Thornburg Center for Space Exploration

Introducing:
The Thornburg Center for Space Exploration

Our mission is to inspire students and improve STEM education through the design and implementation of an international multi-year elective or after-school program on Space Exploration. It is not enough to just learn STEM content; learners need to be aware of why there are people who choose to spend their lives working in these areas with passion and dedication. This program achieves these broad goals by promoting an environment that fosters innovation, creativity and the development of deep understanding and appreciation for science, technology, engineering and mathematics through the use of inquiry-driven projects done by students. These projects are conducted at school sites with the active guidance and support of highly-qualified educators from the students' schools, along with rich materials from international sources related to the topics of their inquiry.

January 28, 2010
The new year brough a special announcement! Dr. Thornburg's eagerly awaited book, STEM Education: From Sputnik to the 22nd Century, is now available. More information can be found on our books and briefings page here! Special pricing is available for quantity purchases.

December 22, 2009
With conferences in the US and continuing our classroom work in Brazil, the end of the year has been busy for the Center. A new briefing on the important role of engineering on STEM education is on the Briefings page. This work is based on a series of mechatronics workshops Dr. Thornburg did with children in grades 4-7. Those of you going to FETC in Orlando in January will have the chance to get the new book, Stem Education: From Sputnik to the 22nd Century at David and Norma Thornburg's session on space exploration as a STEM curriculum.

November 26, 2009
The STEM book is finished and is on the way to the printer. In January we will have a link to it here. In the meantime, we have been busy with STEM workshops for educators, conference presentations, and STEM workshops for children in grades 4-8. Our next US event is FETC in Orlando, Florida and I hope to see some of you there.

October 12, 2009
Our new book is in final edits, and is on-target for a late November release. In the meantime, visit the Briefings page to see our latest paper on Playing With the Future!

September 26, 2009
This has been a busy month at the Center. Dr. Thornburg is wrapping up a seven-city speaking tour on STEM education, sharing perspectives to educator-based audiences throughout the country and engaging in conversations with JPL/NASA team members on education-related projects. Norma has spent the bulk of her time working with our clients in Brazil, and is giving a speech on the future of educational technology on September 30 in Recife.

In mid-October, Norma and David head back to Brazil for a few weeks before returning to the US to present at the T+L Conference in Denver.

We have developed a new workshop on systemic change based on preparing youth for the 22nd century. Since the 21st cntury is almost a decade old, we felt it appropriate to extend our time horizon to encourage true change that lasts! Contact us for available dates.

Also, Dr. Thornburg's latest book, STEM Education: From Sputnik to the 22nd Century, is ready to go to the printers with a scheduled November release date. To reserve your copy now, send us an e-mail! The first 1000 copies will be autographed by Dr. Thornburg.

August 22, 2009
Our Brazilian schools had a special treat two weeks ago when Dr. Rosaly Lopes (one of our board members from JPL/NASA) visited the four campuses where the Thornburg Center maintains an active involvement.

Dr. Lopes is currently involved wth NASA's Cassini mission, exploring active vulcanism on the moons of Saturn. Based on students' prior interest in space science, the questions they had for her were quite interesting.

We are expanding our program in these schools with the introduction of the Brazilian version of our "futurework" competition, a short course in the design of a Mars colony, and, possibly, a semester-long course on the solar system for fifth graders.

As you look at the faces of the children in the picture above, think that some of them might someday choose to work and live on another planet! Our goal in our inquiry-driven project-based approach to STEM is to be sure that the children with whom we work have the skills and habits of mind needed to explore a dynamic and rapidly changing future, whether on Earth or elsewhere.

August 5, 2009
At the end of July we had the honor of conducting a one-week-long workshop on STEM in Michigan Cty, Indiana. This workshop for educators emphasized guided inquiry and project-based learniing and brought together experts from St. Mary's College, University of Notre Dame, Purdue University, and elsewhere to work with educators from pre-K to 9th grade. Followup workshops will take place later in the year. To see a short video of the hands-on workshop in action, click here.

(Note that we will gladly bring this workshop to your school or district.)
July 14, 2009
After presenting at NECC we returned to Brazil to continue our work with schools in Recife and to prepare for a week-long STEM workshop we are conducting in Michigan City, Indiana at the end of July. This intensive workshop is being done by a team including experts from St. Mary's College, Notre Dame, Purdue and Valparaiso for teachers ranging from the primary grades to the star of high school. The pedagogical focus is inquiry-driven PBL, a topic near and dear to our hearts.

What might school be like if it was modeled on the structure of the research labs that have given the world the advances of modern technology and science? This question is addressed in a new briefing paper that can be found here.

May 29, 2009
I just arrived in the US and wanted to share some of the amazing work being done by kids in Brazil in one of the schools we are working with. We worked with first-grade students who built their own "lunar rovers" - rubber-band powered cars. This project gave them the chance to learn a bit about design, and some science principles as well. The photo below shows the level of engagement shown by these kids when their science teacher visited the room afterwards to talk about friction. The expressions on the faces of the kids tell the success story on project-based learning...

