2015 LiftOff Summer Institute

Written by Nathan Smith on March 5, 2015. Posted in Education, Scholarships or Similar.

Registration is now open for the 2015 LiftOff Summer Institute, sponsored by NASA’s Texas Space Grant Consortium. This weeklong professional development training for teachers will be held June 28-July 3, 2015, at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. This competitive aerospace workshop emphasizes science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, learning experiences through speakers, hands-on activities and field investigations.

The theme for this year’s institute is “Living in Freefall.” The event will feature the International Space Station, a laboratory, observatory and factory in space. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live and work in space? What are the biological factors, psychological trials and physical challenges?

Attendees must be U.S. citizens currently employed as classroom teachers of grades 4-12 with at least one year teaching experience prior to the institute. Texas Space Grant pays all expenses for any Texas teacher selected. Other Space Grant Consortia fund teachers from their states.

Applications are due April 1, 2015.

For more information and to access the online application, visit http://www.tsgc.utexas.edu/liftoff/.

If you have questions about the 2015 LiftOff Summer Institute, please email your inquiries to Margaret Baguio at baguio@tsgc.utexas.edu.

Nathan Smith

Nathan Smith is Director of Technology for the College of Education and Human Services at Utah State University. In that role, he also directs The Adele & Dale Young Education Technology Center (The YETC) located in room 170 of the Education Building on Utah State University's Logan campus. The YETC is a combination student openaccess computer facility, a K12 curriculum materials library, a NASA Educator Resource Center for Utah, and a technology training center. Nathan served eight years (20042012) on the Board of Directors for the Utah Coalition for Education Technology (UCET) He was reelected in 2014 to serve another two year term on the board. A former elementary school teacher, Nathan has taught students every age from young children to senior citizens. He has had the opportunity beginning in 2011 to train international high school teachers from all over the world about technology in education, through the U.S. State