The National Space Centre's Space Academy team has been invited
to take centre-stage at the world's largest space education
conference at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston .
In addition, the National Space Centre has been invited to forge
a long-term partnership with NASA's longest running education
programme.
The collaboration between the Space Academy project and NASA's
Aerospace Educator Services Project (AESP) is the first US-UK space
education partnership of its kind and is firm testament to the
quality of scientists, teachers and other personnel involved in the
Space Academy project; one which it is hoped will soon expand to
benefit students and teachers throughout the UK and the United
States.
Anu Ojha, the Space Academy Project Director, said; "The Space
Academy programme has exceeded all its targets in its first year,
has benefited thousands of students and hundreds of teachers and
has now been asked to collaborate with NASA. We are delighted that
education programmes of the world's largest space agency are keen
to work with us in developing new ways of using space to inspire
the next generation of scientists."
The team's successful presentations in Houston last year, which
gained the highest evaluation scores of any of the conference
sessions, have meant that the Space Academy team has been invited
to lead two of the largest sessions at the annual Space Exploration
Educators Conference (SEEC) which draws in more than 600 teachers,
space scientists and engineers from all over the United States,
Canada, Europe and Japan.
Andrew Morgan, Skills & Communities Director at East
Midlands Development Agency (emda), said "The collaboration between
the Space Academy and NASA is fantastic for the region and I'm sure
many science and engineering students and teachers will benefit
greatly in the future."
The Space Academy team's presentations on the European Space
Agency's Rosetta mission to Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko, are being
recorded for use by the British National Space Centre, the
Government department at the heart of UK space policy, and have
also been selected by Space Center Houston to be streamed live on
the Internet.
National Space Centre Education Director Anu Ojha , Space
Academy Project Manager Dr Sarah Hill , Project Scientist Dr
Catherine Muller from the University of Leicester and science
teacher Ruth Williamson from the Priory Academy LSST in Lincoln
have all been invited to present at the conference.
Plans are also being drawn up for follow-on training sessions
led by other Space Academy scientists and teachers at various NASA
centers during 2010.