NASA Astrophysics EPO Community: Enhancing STEM Instruction

The NASA Science Mission Directorate (SMD) Astrophysics Education and Public Outreach (EPO) community and Forum work together to capitalize on the cutting-edge discoveries of NASA Astrophysics missions to enhance Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (S'IEM) instruction. In 2010, the Astrophysics EPO community identified online professional development for classroom educators and multi wavelength resources as a common interest and priority for collaborative efforts. The result is NASA's Multiwavelength Universe, a 2-3 week online professional development experience for classroom educators. The course uses a mix of synchronous sessions (live WebEx teleconferences) and asynchronous activities (readings and activities that educators complete on their own on the Moodie, and moderated by course facilitators). The NASA SMD Astrophysics EPO community has proven expertise in providing both professional development and resources to K-12 Educators. These mission and grant-based EPO programs are uniquely poised to foster collaboration between scientists with content expertise and educators with pedagogy expertise. We present examples of how the NASA Astrophysics EPO community and Forum engage the K-12 education community in these ways, including associated metrics and evaluation findings.