CONTOUR mission has its sights set on comets and public education

By Cornell University News Service

The Comet Nucleus Tour (CONTOUR) will provide the world with the first close-up look at a comet’s nucleus. But before the spacecraft even begins its long journey toward the first of possibly three comets, NASA has begun the mission of engaging the public in the discovery process through a variety of imaginative outreach programs.

Guided by Laura Lautz, CONTOUR’s education and public outreach coordinator at Cornell, the mission’s international science team is using the occasion to educate students and the public alike about comets, in particular, and planetary science, in general.

In recent years, increasing emphasis on outreach and education by major scientific funding agencies – including the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health and NASA – has sparked renewed interest among scientists in developing ways to work outreach into their research programs. In the case of NASA, every Office of Space Science flight project proposal is required to devote at least 1 to 2 percent of the overall mission budget to education and public outreach.

"NASA relies on high-quality scientists and science education in the U.S.," said Lautz. "Outreach by NASA puts energy back into the U.S. school systems by providing meaningful contributions and feedback."

Lautz has considerable expertise in science education. Before signing on as outreach coordinator, she earned her master of education degree at Harvard University in 1999 and then taught geology and physical science in the Palo Alto, Calif., school system.

"Perhaps one of the most fascinating aspects of CONTOUR is the idea of origins, trying to gain an understanding of how our planet and its atmosphere were formed by looking at comets. I think that this concept is important for students to learn," said Lautz.

To engender enthusiasm in students for ideas like this, NASA and Cornell recently teamed up to sponsor the Comet Challenge, a competition that asked middle and secondary school students and their teachers nationwide to devise CONTOUR educational outreach plans. Proposals were received from 22 states, and four winning teams were selected to attend the scheduled launch on July 1.

Also underway is the Comet Curriculum program to develop K-12 lessons and materials for the classroom with the goal of making CONTOUR science topics a more permanent fixture in the classroom. Lautz is collaborating with Lora Hine, educational outreach coordinator for Cornell’s Laboratory of Elementary Particle Physics, to develop a curriculum and pilot it in the local area. Lautz and Hine also have joined forces to co-host a curriculum development workshop for high school physics and earth science teachers at Cornell, beginning July 15. After developing lessons as a group, said Hine, the workshop sponsors will provide teachers with access to "materials kits" necessary to teach the lesson plans. One or two participants will receive funds to present their lessons at the annual Science Teachers Association of New York State conference in November.

CONTOUR outreach also is sponsoring a public education effort called the Solar System Ambassador Program, in which nearly 300 volunteers across the country will hold public lectures on space science. To prepare for CONTOUR, the program’s lecturers recently held a teleconference with NASA scientists.
"We provide them with materials, allow them to ask us questions, and then they go out and host outreach events," said Lautz.

One Solar System Ambassador expects an audience of between 2,000 and 5,000 people at his information session on launch day in a park near the CONTOUR launch site at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, said Lautz.

Public education also extends to museums. Cornell undergraduates Matt Siegler ’03, Brian Chan ’04 and Rob Waskis ’04 have designed and built a half-scale model of the CONTOUR spacecraft that is soon to go on permanent display at the Ithaca Sciencenter. Siegler, a physics and film major, also was part of the team that last year built a full-sized model of the 2003 Mars rover vehicle.

"I am really excited that the [CONTOUR] model will end up at Ithaca Sciencenter because I’m a weekly volunteer there," said Siegler. "Getting kids and adults excited about science is great, not because they will all become scientists, but because they might just become a little more curious about the world around them."