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Astro2010 State of the Profession Position Paper

EPO in Astronomy and Astrophysics:


A Key Avenue for Reaching and Educating the Next Generation

M. Livio, B. Eisenhamer, S. Kakadelis, D. Smith, R. Villard
Space Telescope Science Institute

K. Lestition, M. Watzke, P. Edmonds, K. Kowal Arcand
Chandra X-Ray Center

M. Thaller, G. Squires
Infrared processing and Analysis Center



Brief Overview of the Problem

In their 2007 report entitled Rising above the Gathering Storm,1 the
National Academies urged the United States to take the necessary steps to
be able to "compete, prosper, and be secure in the global community of the
21st century." Two of the four priority areas in which actions were
recommended involved education. The first of those actions was: "Increase
America's talent pool by vastly improving K-12 science and mathematics
education." The second called for: "Making the United States the most
attractive setting in which to study and perform research so that we can
develop, recruit, and retain the best and brightest students, scientists,
and engineers from within the United States and throughout the world."
The Committee on Prospering in the Global Economy of the 21st Century,
which wrote the National Academies report, based its recommendations on a
number of disturbing indicators related to education in the science,
technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. In
particular, in a 2003 study by the Organization for Economic Co-operation
and Development (OECD), which measured the performance of 15-year-olds in
49 countries, US students placed 19th in science literacy and 24th in
mathematics.2 The committee also noted that only about 6% of American
undergraduates major in engineering, and that this percentage is the second
lowest among developed countries. In a different study,3 Trends in
International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS, conducted in 2007), the
United States placed 11th in the international math test for 4th grade
students. The Americans ranked behind Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Japan,
Kazakhstan, Russia, England, Latvia, the Netherlands, and Lithuania. In
science, the American fourth graders ranked 8th. The situation was similar
in the 8th grade, where the American students ranked 9th in mathematics and
11th in science.
In a meeting that took place on April 29, 2008, about 500
representatives of academia, government, and business met in Washington,
DC, to review progress towards the goals outlined in the Rising above the
Gathering Storm report. They concluded4 that "many key steps have yet to
be taken."

NASA's Unique Position and Opportunity

The key point we want to make in this position paper is very simple.
While the role of the Department of Defense is basically to find ways to
defend the nation, and that of the Department of Health is to find ways to
keep the nation healthy, one of NASA's most important roles, by engaging in
exploration and discovery, is to find ways to inspire the nation. This
simple fact has been fully recognized both in the National Research
Council (NRC) report entitled NASA's Elementary and Secondary Education
Program: Review and Critique (2008),5 and in the NRC report Portals to the
Universe: The NASA Astronomy Science Centers (2008).6


The first four recommendations of the former report read:
1. NASA should continue to engage in education activities at the K-
12 level, designing its K-12 activities so that they capitalize
on NASA's primary strengths and resources, which are found in
the mission directorates. These strengths and resources are the
agency's scientific discoveries; its technology and aeronautical
developments; its space exploration activities; the scientists,
engineers, and other technical staff (both internal and
external) who carry out NASA's work; and the unique excitement
generated by space flight and space exploration.
2. The exciting nature of NASA's mission gives particular value to
projects whose primary goal is to inspire and engage students'
interests in science and engineering, and NASA's education
portfolio should include projects with these goals. Because
engineering and technology development are subjects that are not
well covered in K-12 curricula, projects aimed at inspiring and
engaging students in these areas are particularly important.
3. NASA should provide opportunities for teachers and students to
deepen their knowledge about NASA-supported areas of science and
the nature of science and engineering through educational
activities that engage them with the science and engineering
carried out by the mission directorates.
4. NASA should strive to support stability in its education
programs, in terms of funding, management structure, and
priorities.
The latter report first correctly notes that: "There is no bright
line between public outreach and education. All the public outreach
resources provided by the astronomy science centers have educational
value."
The report then emphasizes three crucial findings that highlight the
opportunities afforded by the science centers associated with the three
Great Observatories (HST, Chandra, and Spitzer):
i) A close coupling between a science center's research
scientists and its EPO effort is a hallmark of a successful
science center EPO program.
ii) The public outreach efforts of the astronomy science centers
have a major national impact.
iii) Astronomy science centers have developed valuable resources
for K-12 education, but developing a coherent strategy that
can have a greater educational impact remains a major
challenge.

A Look Ahead

Traditional avenues of communicating science to students and to the
public are undergoing a very rapid transition. The next decade will
realize fully internet-driven transfer of information, across a wide range
of portable devices. This general statement probably holds true in spite
of the fact that it would be naОve to simply extrapolate from current
"trends" such as blogging, twittering, YouTube, or Facebook.
Regardless of the information medium, there will be a stronger need
than ever for professionals trained in translating science into
interesting, robust and compelling lesson plans and stories that can
successfully compete for attention and inspire, in a world that will see an
ever-growing flood of information. Materials will need to be highly
visual, relatively concise, and "user friendly."
In such an environment, science centers associated with large
astronomical missions can use the leverage associated with exciting
discoveries to carve a unique niche in science attentiveness. Such centers
can focus on the big astronomy themes of the next decades, such as: Earth-
like exoplanets, dark energy, dark matter, the very first galaxies, black
holes, gravitational waves, outer solar system exploration, and the search
for extraterrestrial life. The internet will provide scientists and
educators at such centers with a level of access to students and the
general public never before realized in the history of science. To make
this communication effective, however, the science centers will need highly-
trained, articulate, and enthusiastic EPO staff, and funding that will be
appropriate for sustaining vibrant programs.
To conclude, NASA science centers are uniquely positioned for the
anticipated EPO needs of the coming decade. Using them as major EPO
resources is an opportunity that shouldn't be missed.

References

1. National Research Council, 2007, Rising above the Gathering Storm:
Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future
(Washington, DC: The National Academies Press).
2. http://www.pisa.oecd.org/dataoecd/1/63/34002454.pdf
3. http://nces.ed.gov/timss/results07.asp
4. Planning Committee for the Convocation, 2009, Rising above the Gathering
Storm Two Years Later: Accelerating Progress toward a Brighter Economic
Future.
5. National Research Council, 2008, NASA's Elementary and Secondary
Education Program: Review and Critique (Washington, DC: The National
Academies Press).
6. National Research Council, 2008, Portals to the Universe: The NASA
Astronomy Science Centers (Washington, DC: The National Academies Press).