MURED Uniform Outcomes Report

1. Introduction: brief overview of your project and its objectives. The ECSU NRTS is designed to serve the states of North Carolina and Virginia. The NRTS provides network training and facilitate HBCU/MI network opportunities in research and education for SMET faculty and students, as well as for the teachers of predominately minority-attended elementary and secondary schools in ECSU's region. Research focus for the NRTS include High Performance Networks and Earth System Science. The MU-SPIN Project identified three major objectives for the 1999-00 year. Those three objectives are: 1) the establishment of videoconferencing capability within the NRTS Centers; 2) the documentation of NRTS activities and partnerships on the World Wide Web; and 3) the closer alignment of NRTS and partners with the NASA enterprises. Over sixty workshops were conducted including two major training events. More than 1400 educators and students participated in the onsite and off-site workshops. The workshops used the computer laboratories located on the campuses of our HBCU/MI and K-12 partners as well as the NRTS training laboratories.

2. Enrollment Data: summary of participant data by grade level, ethnicity, school district, etc., as appropriate for your project. Native American students comprise 43% of the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, and over 70% of all the K-12 schools in Robeson County, NC. Also, in North Carolina is Halifax county, which has schools with over 50% Native American populations. Each of these partner counties is classified as an Empowerment Zone/Enterprise Community (EZ/EC). Edgecome County and Wilson County in North Carolina as well as Norfolk/Portsmouth, Virginia are also classified as EZ/EC communities. More details on EZ/EC communities can be found at http://www.ezec.gov. The ECSU NRTS consortium is made up of five Historically Black Universities/Colleges, These include Bennett College, Fayetteville State University, Hampton University, Elizabeth City State University, and Norfolk State University. The University of North Carolina at Pembroke with a student population of over 40% Native American Indian, is also a member of this consortium.

3. Outcomes: summary of measurable outcomes and achievements for the reporting period, including any longitudinal data collected since the projects inception. Videoconferencing facilities are now available in the NRTS laboratory and ISDN service. This has provided support for four major videoconferences including an interactive videoconference on Thursday, April 6, 2000 entitled "Fulfilling NASA's Challenges in the Millennium: Retooling Knowledge Bases, Preparing for Opportunities, and Making Your Mark," Sponsored by NASA's MURED Office, the Symposium was designed to reach approximately 2,000 students and faculty and focuses on NASA Enterprise related topics: Videoconferences initiated by the NASA Office of Space Science and Earth Science were also a part of the ECSU NRTS schedule. All partners have now established a webpage which focuses on NRTS activities. The webpages are housed on the ECSU Umfort server and are available for viewing at http://nia.ecsu.edu/nrts/nrtspartners.html. The 1999-00 initiatives have shifted the focus away from infrastructure and instead have been designed to enhance the science and research capability of partners and their affiliation with the centers. All activities have a NASA related component designed to introduce or better acquaint partners with the resources and research opportunities available through Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA Headquarters, and Langley Research Center. Representatives from the centers and other NRTS have been involved with each university activity. Three videoconferences were well attended by partner institutions which introduced them to both Earth Science and Space Science opportunities. Four Earth Science Education grants were received by NRTS partners as a result of these activities. The initiatives are described in the Earth Science Enterprise 2000 Education Catalog. Page numbers are indicated after the name of the initiatives. The titles of these awards are: Mathematics of the Dismal Swamp (p.20); You Be The Scientist with Satellite Imagery in EZ/EC Communities http://nia.ecsu.edu/nrts/ess/earth.html (page 8); NSU/NASA Research Experience in Earth System Science hppt://vigyan.nsu.edu/reess (page 11); and Norfolk State University Scenario Based Learning: Inquiry for a Digital Earth (page 56) . Also included in the Earth Science Enterprise 2000 Education Catalog is the Annual Earth System Science Academy (page 26).

