Science Teachers Invited to Join NASA Educators Online Network

by Joe Savrock (June 2010)

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Teachers of science and other technical disciplines can connect with NASA scientists, engineers, and other teachers by logging onto a new Web-based resource.

The NASA Educators Online Network (NEON) is a new learning community developed by researchers at the Aerospace Education Services Project (AESP), housed in Penn State’s College of Education. NEON gives K–12 educators of the STEM disciplines (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) an online symposium for sharing matters of common interest. The network allows teachers to bond with scientists, engineers, and other teachers to help support their classroom work.

Chris Gamrat, AESP technology specialist, explains that NEON is set up to allow members to easily find persons who have similar interests and needs. “After inputting your personal profile, you can align your interests with the interests of other users,” he says. “Users can then easily connect with each other, form groups, and share their resources.”

NEON also allows users to locate a variety of teaching, learning, and professional-development resources.

Gamrat invites all current and future STEM teachers to join the network. “We especially hope to attract new teachers as well as preservice teachers who are pursuing a career teaching science,” he says. “The network also would benefit those teachers whose expertise is in other subjects but who have been encouraged to incorporate STEM into their classrooms.”