The Center’s programs embrace stories of Earth and space that are meant to inspire young and old alike across a community, address strategic needs in science education, help create a scientifically literate public, ensure a next generation of scientists and engineers, and celebrate the life-long joys of learning and exploration.

Celebrating the Past, Embracing the Present, and Inspiring the Future

We believe that programming content should span a continuum of human exploration, including:

• explorations of the past and how we have come to our current understanding of our world and the Universe, in order to celebrate human achievement and immerse audiences in the process of scientific inquiry;

• present day explorations, providing relevance to our time through participation by the research community and the use of current news as teachable moments; and

• a look to the future, to reveal the nature of debate on the current scientific frontier, and define what awaits the next generation.

The National Center for Earth and Space Science Education has a nearly 20-year heritage of programs at the local and national levels. Partners include the Smithsonian Institution, NASA, the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation, the Carnegie Institution of Washington, the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and communities across the country.

The Center is committed to ensuring that all its science education and public outreach initiatives truly reflect the research experience, and are accurate in both scientific content and process. To best serve this need the Center maintains an in-house space science research group. Staff researchers split their time between research and national education and public outreach.