CASE STUDY: NASA Educators Online Network

NEON was created in conjunction with Penn State’s Aerospace Education Services Project (AESP) under contract to NASA to provide a place to help teachers and professionals in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). Teachers want to stay informed about ongoing advances in STEM education and seek resources for their classroom. They also want to share and discuss innovations in educational approaches. NEON has become an ideal place to find educators interested in the same fields of study as well as specific content that can be easily located. For collaboration and shared learning, Groups have been designed to accommodate a diverse set of interests in all areas of STEM education. To date there are over 250 Groups that are sorted by geography, area of interest, specific programs and events. Resources, lesson plans, peer-to-peer discussions are all readily available on NEON.

NEON’s Goals

Find other educators based on areas of expertise, interests, roles and needs
Develop effective collaborations
Learn from and support each other
Find teaching and learning resources
Improve STEM teaching and learning
To increase the pool of STEM graduates and professionals.

Click to watch a series of videos about NEON

Who Uses NEON?

Currently over 6,000 educators, primarily from the United States, with expatriate teachers located around the globe. Educators are mostly in K-12, though NEON is designed for any teacher, with many home-school teachers in the network as well. The vibrant community also includes Administrators, Scientists, as well as NASA staff and other scientists. Members of the Penn State Aerospace Education Services Project continually provide rich content and guidance to all members of the network.

Connecting Educators Across Many Dimensions

There are many free and inexpensive STEM resources available to educators on the internet. What makes NEON unique is the Profile that each educator creates when they first login. It’s specifically designed for STEM educators. This profile indicates their role and area of expertise, areas where they can help and areas they would like to help others in as well as their their professional interests.

What Do We Learn From NEON?

One of the goals of NEON is to capture information in many dimensions: roles and areas of expertise, areas where teachers and others can help and areas where they need help as well as their professional Interests and activities. This information guides the editorial and content requirements for AESP and provides valuable areas for teachers to make connections. It also makes it extremely effective to find subject matter experts.

Who can join? This is one of our ‘open’ communities.

If you are a teacher or know of a teacher, home-school parent or others interested in furthering STEM education in our youth, you are invited to join NEON by signing up. It’s free. http://NEON.introNetworks.com