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Gretchen Cook-Anderson
Headquarters, Washington                     April 3, 2003
(Phone: 202-358-0836)

RELEASE: 03-132

NASA EXPLORER SCHOOLS PROGRAM DEADLINE NEARS

     The application deadline for the NASA Explorer Schools 
(NES) Program is midnight April 4, 2003. Reaffirming its 
commitment to education, NASA announced the education 
initiative in February 2003, to bring exciting learning 
opportunities to educators, students, and their families.

Under NES, NASA has partnered with the National Science 
Teachers Association (NSTA) to provide a unique relationship 
between schools and the agency to "inspire the next 
generation of explorers." In fact, the number of 
applications to the NES more than doubled following last 
week's NSTA conference in Philadelphia.

The NES Program is designed to provide customized, extended 
professional development for educators. It will also provide 
authentic mathematics and science experiences for students 
and their families.

Fifty NES teams will be chosen from around the country to 
begin the journey. The teams will have a week of intensive 
training at one of NASA's 10 Field Centers in July. Each 
team will consist of three or four science, mathematics, or 
technology educators and an administrator. The teams will 
develop and implement action plans to address local needs in 
science, mathematics, or technology education for the 
following three years. During the 2003 pilot year, the 
program will focus on content at the five thru eight grade 
levels.

Educator/administrator teams will work with NASA specialists 
to integrate agency science content into their curriculum 
through problem-solving activities and to incorporate 
challenges into their mathematics and science curriculum. 
Students will have opportunities to apply science, 
mathematics and technology to real-world issues and problems 
and to learn about the vast array of career options at NASA. 
Students and their families will be the focus of interactive 
local and on-line learning experiences.

NES Teams will be eligible for a $10,000 grant. The grant is 
designed to assist with the purchase of science and 
technology tools to support the teams' implementation plan 
to bring cutting edge technology applications to the 
classroom.

To learn more about the NES program on the Internet and the 
on-line application process:

http://explorerschools.nasa.gov

For more information about NASA programs on the Internet, 
visit:

http://www.nasa.gov

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