Free Education Webinars From NASA Educator Professional Development

Written by Nathan Smith on May 5, 2016. Posted in STEM and STEAM.

The NASA STEM Educator Professional Development Collaborative at Texas State University is presenting a series of free webinars open to all educators. Join NASA education specialists to learn about activities, lesson plans, educator guides and resources that bring NASA into your classroom. Registration is required to participate. To register, simply click on the link provided beneath the webinar description.

Join Us on the Journey to Mars: Looking for Life
Audience: Pre-service, In-service, Home School and Informal Educators of Grades 4-9
Event Date: May 5, 2016, at 6 p.m. EDT
Is there life beyond our Earth? If so, how can we verify its existence? Using NASA STEM curriculum, participants will explore the possibility of life on Mars using their definition of "life" to determine whether anything is alive in three different simulated Mars soil samples. Participants will experiment, record observations and draw pictures as they collect data from the samples to determine if life may exist in any of them. The activities presented in this webinar address Next Generation Science Standards 4-LS1-1, 5-LS1-1, MS-LS2-1, and HS-LS2-3. Register online to participate. https://www.etouches.com/170333

Join Us on the Journey to Mars: Exploration of Mars Through the Eyes of the Rovers
Audience: Pre-service, In-service, Home School and Informal Educators of Grades 3-8
Event Date: May 9, 2016, at 6:30 p.m. EDT
Take a journey to Mars as seen through the eyes of the rovers on Mars. Dive into NASA curriculum you can use with your students that has them creating "Planetary Pasta Rovers." The engineering design process will be used during this session, and the activity is aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards. Register online to participate. https://www.etouches.com/170708

Virtual Missions and Exoplanets (vMAX): Part 1 — Curriculum Overview
Audience: Pre-service, In-service, Home School and Informal Educators of Grades 6-12
Event Date: May 10, 2016, at 4 p.m. EDT
With the Virtual Missions and Exoplanets curriculum, learn how to engage students in the study of exoplanetary systems through hands-on experiences, scenario-based problem solving, and 3-D multi-user virtual world simulations. This webinar provides an overview of exoplanetary system resources that build upon the use of NASA data. These resources are organized for a one-week experience for middle school students but are flexible enough to be used for any formal or informal audience and time period. It is suggested that participants also attend the vMAX Technical (Part 2) webinar for a complete understanding of how to implement these resources. Register online to participate. https://www.etouches.com/167831

Virtual Missions and Exoplanets (vMAX): Part 2 — Technical Overview
Audience: Pre-service, In-service, Home School and Informal Educators of Grades 6-12
Event Date: May 11, 2016, at 4 p.m. EDT
With the Virtual Missions and Exoplanets curriculum, learn how to engage students in the study of exoplanetary systems through hands-on experiences, scenario-based problem solving, and multi-user virtual world simulations in 3-D. This webinar addresses technical requirements to download, install and navigate the virtual world as an avatar in preparation for using the vMAX virtual world with students. It is suggested that participants also attend the vMAX Curriculum (Part 1) webinar for a complete understanding of how to implement these resources. Register online to participate. https://www.etouches.com/167832

Join Us on the Journey to Mars: Destination Mars — Super Models
Audience: Pre-service, In-service, Home School and Informal Educators of Grades 4-8
Event Date: May 12, 2016, at 6 p.m. EDT
Students you teach today may be the first explorers to Mars! How far will they have to travel to explore Mars? Is Mars big or small? This webinar will investigate those questions and explore Earth, the moon and Mars with NASA STEM activities that model the sizes of and distances between those bodies in our neighborhood. The activities presented in this session also address the Next Generation Science Standard MS-ESS1-3. Register online to participate. https://www.etouches.com/170334

For a full schedule of upcoming webinars, visit http://www.txstate-epdc.net/events/.

Please direct questions about this series of webinars to Steve Culivan at stephen.p.culivan@nasa.gov.

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