McREL: Education and Public Outreach: New Approaches to Learning

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Education and Public Outreach

McREL: Education and Public Outreach: Reaching Out to Make a Difference — New Approaches to Learning


		Photo: Courtesy McREL

The right materials in the right hands
No matter what the topic — whether it’s the mysteries of the solar system or the new wonders of nanotechnology — McREL’s team of educators, writers, and multi-media designers turn complex content into engaging, pedagogically sound educational materials for students and the public. We find innovative ways to get those materials out to wide audiences, including students, teachers, decision-makers, and the general public.

Four-element approach to Outreach
McREL's full-service outreach package incorporates four elements that provide one cohesive and integrated program:

Award-winning expertise
McREL E/PO is the recipient of the NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory Public Service Group Achievement Award for work on the Genesis mission. The E/PO team also received Teacher magazine’s Teacher’s Choice Award for work with Disney Educational Productions.
+ For more information on McREL E/PO, contact John Ristvey

E/PO in Action

Dawn Education and Public Outreach

NASA's Discovery mission Dawn will characterize the conditions and processes of the solar system's earliest epoch by investigating in detail two of the largest protoplanets remaining intact since their formations, Ceres and Vesta. McREL provides products and services to support the missions outreach efforts. Examples include:

The mission Web site
Multimedia
Events and professional development
Products for formal, informal educators and the general public

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Genesis Web site

This website contains information concerning NASA’s Genesis mission to collect solar wind particles from the sun. McREL partnered with NASA to create a Web site containing:

Information concerning the mission objectives and progress
The Genesis team who are making the mission a success
A host of educational opportunities for K–12 classroom teachers connecting real world science to classroom instruction
Products and activities for teachers and students of all ages

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PBS TeacherLine Courses

From 2001-2005, McREL worked with PBS TeacherLine to create Web-based professional development courses for PreK–12 teachers: Teaching reading, writing, and math in the content areas, in mathematics, and in science. Each online course contains video clips showing real-time applications of the strategies as well as interactive elements that help to engage learners and provide opportunities to practice what they have learned. These sessions are now available to educators nationwide through the PBS TeacherLine Web site.

Virginia NCLB Web site

The Virginia Department of Education asked McREL to create a new NCLB website: Help to Achieve—Virginia established this Web site to provide a wide variety of NCLB resources to the Virginia K-12 community—teachers, parents & administrators. The Help to AchieveWeb site features No Child Left Behind subgroup resources, a searchable database, resource materials, and is section #508 compliant.
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TV Junkie Educationally-Enhanced DVD

McREL, in collaboration with Scope Seven, developed an educationally-enhanced DVD (eeDVD™) for the film TV Junkie, a documentary about one man’s struggle with addiction. McREL informed the editing process for the production of the educational version of the feature film. Then, McREL designed twelve instructional activities, called Curriculum Connections, to bridge the film with The New York Times Anti-Drug Curriculum. McREL developed the educational content for two interactive tools: one is a personal inventory of teens’ risk and protective factors, and the second is a hard-hitting science questions about the physiological consequences of substance abuse.

A NanoLeap into New Science

The NanoLeap project is breaking new ground by developing instructional materials that teach high school students about nanoscale science! This NSF funded project teams McREL with the Stanford Nanofabrication Facility and Aspen Associates to develop and evaluate two high school units, entitled A NanoLeap into New Science. These modules will include student activities, experiments, multimedia, and assessments for use as replacement units in high school physical science and chemistry courses.

Lockheed “Lunar Quest” CD

McREL’s E/PO team and NearlyEverything.com designed four “Smart Games” for Lockheed Martin. Each content-embedded, inquiry-based, interactive game, preceded by a short quiz about space technology, provide environments where players can learn about space exploration and develop an interest in science according to their skill level. Gravitational pull, metric measurements, suiting up, and exploring the surface of the moon all simulate life in a lunar colony for players.

Adapted Curriculum Enhancement

Through the ACE (Adaptive Curriculum Enhancement) Program, McREL is adapting science education materials for use by teachers of visually impaired students. The ACE science inquiry materials are grouped in thematic modules aligned with National Science Education Standards.
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RnE²EW Web Site

Collaborating with National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), McREL's E/PO team has developed a Web site featuring the RnE²EW educational outreach vehicle—designed to educate students, teachers, and the community in renewable energy and efficiency sciences, as well as to showcase DOE/NREL research and technology. Included on the site are RnE²EW van specications, application and scheduling information, fun and challenging kid's activities, and educator resources for providing K-20 educational experiences.
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