Some LPS classrooms will soon include NASA technology

Lincoln Public Schools teachers and students will soon have access to cutting-edge science technology developed by NASA, thanks to a federal grant awarded to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln that includes a partnership with LPS.

The National Science Foundation awarded the $1.7 million grant to UNL to develop climate literacy curriculum for Nebraska high schools that utilizes an online modeling tool commonly used by NASA but only once before by K-12 educators, in Texas.

Before they implement the curriculum in other school districts, researchers from UNL and NASA will work with LPS to incorporate the technology into one of its existing high school courses, Geoscience. The Nebraska State Climate Office also will advise on the project.

James Blake, K-12 science curriculum specialist for LPS, called it a tremendous opportunity for the school district’s teachers and students.

“Students can model Earth’s climate future using real data with this project,” he said. “The computing capability allows LPS students to ask their own questions as authentic scientists, instead of reading someone else’s information about the subject, as all students in the nation have been able to do to this point.”

The Nebraska State Board of Education has required all school districts to include climate literacy in their science curriculum since at least 2010, though the Board did adopt standards with updated language in 2017. With this new technology, LPS can continue to teach climate literacy - but in a groundbreaking way.

“This tool will help make our lessons on climate more dynamic by allowing the kids to analyze the climate models and make predictions based off those models,” said Pete Stone, a science teacher at Lincoln Southwest High School.

The project’s researchers are currently working with a group of six LPS science teachers - including Stone - to clarify the goals of the grant. These teachers plan to use the software in their courses by spring 2018. By the grant’s fourth and final year, researchers hope to have all 20 geoscience teachers and 3,000 students across LPS using the technology in their classrooms.

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