4. Partnerships Building partnerships has been a major NRTS focus during the 1999-2000 funding year. Those efforts have resulted in increased participation with NASA's Office of Earth Science, Space Science, NASA's NOVA Program, The Langley Educator Resource Center, Goddard's Space Flight Center and The US Department of Education. The specifics regarding each of these partnerships is given below. NASA Earth Science Education Office Earth Science Education Funding Announcement Videoconference Feb. 2, 2000 10:30am - 2:00pm 115 Lester Hall on the Campus of ECSU. The Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) announces an opportunity to participate in the Earth System Science Education Alliance (ESSEA) in an innovative professional development program. ESSEA is a partnership among IGES, the Center for Educational Technologies (CET) at Wheeling Jesuit University, and NASA's Earth Science Enterprise (ESE). Its objectives are to promote the growth of knowledgeable and well-equipped K-12 Earth system science educators through on-line professional development courses; Demonstrate the effectiveness of the World Wide Web in the promotion of professional development of K-12 Earth system science educators; and Respond directly to the need to prepare more teachers to meet the demand of a growing U.S. student population. versities, colleges, and science education organizations in offering K-12 on-line graduate courses that have been developed for NASAs ESE by the CET at Wheeling Jesuit University. Discussion of the proposal guidelines will be an integral part of the videoconference. For more information about the ESSEA program, please see the programs WWW site at http://www.cet.edu/essea. Mathematics of the Great Dismal Swamp The Mathematics of the Dismal Swamp Project supports a team of professors from ECSU to use research on The Great Dismal Swamp Project as a platform for development of a mathematics education course that incorporates a generic wetlands application. The focus of the project is to improve pre-service math education students' understand of the interdisciplinary nature (including biology, organisms and aquatic levels, chemistry, geoscience, estuaries and swamp, and math analysis of the data) associated with Earth Systems Science. Four new modules will be developed, which include the interdisciplinary approach for incorporating Earth Systems Science in the targeted mathematics education course. The team of professors will participate simultaneously in both Project ALERT and Project NOVA. The project is sponsored by The NASA Earth Science Enterprise (ESE) Education Program, ECSU, and The MUSPIN Office of Goddard Space Flight Center. You Be the Scientist with Satellite Imagery You Be the Scientist with Satellite Imagery in EZ/EC Communities is a student enrichment project for 6 targeted middle schools located in the economic empowerment zone communities of Portsmouth, Virginia and Halifax, North Carolina. The student enrichment component is designed to support extra curricular science activities structured to maximize awareness of and utilization of GOES satellite data to meet core Earth Science learning objectives and to develop marketable skills in the area of computer technology. The You Be The Scientist program launches students into the 21th century with organized integrated science and technology educational enrichment activities. The program also includes a component which exposes students to a variety of careers available in research, data analysis, applications, and computer visualization. NASA educational sites, which provide a wealth of resources on science careers and Earth System Science Concepts, are integrated into the career component. Implementing this project is Elizabeth City State University (ECSU), at which the MU-SPIN Office of Goddard Space Flight Center has established a Network Resources and Training Site (NRTS). ECSU brings satellite imagery to middle schools in its region in an effort to enhance the study of mathematics and science by underrepresented minority students. The program is designed to aggressively strengthen the current Earth System Science (ESS) outreach to EZ/EC middle schools by GSFC and the ECSU-NRTS. National Science Teachers Association Conference The National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) Convention was held in Orlando, FL on April 5-9, 2000. The ECSU NRTS supported the participation of 6 partners who worked at the NASA Earth Science Education Booth. NRTS representatives also attended the preconference ESS orientation session. Information of NRTS ESS programs was distributed during the event. IEEE IGARSS 2000 Conference The following papers from the ECSU NRTS were presented during the IGARSS Remote Sensing Conference: The PICASSO-CENA Satellite Mission K-12 and Public Outreach Program Using Remote Sensing; Diversifying Earth System Science