In partnership with a broad and diverse range of organizations and individuals, the wgbh educational foundation will coordinate a comprehensive effort to develop, disseminate, and support the…

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has awarded a $11,562,621.67 grant to the WGBH Educational Foundation, a non-profit public media organization, to develop and disseminate media-rich digital educational products and services aligned with national standards and curriculum needs. The goal is to create content featuring NASA missions and research across science disciplines for K-12 students and teachers. WGBH will integrate existing NASA-produced media resources into interactive curriculum modules and produce new educational content such as a student version of Worldwide Telescope and two new NOVA Labs. The effort will involve partnerships with Harvard University, Framingham State University, and Oregon State University to promote integration of the products into professional development programs nationwide. This grant is not a set-aside contract.

In partnership with a broad and diverse range of organizations and individuals, the wgbh educational foundation will coordinate a comprehensive effort to develop, disseminate, and support the effective use of media-rich digital products and services for students, teachers and schools across the country. These resources will be designed specifically for alignment with current national standards and curricular needs, meeting audiences where they are in their learning and instruction. The proposed project, which will feature NASA-produced material, data and expertise, will primarily target k-12 students and teachers in pre-service and in-service settings, but will be relevant and accessible for learners in informal environments as well. Reflecting SMD's new, integrated approach, our focus will incorporate the stories of NASA's missions and research across all of the SMD science disciplines, resulting in integrated products and coherent strategies that address all four of the directorates' current education goals. Building upon and leveraging NASA's considerable investments in wgbh programming to date, we will conduct an iterative, multiphased research and development program extending over the current 5-year project period that is designed for sustainability and is inclusive to NASA's SMD community. Leveraging existing assets. We will integrate a set of NASA-produced media resources within a host of new educational products designed for use in today's classrooms. This work will begin by deconstructing existing materials into discrete components, contextualizing these separate assets for presentation on PBS learningmedia (pbslm), and then redesigning them into interactive, media-rich "curriculum modules" that address the new ngss and ccss standards and are easily integrated into classroom instruction. Wgbh broadcast and web-based programs, from peep to design squad to nova, will be featured in the development and distribution of these modules. The resulting products will be shared for simultaneous presentation on NASA sites and distributed free-of-charge through PBS learningmedia (pbslm) and other proven conduits to teachers and students. We will also design, develop, and integrate a student version of worldwide telescope on pbslm and produce two new nova labs, enabling students to receive and manipulate data streams from astronomical missions and providing immersive experiences and authentic research. Building community and sustaining active engagement. Following initial production, field testing and research-based refinement, we will team with partnering organizations to promote integration of the resulting products into both pre-service and in-service professional development programs around the country. Other stakeholder audiences, including students as well as NASA scientists, will also be actively engaged with the project activities through virtual field trips, interactive online "missions" for research, and opportunities to work directly with NASA data. Wgbh is uniquely positioned to lead this effort. As the foremost PBS producer of science content across both broadcast and online platforms, our contributions are both trusted and widespread. Our work in the education space has been equally impactful, realized most recently through our role as stem lead for pbslm, a digital library that currently serves 1.7 million registered users. We will assemble a diverse set of partners to assist in this effort, including both formal teaming arrangements and leveraging relationships. The core team includes worldwide telescope (WWT) at harvard university, the christa mcauliffe center at framingham state university, and the center for research on lifelong stem learning at oregon state university.