From WSU Today:

"Soonchun Lee, Daniel Bergman, Greg Novacek, and Cathy Durano were awarded a $30,000 grant from the NASA Kansas Space Grant Consortium (KSGC) for a Teacher Workshop Program entitled Space Science Hands-On Activities and Practices for Middle School Classrooms Using NASA Education Resources (S2HAP).

When asked why it is important for middle school teachers to participate in the NASAS workshops, Lee said, “The middle school teachers will be able to enhance the students’ interest in space-sciences and career paths to related fields or other STEM fields.”

“The teachers will be engaged in various space-sciences hands-on activities and projects that will improve their knowledge and confidence in teaching space sciences,” Lee said.

The S2HAP workshop is a practice-based and apprenticeship training program for middle school science teachers’ implementation of space-science lessons using NASA education resources.

“They will also be introduced to new advanced NASA educational technologies i.e., NASA YouTube videos, NASA Software and Apps i.e., NASA’s Eyes, NASA 3DV, and Spacecraft AR,” Lee said.

Fifteen middle school science teachers will participate in a three-day summer workshop and teach S2HAP lessons to improve their students’ interests and understanding in space-sciences in the Fall 2019 semester.

“It has been a challenge to provide a hands-on experience to assist students’ understanding of space science concepts, such as moon phases, the reason for the seasons, and the scale of the Solar system,” Lee said. “As science teacher educators, we really wanted this opportunity to help teachers to overcome the challenges and to provide well-designed hands-on activities."