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Paper: NASA Heliophysics Education and Public Outreach Forum Product Analysis Effort
Volume: 457, Connecting People to Science
Page: 309
Authors: Bartolone, L.; Nichols, M.; Withnell, H.; Ali, N. A.; Mendez, B.; Paglierani, R.; Peticolas, L.
Abstract: The NASA Science Education and Public Outreach Forums (SEPOF) have as two of their goals to improve characterization of the contents of the Science Mission Directorate Education and Public Outreach (SMD EPO) portfolio (Objective 2.1) and assist SMD in addressing gaps in the portfolio of SMD EPO products and project activities (Objective 2.2). The Heliophysics Forum has undertaken the task of product analysis for the entire heliophysics portfolio of K–12, informal, and outreach products and programs. The product analysis process determines the alignment of the portfolio to the AAAS Benchmarks. Along with the work of the other forums, the goal of this project is to conduct a “gap analysis” to ascertain how many products and programs align to the Benchmarks and to discover where the “gaps” are located, i.e. those benchmarks that are not covered sufficiently (or at all) by the portfolio. Two anticipated outcomes of this work are to inform the creation of the future online “one-stop-shop” catalogue of NASA Science Mission Directorate (SMD) educational materials and help inform NASA EPO professionals of the need for portfolio materials to “bridge the gaps” that would address the needs of our audiences. The goal of product analysis is not to redo the work of the NASA Review processes, only to analyze the degree of alignment of these approved products to the AAAS benchmarks and a characterization of the instructional strategies and assessment tools (as well as other details) that would inform the future online catalogue. This paper highlights the product analysis process, the Heliophysics Forum team's progress, and the results of Heliophysics Forum product analysis to date.
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