Southeast missouri state university (semo) was selected by the national aeronautics and space administration (NASA) in 1999 as the site for missouri's NASA educator resource center (ERC). The…

Southeast missouri state university (semo) was selected by the national aeronautics and space administration (NASA) in 1999 as the site for missouri's NASA educator resource center (ERC). The primary purpose of the ERC is to make available to k-12 schools, teachers, and students throughout missouri a wide variety of NASA educational materials related to science, mathematics, and technology education. In addition, the ERC at semo offers an array of teacher-training programs and studentcentered activities both at the ERC and at regional school sites. While specifically designated to serve missouri's k-12 teachers and students, the ERC also serves the state's university community and general public. The NASA ERC at southeast provides a valuable service to teachers and students throughout the state via walk-in, internet (ERC web site), FAX, and phone orders of NASA educational resources. IT also makes available to schools, teachers, and students a wide array of NASA-based student- and teachercentered presentations and training workshops that are delivered in the local schools. Under this present proposal, continued operation of the missouri NASA educator resource center and its outreach efforts and activities would be ensured though october 2011. From its opening in late 1999 through july of 2004, the ERC was exceptionally beneficial to teachers and students in the southeast region of the state, i.e., within geographic proximity (commuting distance) of the ERC. IT was these physically accessible teachers and students that directly benefited from the presentations, workshops, and other teacher- and student-centered activities provided by ERC personnel. On the other hand, while teachers and students geographically removed from southeast missouri had access to ERC educational materials as indicated above, they did not have access to ERC personnel and the educational services they provide. Experience has taught the ERC staff at southeast that the greatest and longest lasting educational impact occurs when NASA materials are used in combination with the clientele's personal interactions with ERE personnel through presentations, workshops, and other such activities. To rectify this geographical inequity with reference to full ERC services, funding was obtained in 2003 and 2004 for the development of a special ERC outreach effort. The result was the establishment of trained NASA educators, called education specialists (ES's), at five geographically removed (from cape girardeau and the ERC) sites: ST. Louis, columbia, kansas city, springfield, and kirksville. Thus, the missouri NASA education specialist network (ESN) was created, consisting of the five sites just mentioned plus the actual ERC located in cape girardeau. The goal of this six-site network is, in partnership with the missouri department of elementary and secondary education's (dese's) regional professional development center (rpdc) network, to enhance the presence and educational impact of NASA and the ERC not only in southeast missouri, but also in areas of the state geographically removed from the ERC facility. The nature of these ES positions is, in many respects, quite similar (on an intrastate, regional basis) to that of the NASA aerospace educational specialists. Through the ERC's partnership with dese, the ES's are housed in, and work cooperatively and collaboratively with, the rpdc's located in each of the aforementioned cities. The first three ES's (ST. Louis, columbia, and kansas city) assumed their formal duties on august 1,2004, while the ES's at springfield and kirksville began operation on august 1, 2005. And the results generated by the ES network have simply been fantastic, both in terms of awareness among teachers of the ERC and its available materials and, especially, in terms of providing significantly more teachers and students in the state with personal delivery ERC services (presentations, workshops, activities, etc.). This present proposal ensu