Education - the Undergraduate Research Model; Geoscience & Geophysical Modeling: How Will the Dilemma be Solved ?; and The Annual Earth System Science Academy. NASA's Earth Science Education Forum in Austin, TX Sponsored by NASA's Earth Science Enterprise and organized by the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies, the 1999 NASA Earth Science Education forum was designed to bring together representatives from all NASA ESE Education Projects. The conference was intended to meet the following objectives: Communicate NASA's Earth Science Education strategy and vision for ;the future; Share knowledge and experience gained as a result of NASA ESE education activities; Encourage leveraging and cooperation among principal investigators; Share resources and unique approaches to enhance current programs. Four representatives of the ECSU NRTS made presentations at the conference. CET Earth System Science On-Line Courses (Earth System Science Education Alliance-ESSEA) This proposed project will extend the current set of NRTS Earth System Science initiatives to include delivery of three courses in Earth System Science to K-12 teachers in the Virginia and North Carolina Region which the NRTS serves. Courses will reside on a LINUX server currently under the supervision on two full time network engineers and a team of undergraduate student researchers. The three available Earth System Science courses (for teachers of grades K-4, 5-8, 9-12) use an innovative instructional design model. Delivered over the Internet, they feature student-centered, knowledge-building virtual communities, the optimal method of teachers to teach and for students to learn. NASA Office of Space Science Space Mission Involvement Videoconference 115 LH. The goal was to help university educators understand the NASA Strategic Plan which mandates that the Office of Space Science involve the education community in its endeavors to inspire America's students, create learning opportunities, enlighten inquisitive minds; and communicate widely the content, relevancy, and excitement of NASA's missions and discoveries. The MU-SPIN Space Mission Involvement Workshop was held Dec. 9-10, 1999. Participants discovered how they can participate in major education, outreach and science conferences nationwide! NASA Opportunities for Visionary Academics (NOVA) NOVA was created to develop and disseminate a national framework for enhancing science, mathematics and technology literacy for preservice teachers in the 21st century. The lead institutions of the NOVA consortium, include The University of Alabama, Fayetteville State University, The University of Idaho, and a network of fifty other member institutions, are working to produce enhanced scientific literacy for preservice teachers. Elizabeth City State University Network Resources and Training Site hosted a NOVA workshop on the campus of Hampton University. Minority university partners of the NRTS at ECSU, South Carolina State University, Morgan State University, and CCNY brought teams of faculty to the workshop. Teams consisted of science, engineering, technology, mathematics, and education faculty who are concerned with how universities prepare new teachers. Using the NASA mission, facilities, and resources, NOVA provided faculty with enhanced knowledge and skills to implement change in university courses. Teams that have successfully completed this workshop are eligible to submit a proposal to develop and implement a course for preservice teachers. This course must address national standards and benchmark guidelines for precollege teachers and must integrate math, science and technology. The workshop topics included: Demonstration of an undergraduate science and mathematics course framework; Examples of successful course models; A mentoring support system for faculty wishing to implement new courses or modify existing courses at their universities. NASA Langley's Educator Resource Center. To help disseminate materials and information to educators, NASA's Education Division has established the Educator Resource Center Network. This network is comprised of Educator Resource Centers(ERC'S) and the Central Operation of Resources for Educators (CORE). These facilities are the principal distribution points where educators may obtain NASA Publications, video/computer materials, and participate in training workshops on the use of NASA educational products. Through the NASA Educator Resource Center Network (ERCN), educators can enhance their existing curriculum with information generated by NASA programs, technologies, and discoveries. Five Portsmouth Public School Educators appointed to the staff of the Langley ERC will conduct a cross-reference study of NASA ERC resources and Virginia Standards of Learning. During the summer of 1999 three North Carolina Educators received a similar appointment to the ERC during