Mission to Planet Earth on-line Earth Systems Science course

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has a leadership role in Earth Systems Science research for the United States with the Mission to Planet Earth (MTPE) program, which, making use of satellite technology, remote sensing, and image processing, is altering our understanding of our planet. Although significant effort is going into the MTPE program, and although the implications of this research will have widespread impact on environmental, scientific, social, political, economic, and health policies worldwide, few teachers and far fewer students are aware of these efforts, or have the skills and knowledge necessary to understand them. Typically, students and teachers do not have experience with analyzing problems on an ecosystem or biosphere scale. But MTPE's scientific studies hold great potential to enhance, enrich, and extend the K-12 science and mathematics curricula. Many curriculum materials have been developed for this purpose by MTPE, Project Globe, and others. In order to provide middle school educators from across the United States with the skills, knowledge, and materials necessary to teach their students about Earth Systems Science and NASA's MTPE research efforts, the NASA Classroom of the Future will design, develop, field test, and disseminate an on-line course making use of World Wide Web and Virtual Reality Mark-up Language (VRML) technologies. The development of the on-line inservice course will be a collaborative effort involving classroom teachers, education personnel and scientists From NASA's Mission to Planet Earth (MTPE), the Classroom of the Future (COTF), and Space Grant Consortia members.