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Outreach and Networking
The
CaSGC"s community outreach program provides an informational
interface to NASA's Enterprises and to the U.S. Aerospace
Program. Space Grant personnel (affiliate campus directors,
faculty, and students) interact with the community through
student - mentor projects, lectures and presentations to the
public and news media, and serving on committees involved
with community technical or educational issues. They provide
the expert content for many community and statewide education,
high technology workforce development and research programs.
Along with this, many Space Grant affiliates have produced
informational web sites to educate and inform the public.
These projects cross all of the NASA Enterprises and involve
CSGC affiliates throughout California.
An
example of two southern California educational outreach projects
involve translating space research into informational exhibits
in two San Diego museums, the Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institution
of Oceanography and the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center. Similar
programs have been instituted across California. The partnership
with the museums and other informal educational organizations
throughout California provides access to mentors and instant
contact to a large section of the community. Similar programs
have been established by CSGC affiliates in central and northern
California.
On
the student - mentor projects, the students work in teams;
mentors guide them and they generate useful products while
honing their communications, teaming, and research skills.
In the process of putting together web exhibits for the museums,
for example, they find they are learning the science, they
are learning how to translate difficult concepts to the public,
and they are learning how to work for a demanding customer
without loosing patience.
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