News Release

Reading, writing and rockets: Thanks to NASA, mom takes home school beyond basics with 'high-tech' know-how

Peer-Reviewed Publication

NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center News Center

This fall Marcia Guyse and her sons plan to build a scale model of the solar system and design a spacesuit for walking on Mars -- not science projects, but science and math activities for their home school.

Where did this Decatur, Ala., mom get the know-how for such "high-tech" projects?

Guyse found her lesson plans and materials at the Educator Resource Center at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. The Resource Center offers a wealth of information to teachers, those studying to teach and home-schooling parents in a six-state area.

In 1997, parents chose to home school nearly 1.23 million children rather than in a public or private school, according to the National Home Education Research Institute.

For Guyse, the Educator Resource Center offered more than just great projects for her children. She earned professional development credits to keep her Alabama Teacher's Certification.

"The workshops were wonderful. The presenters were knowledgeable, made the subjects easy to understand, and were good about focusing on skill-age levels. Plus, the workshops and materials were free. I brought home lots of posters, CDs and lesson plans," Guyse said.

Guyse took such workshops as "Aeronautics for Elementary Teachers," studied the International Space Station, Hubble Space Telescope and Solar System, and learned how to access NASA online resources. She plans to use the workshop information in other subjects.

"Flexibility is one of the benefits of home schooling," Guyse said. "Because children learn in their own way and on their own schedule, our approach to science will work for both my 11- and 8-year-old. I can use the material to generate essays, reading assignments, math and hands-on group activities, as well."

Marshall's Educator Resource Center is part of NASA's educational service that provides instructional products in science, mathematics and technology nationwide. The Educator Resource Center Network maintains more than 50 resource centers at NASA sites and universities across the United States.

Marshall's center offers three-hour workshops, each Tuesday and Thursday, in everything from Earth science to the history of rockets. Often NASA scientists, who volunteer their time, are presenters at the workshops. In 1999, the center held 123 workshops -- including monthly Saturday sessions -- and reached 1,932 teachers.

The center receives hundreds of phone and mail requests for materials: The most requested are instructions on how to build a rocket -- with film canister and Alka-Seltzer™.

The resource center provides supplemental classroom material that is not a substitute, but an enhancement, for a state's curricula, according to Alicia Beam, the pre-college officer at Marshall. Beam, who oversees Marshall's resource center, said all materials and curricula are aligned with national standards for math, science and technology.

"We believe it's one thing to talk about the history of rockets and another to actually build and launch one," said Beam. "Our speakers try to include hands-on activities in every program."

Marshall's resource center provides an activities and workshop calendar to the state departments of education in Alabama, Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri, Louisiana and Iowa.

All educators may access the workshop schedule and resources through NASA's Spacelink -- an electronic library with information on NASA's aeronautics and space research.

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The web site provides teacher's guides with activities, images, computer software and status reports on projects, plus news releases and television broadcast schedules. Spacelink can be found at: http://spacelink.msfc.nasa.gov.



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