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MAVEN Educator Ambassador Project

MAVEN Educator Ambassador Project

The MAVEN Educator Ambassador Program provided professional development workshops for middle and high school teachers on the topics of magnetism and spectroscopy, and how they connect to MAVEN science. (Courtesy UC Berkeley)
The MAVEN Educator Ambassador Program provided professional development workshops for middle school teachers on the topics of magnetism and spectroscopy, and how they connect to MAVEN science. (Courtesy UC Berkeley)

The MAVEN Educator Ambassador (MEA) project focused on topics that are fundamental to space science. This national project provided inspiring material on magnetism and spectroscopy for middle school and high school students. The project relied on a train-the-trainer approach: MAVEN personnel trained teachers in the project, and those teachers then trained a second tier of teachers.

The MEA project provided:

  1. Week-long workshops, one in the summer of 2013, 2014, and 2015
  2. Follow-on support for the teachers as they present hour-long to daylong workshops to additional educators in the year following their training
  3. Community-building between all the MEAs in the project through social networking and a weekly MEA email newsletter

As part of the project, we developed new lessons and video interactives that are targeted toward a middle school audience.

MEA lessons and interactives

Lesson name Teacher’s packet Student handout Other materials
Planet Designer: What’s Trending Hot? (MS)  PDF (2.9 MB) PDF (340 KB)
Planet Designer: Kelvin Climb (HS)  PDF (4.4 MB) PDF (360 KB)
Planet Designer: Martian Makeover (MS)  PDF (630 KB) PDF (300 KB)
Planet Designer: Retro Planet Red (HS)  PDF (640 KB) PDF (310 KB)
Planetary Magnetism (MS, HS)  PDF (922 KB) PDF (926 KB)

Interactive Lessons

Can you modify Mars to support liquid water? Find out with the Planet Designer: Martian Makeover interactive (for middle schoolers). Can you modify Mars to support liquid water? Find out with the Planet Designer: Retro Planet Red interactive (for high schoolers).
Explore planetary surface temperature with the Planet Designer: What’s Trending Hot? interactive
(for middle schoolers).
Explore planetary surface temperature with the Planet Designer Kelvin Climb interactive
(for high schoolers).

MEA MAVEN launch webcast

On November 18, 2013, in the hours after the MAVEN spacecraft launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, four MAVEN Educator Ambassadors (MEAs) conducted a webcast for teachers across the country. MEAs are trained in key MAVEN and Mars science concepts (specifically magnetism and spectroscopy) and how to incorporate these concepts into your existing curriculum. The webcast features MAVEN science and classroom activities to share with middle school students, but can be scaled up for high school.

The webcast was recorded with assistance from the Educator Resource Center (ERC) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center and in conjunction with the NASA Digital Learning Network.

http://youtu.be/qr-5eVK6QHo