Solar System Ambassador Trains North Carolina Sky Quest

Solar System Ambassador Trains North Carolina Sky Quest Science Olympiad Coaches Using NASA’s STEM Educational Materials Tony Rice Trains Science Olympiad Coaches • • • 8 of the 30 Science Olympiad Coaches Trained Demonstrating Eyes on the Solar System Recently, Solar System Ambassador Tony Rice trained 30 volunteers who will be acting as coaches for elementary students participating in North Carolina's Division A Sky Quest Science Olympiad Rice conducted 3 hour-long sessions for the coaches, who were mostly teachers and a few dedicated parents from across the state As part of the training, Rice used JPL’s Eyes on the Solar System program to aid them in identifying and understanding the relationship of solar system bodies • One teacher commented on the relevance of Eyes saying, “This program lets you handle the solar system. It's easier to learn about something you can handle” • Another teacher added, “It's plain as day that the inner ones are very different than the outer ones just by looking at their orbits. This is better than any book or image I've found on the internet” Rice also engaged the coaches in hands-on STEM educational activities taken from NASA’s Solar System website and Night Sky Network kits that can be repeated with their students The Sky Quest competitions are scheduled to take place at 17 schools across the state beginning in February and concluding in May 2014; about 3600 students are expected to compete from over 200 1 elementary schools across North Carolina