TTUSD Teacher Selected for Renowned Aerospace Professional Development Workshop at NASA

May 19, 2017

TRUCKEE, Calif. – Laurie Scheibner, an elementary science teacher at TTUSD’s Glenshire Elementary and Tahoe Lake Elementary schools, has been selected for the prestigious LiftOff Summer Institute to be held at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas this summer. This nationally competitive program sponsored by NASA’s Texas Space Grant Consortium selects teachers who will increase their knowledge of science, technology, engineering, and math through space education. Scheibner is also receiving grant funding from the California Space Grant Consortium for her registration fees and travel expenditures to Houston.

Liftoff 2017’s theme is Starry Night. The workshops provide teachers the rare – and for most, unique – opportunity to spend a week working with professional scientists and engineers at the cutting edge of space exploration. A solar system is a star and all of the objects that travel around it – planets, moons, asteroids, comets, and meteoroids. NASA is conducting an unprecedented array of missions that will seek new knowledge and understanding of Earth, the solar system, and the universe.

LiftOff is a collaborative effort of Texas Space Grant Consortium members and affiliates, NASA, and industry. Teachers apply for LiftOff and are selected competitively. The workshops are organized around an aerospace or space science theme drawn from NASA’s diverse engineering and scientific research programs. The weeklong institute features a series of workshops, hands-on activities, field investigations, and presentations by NASA scientists and engineers working on various missions.

Multiple NASA missions are studying our sun and the solar system, unraveling mysteries about their origin and evolution. By understanding variations of the sun in real-time, we can better characterize space weather, which can impact exploration and technology on Earth. In August 2017, a total eclipse of the Sun is visible from a narrow corridor that traverses the U.S. Educators will receive background information on the Sun while analyzing the characteristics of objects in the solar system that allow life to exist. Learn about Day and Night, Seasons, and Tides.

From robotic explorers, increasing knowledge about the Red Planet, and telescopes, educators attending Liftoff will return to their school districts to not only use materials received in their own classroom but to train other educators.

Educators selected will come together June 25 - June 30 at NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas to conduct experiments, tour facilities, and network with other educators while sharing innovative lesson plans and ideas.

The LiftOff workshops prove that the excitement teachers, and more importantly, their students, feel about space science can be used to enrich STEM education and inspire the next generation of explorers.

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Contact:

Kelli Twomey, Coordinator of Parent & Community Relations

ktwomey@ttusd.org, (530) 582-2585