which time they conducted a study of the use of NASA educational resources in the North Carolina educational standards. Goddard Space Flight Center: ESS Coolspace Program Six schools, including Fayetteville State University, ECSU and several middle schools have been targeted to launch their students into the 21th century with an integrated science and technology education program redeveloped through research at Goddard Space Flight Center. Mr. Michael Comberiate leads the investigation. NASA has developed a hardware and software system that allows students from elementary school through college the opportunity to process raw satellite data from the GOES weather satellite in real time. The system allows student to manipulate HRPT image data from NOAA and NASA. These image and data sets include post-processed HRPT imagery of significant events such as fires, volcanoes, oil spills, floods, storms, etc as they are being prepared for various websites. Selected imagery from Meteosat (European geostationary weather satellite) and GMS (Japanese geostationary weather satellite), Hubble Telescope, Tropical Rain Monitoring Mission and SeaWiFS (Ocean color/Phytoplankton) are available using these systems. Installation of the systems and training is scheduled for summer 1999. NRTS partners hosted both the Anartica video broadcast and the Hawaii video broadcast organized by the ESS Coolspace Program. United States Department of Education A collaborative proposal submitted by NSU, ECSU, FSU, UNCP and VSU to the Department of Education Minority Science and Engineering Improvement Program was funded for $480,000 over three years. The unifying theme for Project ATOM is visualization and modeling. The long term goal is to increase the number and enhance the preparation of minorities pursuing degrees in physical sciences which include physics, mathematics and chemistry (non-medical). The project title ATOM stands for Accentuating Technical Opportunities for Minorities. Dr. Raj Chaudhury of Norfolk State University assumed the lead in writing the proposal and will serve as Principal Investigator. Portsmouth Public Schools $145,830.00 in Partnership cash awards to PPS schools and to teachers were used in implementing the following initiatives form 1995-00: High School Intern Program, LINK Summer Workshop for High School Students, NetDay Awards, Annual Partnership Awards to 3 schools. Technology Mini-grants to Educators, Earth System Science Awards, Summer Training Stipends for Educators, ERC appointments,, and Train-the-Trainer Awards for educators. Educators in Portsmouth Public Schools also implemented the SOHO Project. Halifax Public Schools This initiative represents a collaboration between Halifax County Public Schools , The UNC MSEN Eisenhower Year 10 Program, ECSU, and The NASA Network Resources and Training Site, which addresses both training and technology infrastructure. Past efforts of ECSU have represented a broad stroke designed to reach all K-12 schools in its region. This initiative will allow ECSU to focus training activities on the targeted schools in Halifax County. Of the 100 counties in North Carolina, Halifax County is third from the bottom with children living in poverty; 43% of Halifax children 6-17 are from families whose incomes are below Federal poverty level. Ninety-three percent of students in the LEA population is minority: 87% black, 5% Indian, 4% Hispanic and 4% white. The summer component consisted of a two week workshop. Workshops were designed to increase the teachers knowledge and understanding of science and technology related issues involved in integration of the internet into the classroom. The summer session extended for two weeks and ran for 5 hours each day (50 hours of instruction) with hands on laboratory sessions as an integral part of the program. Each teacher participating in the summer training received 5 CEUs and a $500 stipend. During the follow up year, educators were invited to all regularly scheduled training activities of the NRTS. Also a part of the follow-up component was the availability of technical expertise of the NRTS staff to assist school staff in connectivity related issues.

5. Issues/Concerns: summarize any critical issues, concerns, or lessons learned. This NRTS has many K-12 partners whose student body is more than 50% Native American. These schools are in Robeson County North Carolina and in Halifax County North Carolina. Both of these counties are also enterprise zones/economic communities (EZ/EC). The special needs of these communities needs to be addressed more thoroughly and the NRTS would appreciate assistance from any MURED staff whose work involves Native American Indian populations. Questions asked on the Uniform Outcomes Survey both part one and two, are not well suited to reporting NRTS statistics and outcomes.

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