The Heliophysics Community of Practice for Formal Educators is a multi-mission effort led by THEMIS-ARTEMIS E/PO and supported by the Van Allen Probes E/PO, IBEX E/PO and the Heliophysics Forum. The Community of Practice provides professional development opportunities for middle and high school teachers across the country to learn more about current heliophysics research and incorporate it into their classroom. The Community of Practice includes monthly videoconferences and an online group with asynchronous discussions and resource sharing.
In January 2012, twelve middle and high school science teachers were recruited to participate as Lead Teachers to help create the Community of Practice. These teachers were recruited from existing NASA SMD E/PO Heliophysics teacher professional development projects such as the HEA program, the GEONS program, THEMIS professional development programs and Van Allen Probes workshops. During FY13, the Lead Teachers worked with NASA E/PO coordinators to design and implement the Community of Practice. Guest scientists and educators from SDO, IRIS, Van Allen Probes, THEMIS and MAVEN missions gave science update presentations to the teachers. These presentations are archived on a Youtube channel.
Dr. Laura Peticolas demonstrates a magnetism activity to the Heliophysics Community of Practice during a web conference.
During 2014, the Community of Practice is expanding to include new teachers. If you are a middle or high school science teacher who would like to get involved, please contact us!
We also welcome participation from scientists and E/PO professionals from other NASA SMD Heliophysics missions and teacher professional development projects
For more information, visit http://smdepo.org/project/5981 or contact Nancy Alima Ali at nancy.ali@ssl.berkeley.edu.
Reports:
- THEMIS_CoP_ASP2012(V3).pdf
- THEMIS_AGU_Meeting2013_CoPSlide.pdf
- COP_LeadTeacherTeleconference_Nugget.pdf
- HQ_Report_CoP_MarchTeleconference.pdf
- COP_VirtualRetreat_Nugget.pdf
- HQ_Report_CoP_AugustVideoconference.pdf
