NASA Community College Network
Connecting community college instructors with NASA Science experts & resources.
The NASA Community College Network (NCCN), brings NASA science and NASA science expertise into the classrooms of the nation’s community colleges. Currently, NCCN supports 255 instructors teaching astronomy and space science at 215 community colleges across 44 states. Supporting this effort are 125 subject matter experts (SMEs) who work for NASA or use NASA data or instruments in their research.
Around 40% of introductory astronomy courses in the United States are taught at community college, making the community college system a significant contributor to STEM education for hundreds of thousands of students each year.
NASA’s Science Activation brings the unmatched STEM resources of NASA to schools, libraries and science centers across the United States. NCCN will amplify this reach into the nation’s community colleges, which play such a vital first step in so many academic journeys into science, research, technology and beyond.
Dr. Simon Steel
NCCN Principal Investigator
NCCN works in four ways.
- By providing a forum and community of practice enabling instructors themselves to to engage in a dialogue on best practices, effective use of resources, and learning opportunities. This is especially important for faculty members who are their college’s sole astronomy instructor.
- By providing a set of high-quality, curated, educational resources produced either by NASA scientists and educators, or using NASA data or results.
- By providing information on the latest science or teaching resources through webinars and small group meetings,
- By brokering direct partnerships between individual Subject Matter Experts (SME) and Community College Instructors (CCI), in classroom presentations, teaching materials, or simply in conversation about astronomy and space science.
If this sounds useful to you as a community college educator or a volunteer opportunity as a NASA scientist, join us!
Project Website
