Elliott Ostler

Using Space Imagery in the Science Classroom: Efforts of the CASDE Project

This article describes the ongoing curriculum development efforts of the Consortium for the Application of Space Data in Education (CASDE), which is an evolving consortium of educators, engineers, scientists, and other professionals dedicated to providing the educational community with vast amounts of NASA imagery, tools, and interdisciplinary learning activities, distributed freely over the Internet. The article particularly details the curricular approach taken by CASDE, which involves the concept of “curriculum building blocks” that contain tools, data, tutorials, curriculum standards, assessments, and a sample lesson or instructional activity. The article also describes the student interactive DataSlate software, developed by engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, to help teachers use space imagery conveniently with students in the science classroom. In addition, the article discusses the consortiums approach to providing ongoing training to teachers, and also describes the efforts of the consortium to evaluate some of the educational activities undertaken by participating teachers. Finally, a web-based link to all of the consortiums resources and curriculum activities is provided to the reader for their possible use and reference.

QuaSim: A virtual quantum cryptography educator

This paper describes a project-based gamified educational paradigm, QuaSim, that aims to improve the quality and efficiency of undergraduate STEM education. QuaSim is designed to educate junior/senior undergraduate and graduate students in quantum cryptographic principles. QuaSim converts the traditional subject-based lectures in the field of quantum cryptography into a project-based virtual environment with the aim to teach students, the subject matter, interactively.