TodayThe Final Frontier
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Shippensburg University professor Christine Royce is a NASA ambassador. (Pam Roy/Special to The Sentinel )
It was one small step for Christine Royce, but it's helping her students take a giant leap.
Royce, an assistant professor of education at Shippensburg University, completed a workshop hosted by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration earlier this summer to become a NASA ambassador.
NASA hosted 23 teachers and professors from across the country in "The Structure and Evolution of the Universe Ambassador Training Program."
The program helps science and math teachers, kindergarten through college, develop learning material for grades six through 12.
The seven-day seminar at Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park, Calif., included topics such as black holes, exploding stars and warps in space time.
"Kids love this kind of stuff, and it's this type of science that is done in the SEU theme," says Philip Plait, one of the seminar leaders.
"This is a great way to teach kids and their teachers about fascinating topics in high-energy and gravitational wave astronomy," says Lynn Cominsky, who co-led the seminar with Plait. "It's a perfect marriage between scientists and engineers who are designing, building and doing research with NASA satellites; and professional educators who are best suited to getting the information to the students and to other teachers."
Royce, a Newburg resident, had to apply and be interviewed to be accepted to the program.
Royce has been teaching future science teachers at Shippensburg University for the past three years, but she's in the 15th year of her career, having taught at the University of Scranton and Bishop Hannon High School, also in Scranton.
"My classes will change, just having been exposed to these new methods and strategies," Royce says. "I'll be able to interject real-life examples instead of just using the textbook."
Besides her classes at SU, Royce will conduct seminars and workshops based on the knowledge she gained in the SEU program.
"As a NASA ambassador, I have to do four outreach activities during the year," she says.
She has two programs lined up for the fall, at the New Jersey Science Teachers Convention and the Pennsylvania Science Teachers Convention.
But the work doesn't stop there.
As a NASA ambassador, she'll continued to attend SEU seminars until about 2011. She looks forward to the challenge.
"It's an awesome opportunity to be working with scientists and teachers on a common goal," she says. "It was tiring while I was there, but overall, it's very energizing."
