All Kepler Education Projects

The GEMS project at Lawrence Hall of Science (LHS) is a recognized leader in the development of inquiry-based education techniques. Kepler provides support for development of a new GEMS Space Science Core Sequence (SSCS) product that is also partly funded by other NASA EPO teams and the GEMS commercial partner, Carolina Biological Science Company. GEMS has more than 70 teacher guides in print. Kepler EPO is adding unique planet-finding classroom activities to the GEMS SSCS. The Kepler specific activities are also available on this site. SSCS is a new product that is a standards-based sequence to support grades 3-5 and grades 6-8. Parts of it come from existing GEMS activities and parts are new activities to make a core sequence of space science concepts essential to teach in those grade ranges. See summary of the Grades 3-5 Space Science Sequence.

SSCS is in step with the NASA task force mandate for coherence and will be available through Space Science Education Resource Directory (SSERD) The Kepler CD-ROM is being designed to support SSCS in addition to being a stand alone product for other uses.

Impact: GEMS has a well-established national network of more than 60 centers and thousands of master teachers nationwide. Over 100,000 GEMS teacher guides are sold each year to teachers and educators worldwide. Educational effectiveness of GEMS has been proven in a number of studies—see http://www.lhsgems.org/educeffectiveness.html for details. As a part of GEMS Space Science Core Sequence, the Kepler EPO work is used in classrooms during and well beyond the mission.

Evaluation for the GEMS SSCS is done with the guidance of the Kepler LHS Research, Evaluation, and Assessment (REA) team.

All Kepler Education Projects