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SPACE BIOLOGY EDUCATIONAL OUTREACH AT THE ELEMENTARY AND UNDERGRADUATE LEVELS.  C.S. Brown^1,2, C.H. Thornton¹, E.D. Knight¹ , K.H. Ellzey³ and T.C. Lanning³.  ¹Kenan Institute for Engineering, Technology & Science, ²Botany, and ³CALS Communication Services, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC.

   One of main goals of the NASA Specialized Center for Research and Training (NSCORT) in Plant Gravitational Biology is to support an active Education and Public Outreach (EPO) program.  Since 1996, members of the NSCORT have shared information on space biology with over 5200 students, 700 teachers, and 500 members of the general public.  In order to increase proactively the reach of our EPO program, two facets have been developed to allow for wider dissemination.
   Space Biology is an undergraduate course at NC State University that covers a broad range of topics, from plant biology to human physiology.  Course lectures (video, audio, powerpoint slides and text) have been digitized and transferred to CDs in discrete, yet coordinated streams.  Additionally, the course will be available via distance education technologies beginning in January 2004.  It is anticipated that this distance education offering will increase the number of students introduced to concepts of space biology.
   Adventures of the Agronauts is a 3^rd grade science curriculum that aligns with the North Carolina Standard Course of Study.  This idea was developed in response to the high percentage of outreach requests from 3^rd grade teachers.  Science concepts covered in the 3^rd grade are plant adaptations, soil characteristics, the Sun/Moon/Earth connection, and heat and light.  The Adventures of the Agronauts is an online curriculum that ties these four concepts together under the themes of space biology and design of a plant growth chamber for the Moon.   The curriculum is being piloted during the 2003-4 school year by 6 North Carolina teachers whose feedback will be used to improve the curriculum before full-scale dissemination takes place in Fall 2004.  Partnerships with the NC Department of Public Instruction and the NC Science Teachers Association will be the main venues of distribution to teachers.

(NASA Grants NAG2-1566, NAG10-308, and NCSU Grant 205014.)