	Pittsgrove, NJ
Daryl Taylor	Greenwich High School	Greenwich, CT
Pam Whiffen	Mojave Middle School	Scottsdale, AZ
EAs for the Swift Mission
David Beier	Lee's Summit School District	Kansas City, MO
Bruce Hemp	Fort Defiance High School	Fort Defiance, VA
Rae McEntyre	Grant County High School	Dry Ridge, KY
Janet Lynne Moore	Challenger Learning Center of Central Illinois	Bloomington, IL
Robert Sparks	National Optical Astronomy Observatory	Tucson, AZ
EAs for the XMM-Newton Mission
Chris Royce	Shippensburg University	Shippensburg, PA
Neta Apple	Astronomical Society of Kansas City	Adrian, MO
EA for the NuSTAR Mission
William D. (Bill) Panczner	Walter L. Sickles High School	Tampa, FL

More later about these amazing educators!

See the NASA Educator Ambassador Presentation Poster (PDF)