MESSENGER Educator Fellowship Program
An essential part of the MESSENGER education and public outreach program is a nationwide teacher training initiative whereby a cadre of MESSENGER Educator Fellows—master science educators—conduct teacher training workshops nationally, training up to 27,000 grades preK-12 educators over the mission lifetime. Fellows train educators on education materials (termed MESSENGER Education Modules) developed by the MESSENGER education and public outreach team. To date, over 12,000 educators across the nation have been trained by the MESSENGER Educator Fellows.
Taking part in the MESSENGER Educator Fellowship Program is a great opportunity for educators to make a broad, yet profound impact in science education in the preK-12 community. The current cadre of MESSENGER Educator Fellows consists of 30 Fellows in 19 states. To see a listing of the upcoming MESSENGER educator training workshops, click here.
MESSENGER Education Modules include inquiry-based, hands-on lessons for grades preK-12 that are aligned to the National Science Education Standards and Benchmarks for Science Literacy. The Modules focus on Solar System science, Solar System exploration through history, and the process of designing, constructing, and sending a spacecraft to another planet.
The next recruitment of Fellows is expected to take place in spring 2010. MESSENGER Educator Fellows receive: a five-day training workshop in Washington, DC; business cards which identify you as a MESSENGER Educator Fellow; a press release about your acceptance to the program; a personal Web environment at the MESSENGER Educator Fellowship Program Web site to promote your workshops, copies of the grades preK-12 MESSENGER education units, and a how-to manual on planning, advertising, conducting and assessing effective teacher training workshops, as well as additional resources to help the Fellows reach their goal of conducting MESSENGER educator-training workshops for a minimum of 100 teachers per year.
For more information on the MESSENGER Educator Fellowship Program, contact Dr. Harri Vanhala (voice: 202-297-9178; email: HarriVanhala@ncesse.org). Please check back here in the spring of 2010 for the new Announcement of Opportunity and for a description on how to apply to become a member of the next cadre of MESSENGER Educator Fellows.
