My NASA Langley Summer Experience
Wow, what an experience! This summer, I was selected among a few talented educators to serve as an intern for the Science Directorate at Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. Upon entering Langley, I was consumed with excitement and apprehension of what would be expected of me as an intern. The feelings of uncertainty were subsided as I conversed with my NASA mentor, Tina Hart, regarding what I aspired to learn and experience. As a science educator and GLOBE teacher, I felt compelled to learn more about GLOBE Elementary, since I have obtained years of experience with GLOBE activities designed for middle and high school students. The Science Directorate provided various interactive GLOBE protocol trainings entailing of investigations regarding the atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere. In addition, the Science Directorate offered outreach workshops to educate teachers, pre-service teachers, students and parents. As an educator with nearly 10 years of teaching experience, I was overwhelmed with excitement when given the opportunity to assist with the outreach workshops. During the Virginia Beach Teacher Development Training at Regent University outreach, I experienced GLOBE Elementary while assisting the Virginia teachers as they explored various learning activities. The Primers Robotic Program: GLOBE Training NASA Education Outreach provided me the opportunity to support middle school students as they learned how to conduct a GLOBE hydrosphere investigation.
The knowledge and experience acquired through the trainings and outreach workshops contributed to the development and completion of a project plan focused on aligning GLOBE to Mississippi’s K-2 science standards. I accomplished my goal of generating two documents that focused on the alignment of the standards and classroom implementation. These documents were created to give teachers, curriculum specialists, administrators, and parents the opportunity to understand what GLOBE is and how teachers can incorporate it within classroom instruction to increase student achievement.
My experience as an intern for the Science Directorate was awesome! I would highly recommend this summer opportunity to any K-12 educator!
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