Education
OCO's Public Engagement Program will bring together new Education and Outreach activities and opportunities. The OCO program specifically supports NASA's strategic goals by:
- Engaging the public in Earth Science exploration and discovery, and
- Inspiring and motivating students to pursue careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).
As several members of the OCO science and management team are former teachers and professors, the OCO team is especially interested in developing these education related components. The team understands how cutting edge advances in research can spark the interest of students and is eager to funnel OCO data through the public engagement office to enhance educational and public outreach programs.
Through a partnership with the GLOBE (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment) Program, OCO will create a new Atmosphere/Climate protocol based upon CO2 measurements so that the next generation of explorers can share the excitement of scientific discovery. Students will benefit from inquiry-based learning and student-based research advocated by professional educators. These experiences will inspire many of the students to pursue careers in science and technology.
In order to inspire and motivate students, we need to inspire and motivate their teachers. OCO will support professional development for teachers through the Chautauqua summer courses funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), as well as the NASA Educator Resource Center (ERC) Teacher Workshops. These workshops provide teachers with powerful techniques to supplement their state's Earth Science education standards with data generated from NASA missions.
A drawing of Earth from
