Projects

The following is a partial list of Center projects:

AESP: Aerospace Education Services Project
Working in cooperation with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, AESP provides NASA-related educational services to K-12 schools in all 50 states and U.S. territories. AESP education specialists and project assistants work at NASA's nine national centers and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. This project began on Sept. 1, 2007.

FLEXE (From Local to EXtreme Environments)
This four-year NSF-funded project brings together Ridge 2000 (a network of ocean scientists), CSATS, and the GLOBE Program, an earth-observing project that involves teachers and students from over 100 countries. flexe is GLOBE's first project to examine the deep ocean environment--the largest ecosystem on Earth. Participating students will interact with scientists and partner schools through comparative environmental monitoring protocols, experiments, and online interactions to study their local environments and the deep ocean.

GREATT (Graduate Research and Education in Advanced Transportation Technology)
This five-year NSF-funded Graduate K-12 project (GK12) is directed by Prof. Daniel Haworth (Mechanical Engineering) and places graduate science Fellows in precollege settings to provide hands-on instruction related to hybrid vehicles, fuel cells, crash testing, and other issues related to advanced transportation engineering. CSATS is providing Fellow training and curriculum alignment consultation, and is contributing to external program evaluation.

Curriculum for Pennsylvania Transportation Science and Technology Education
This project, funded by the Pennsylvania Department of Education, is collaborating with the NSF GREATT project to develop and distribute PA Science and Technology Standards-referenced instructional materials related to transportation-related science and engineering. Click here to access some of the instructional modules that have been developed.

Video-Enhanced Instruction Related to the SWIFT Gamma Ray Observatory
Video and other curricular resources have been developed by CSATS and Penn State Public Broadcasting that use the story of the SWIFT Gamma Ray Observatory to teach middle school students both SWIFT-related science and about the history and nature of science.

21st Century Energy: An Integrated Curriculum for Pennsylvania Teachers
Working again with Penn State Public Broadcasting, CSATS is developing multimedia instructional materials and professional development for teachers related to sustainable energy production in Pennsylvania. The project is supported by the West Penn Power Sustainable Energy Fund.

Research Sabbatical Fellowships for Teachers (Boeing) (pdf, 44kb)
With corporate philanthropy support, CSATS has begun a program that will bring Pennsylvania science teachers to University Park to participate on research projects directed by PSU scientists and engineers. The program will focus on high-need urban schools.

Pennsylvania Space Grant Consortium
The Center provides evaluation services for professional development programs for science teachers that are offered through the Pennsylvania Space Grant Consortium. Recent Space Grant summer courses have included astrobiology, astronomy, biotechnology, materials science, and meteorology. You can get information about upcoming workshops here.