Teachers attending the Institute earned graduate credit in geography and received 116 space shuttle photographs and slides along with related classroom curricula materials worth hundreds of U.S. dollars. An interdisciplinary team consisting of university professors, NASA Earth observation scientists, and National Geographic Society teacher consultants provided instruction. The Institute was directed by Joan Maier with Judy Lucas as one of the teacher consultants.

The first 2 weeks of the Institute included global and environmental geography content lectures, basic training in interpreting the 116 photographs, and demonstrations of teaching strategies. Teachers were expected to design lessons and activities that used shuttle photographs to develop their students' content knowledge, study skills, and critical thinking. During the third week, each teacher demonstrated one lesson and activity to the whole class. The teachers also developed plans to implement professional development training sessions for district, local, state, or national professional meetings. Curricula materials are presently being developed for dissemination in hard (paper) copy as well as via the Internet or on CD-ROM (e-mail: Joan Maier and Ray Sanders).

To see and hear Judy as she describes the program, click here.

The 38 teachers who attended the Institute over the past 2 years agreed that, as an instructional resource, shuttle photographs depicted geographical phenomena more distinctly and accurately than photographs taken by conventional means. In addition, the teachers reported that shuttle photos of areas on Earth, taken over time, more vividly portrayed environmental issues that are difficult for their students to comprehend and analyze. They believed that the shuttle photographs' more meaningful representation of environments would facilitate their students' interest in not only local, but also global, issues. Teachers' summative evaluations from the Institute indicated that their confidence to interpret and their ability to use shuttle photography instructionally increased through training (Maier, 1996).

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