Teachers in space, INC. (TIS) propose to expand and update our educator professional development workshops and classroom flight experiments program by adding suborbital flights with blue origin S…

This federal contract award, with ID 80NSSC18K0273, was granted by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to Teachers In Space, Inc. (TIS), a non-profit educational organization. The award, valued at $75,421.87, is intended to expand and update TIS's educator professional development workshops and classroom flight experiments program.

The primary objectives are to add suborbital flights with Blue Origin's New Shepard vehicle to TIS's existing high-altitude balloon and stratospheric glider flight opportunities for student-built experiments. This will enable TIS to significantly increase the number of teachers and students they can reach with these hands-on STEM learning experiences. TIS has existing collaborations with various space industry partners and educational institutions to deliver workshops and experiment flights for schools and museums. This NASA Research and Education with Distributed Innovation (REDDI) program award will help TIS standardize their technology and engineering methodologies, leading to more efficient scaling of their impactful educational initiatives.

Teachers in space, INC. (TIS) propose to expand and update our educator professional development workshops and classroom flight experiments program by adding suborbital flights with blue origin S new shepard vehicle to our current offerings of high altitude balloon and stratospheric glider (airbus perlan II) flights for experiments built inside cubesat formfactors. Originally funded by a 2010 NASA can awarded to the space frontier foundation, teachers in space began in 2011 to produce workshops, flight experiment opportunities, and other space science experiences for teachers and their students to share the excitement of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). We added glider flights for teachers, and high altitude balloon flights for experiments, to our program in 2012. In 2014 we incorporated in the state of new york as an educational non-profit 501(C)3 organization, and in 2015 we added experimental payloads. Our goal all along has been to enable teachers and their students to build and fly experiments aboard suborbital vehicles. We are thrilled that this opportunity has arrived! In 2016 we began accepting contracts from individual schools and dstricts to bring our flight experiments workshops and flight programs directly into classrooms, reaching students as well as teachers directly. We began to standardize our experiment designs, using 3D-printed cubesat form factor frames and a suite of arduino sensors, processors and data stores which teachers and students can configure in a number of ways. We now have a number of experiment types which have flown on both high altitude balloon and stratospheric glider, and which we are eager to integrate into nanoracks featherframe aboard new shepard. Schools, cities, teachers want to give their students cutting edge, meaningful STEM learning experiences, but they DON T require that every lesson be brand new. Great value comes from teaching new but tested technologies and allowing teachers and students to experiment with configuration and to compare and discuss their results with each other via our community webpages, social media spaces, and both video and live conferencing opportunities. This proposal shows how funding via NASA S reddi program will help teachers in space significantly expand the technology and engineering education and experiences we provide to teachers and to students across the united states by enabling US to standardize the technologies and engineering methodologies we teach. We LL be able to offer flight experiment opportunities to thousands rather than hundreds of students annually, and we can greatly increase the number of teachers we train, who in turn will share their knowledge with other teachers and community members. Ultimately we LL see a continued increase in the number of students from our program going on to STEM careers in the aerospace industry, in medicine, and in engineering. Teachers in space maintains collaborations with NASA, aeroinstitute, ssep, nanoracks, embry-riddle aeronautical university, cuny, suny, columbia university, nastar, spacex, orbital ATK, space florida, zerog, blue origin, final frontier design, ardusat, silicon valley space center, intrepid museum, challenger center, nyskies and space.COM. We have delivered or are in contract to deliver workshops and experiment flights for new york city schools, the ashford school in connecticut, adventure science museum in nashville, intrepid sea air and space museum, the perlan project and the world science festival. Dennis stone, former NASA commercial crew and cargo integration manager, said "what sets you guys apart is you're actually flying stuff. With this reddi funding opportunity, and the support of our sponsors and partners, we can now standardize and greatly increase the stuff we fly on behalf of teachers and their students, whether in the stratosphere, or at long last aboard suborbital flights.