Dr. Susan Hoban's Homepage

University of Maryland, Baltimore County
5523 Research Park Drive
Suite 320
Baltimore, MD 21228

email: hoban -at- umbc.edu

CV

In collaboration with NASA, we have developed curriculum guides for engineering education from grades K-2, 3-5 and 6-8. We provide professional development for informal educators and teachers on the use of the Activity Guides, and we provide an introduction to engineering education.

Among other places, the NASA's BEST Activity Guides are in use as co-curricular, afterschool clubs in Anne Arundel County Public Schools in Maryland, and in the Beyond the Bell program in the Los Angeles Unified School District in California.

NASA needs engineers, and kids are natural explorers. NASA's BEST Students encourages students of all ages to engage in engineering and exploration activities. Please visit the NASA's BEST Students Homepage on the NASA Portal!

The objective of this initiative is to involve undergraduate students in research and development projects related to the holdings of NASA's Planetary Data System (PDS). Through the PDS Student Investigators, the PDS strives to prepare the next generation of PDS science investigators.
The PDS includes nodes operated by university/research center science teams and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (Atmospheres, Geosciences, Planetary Imaging, Planetary Plasma Interactions, Rings, Small Bodies, and Engineering). These nodes specialize in specific areas of planetary data. The contributions from these nodes provide a data-rich source for scientists, researchers and developers. PDS Student Investigators conduct a research using data from one of the nodes. They are funded for two years, typically their junior and senior years, and the PDS supports travel to one professional meeting to present the results of their research.