Get Involved in Education and Public Outreach! The Science Mission Directorate Science E/PO Forums Are Here to Help

NASA's Science Mission Directorate (SMD) Education and Public Outreach (E/PO) Forums help to engage, extend, support, and coordinate the efforts of the community of E/PO professionals and scientists involved in Earth and space science education activities. This work is undertaken to maximize the effectiveness and efficiency of the overall national NASA science education and outreach effort made up of individual efforts run by these education professionals. This includes facilitating scientist engagement in education and outreach. The Forums have been developing toolkits and pathways to support planetary, Earth, astrophysics, and heliophysics scientists who are - or who are interested in becoming - involved in E/PO. These tools include: 1) Pathways to learn about SMD and E/PO community announcements and opportunities, share news about E/PO programs, let the E/PO community know you are interested in becoming involved, and discover education programs needing scientist input and/or support. These pathways include weekly e-news, the SMD E/PO online community workspace, monthly community calls, conferences and meetings of opportunity. 2) Portals to help you find out what education resources already exist, obtain resources to share with students of all levels - from K-12 to graduate students, - and disseminate your materials. These include E/PO samplers and toolkits (sampling of resources selected for scientists who work with students, teachers, and the public), the one-stop shop of reviewed resources from the NASA Earth and space science education portfolio NASAWavelength.org, and the online clearinghouse of Earth and space science higher education materials EarthSpace (http://www.lpi.usra.edu/earthspace). 3) Connections to education specialists who can help you design and implement meaningful E/PO programs - small to large. Education specialists can help you understand what research says about how people learn and effective practices for achieving your goals, place your programs in context (e.g., Beyond IYA, Sun-Earth Day, launch events, 50 Years of Solar System Exploration, Earth Science Week), and get your programs and products disseminated. 4) Connections to education professionals to collaborate with you on educational programs, involve intended audience members as partners to guide your programs, reach a broader audience, and insure impact with external partners through the E/PO community contact database and workspace profiles, conferences, meetings, and SMD E/PO community annual retreats. Recently developed, the NASA SMD Scientist Speaker's Bureau (http://www.lpi.usra.edu/education/speaker) offers an online portal to connect scientists interested in getting involved in E/PO projects - giving public talks, classroom visits, and virtual connections - with audiences. Learn more about the Forums and the opportunities to become involved in E/PO and to share your science with students, educators, and the general public at http://smdepo.org.