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Gretchen Cook-Anderson
Headquarters, Washington                        May 20, 2003
(Phone: 202/358-0836)

Dawn Kappel
Adler Planetarium, Chicago
(Phone: 312/322-0524)

RELEASE: 03-175

CHICAGO STUDENTS BLAST OFF DURING SPACE STATION WEBCAST

     Students from dozens of Chicago-area public and private 
schools will participate in a webcast Thursday, May 22, with 
current International Space Station crewmembers.

The event will "connect" the students with Expedition Seven 
astronaut Ed Lu and cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko from 9:55 a.m. 
to 10:15 a.m. CDT, via NASA downlink, and will be hosted by 
Chicago's Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum.

The webcast will offer eighth graders from economically 
disadvantaged Chicago schools the opportunity to see science 
in action and to be inspired by the International Space 
Station crew. At the Adler Planetarium, 1300 South Lake Shore 
Drive, 40 students will participate in the webcast, along 
with educators, Adler trustees and local radio personalities.

"This webcast, in partnership with Adler Planetarium, will 
enable students from underserved communities to interact live 
with our astronauts," said Debbie Brown Biggs, Team Lead for 
NASA's Teaching from Space Program, which enables the 
downlinks. "This opportunity allows NASA to reach out to the 
community to help inspire the next generation of explorers by 
bringing outer space into the nation's classrooms," she said.

The webcast is part of Astronomy Connections, a professional 
development program for educators created by the Adler 
Planetarium. The program illustrates ways in which Internet-
based technologies, museum resources and astronomy-themed 
instruction programs can be used by educators to help their 
students better understand astronomy.

The Space Station webcast is one in a series of downlinks to 
educational organizations across the country, and an integral 
component of NASA's Teaching from Space Program, managed by 
the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

The Teaching from Space Program facilitates educational 
opportunities using the unique environment of human space 
flight. The program builds partnerships with education 
communities to create unique learning opportunities through 
the use of NASA and educational technology.

For more information on the Internet about the Adler 
Planetarium, visit:

http://www.adlerplanetarium.org

For more information about NASA's Teaching from Space 
Program, visit:

http://education.jsc.nasa.gov/Educators/tfsp.htm

For information about other NASA Education programs, visit:

http://education.nasa.gov

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