May 6, 2009
The more I thought about the President's STEM speech, the more parallels I found with the speeches on this topic given by President Eisenhower over 50 years ago. The comparisons can be seen here.

In keeping with our look at history, I also revisited the Four Pillars of Educational Technology plans championed by President Clinton. A "scorecard" on our progress toward these impressive goals can be found here.

April 27, 2009
Today, President Obama gave a very important speech at the National Academy of Science that touched on the necessity of improving the US standing in the STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). The whole speech can be seen here.

In many ways this call to action mirrors the speech President eisenhower gave a month after the launch of Sputnik. President Obama fully grasps the urgency of addressing this need, and we are thrilled that our TCSE program tackles some of these challenges head-on.

March 15, 2009
The winners of our Futurework competition have been announced here and we congratulate the one-thousand students who submitted entries. We have many new projects in development and are actively expanding our reach both in the US and elsewhere.

January 11, 2009
2009 is the International Year of Astronomy, and we are working on our Year 2 materials with this in mind. Our FutureWork contest deadline is January 31, so be sure students have filled out their entries using the forms and instructions located here. We already have a lot of entries, but will be holding the door open until the last minute before judging begins. Winners will be announced by March and top prize winners will receive new iPods!

November 3, 2008
News from our Brazilian partner. ARS

We are proud to announce that students affiliated with our Brazilian partners, Grupo Atual in Caruaru, Pernambuco, and ARS Consult in Recife, Pernambuco, are launching their second rocket (Calango II) in Mid-November.

Portuguese announcement: “O Grupo Atual de Educação, a ARS Consult e o Thornburg Center for 
Space Exploration sentir-se-ão honrados com a presença de V.Sa. para assistir  ao lançamento do 
Foguete Experimental Calango II, que faz parte do projeto de iniciação científica desenvolvido pelo 
Colégio Atual de Caruaru com alunos do ensino fundamental e médio."

September 29, 2008
We have just announced a new contest for Middle and High-school students in which they will identify some of the new kinds of jobs that might be available in the year 2020! Details of the contest can be found here.

August 7, 2008
We are thrilled to have four schools leading the way with our program this year: one Middle School and three High Schools. The first round of teacher workshops have been completed, and we can't wait to see students developing interest in STEM fields with the aid of their wonderful teachers and our program. For those who are interested the the connections among the four STEM topics, there is a new brief paper you will want to read.

July 16, 2008
Our first training weeks for our four pilot sites start next Monday. Our initial sites include one middle school and three high schools. Those of you who attended the NECC conference in San Antonio had a chance to see our program up close. As always, we are pleased to come to your area to give a presentation on our work to see how it could be used to improve STEM skills development for the children in your schools. Those who have seen our first-year's curriculum have found it to be an excellent piece of work.

May 30, 2008
Our continued growth is reflected in many recent updates to our pages for leaders, teachers and students. With our Fall training starting soon, we are getting even more student resources ready to post.

May 3, 2008
Our site is now acquiring some structure and will grow significantly in the coming months. Click on the labels above to see some of the resources we are assembling for school leaders, faculty, and students. Some of the links are not active yet as the materials are still in development. By summertime in the US, we expect many of these resources to be ready.

April 19, 2008
We have continued to refine our program as it is developed, gaining strength every day. Our Frequently Asked Questions document continues to get refined as visitors to our site ask deeper questions. You should check it every week or so. After a meeting with NASA next week, we will be contacting sites that are on our "pilot" list so we can keep moving forward!

April 14, 2008
We've presented the outline of this project at two conferences and received tremendous encouragement. 2008 is the pilot year for this project, and full-rollout happens in 2009. If you have schools at the Middle or High School level that might be interested, please have them contact us! Also, the Frequently Asked Questions document gets refined on a regular basis, so please download a fresh copy to see the scope of our current program.

March 1, 2008
Today marks the start of a new and exciting venture - the creation of the Thornburg Center for Space Exploration. As our first project we are developing a three-year STEM curriculum on Space Exploration.

Year One explores the challenges of leaving the gravitational pull of Earth and space activities going as far as the moon.
Year Two explores our solar system
Year Three explores the stars and galaxies

Each year has a rich project-based approach that provides students with exposure and in-depth development and application of skills in the area of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Our program is developed as an after-school program to be implemented by schools initially in the United States and Brazil. This site will grow in size and depth as the project advances. We are already looking for a pilot school and are well on the way to defining the first year's curriculum.

Of course, please direct any questions you have to our founder: Dr. Thornburg

Who we are:
The Thornburg Center for Space Exploration was created by the founder of one of the longest-running and most distinguished groups of consultants, speakers and authors whose primary focus is on education from Kindergarten to twelfth grade. Our international team of designers, educators, and technologists are building a world-class project to benefit students all over the world as they develop skills in the STEM areas of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.