About Project SEDNet

Project SEDNet is an innovative professional development program directed jointly by the Science Education Department (SED) of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) and the Christa Corrigan McAuliffe/Challenger Learning Center (MCLC) at Framingham (MA) State College. Standards-based SEDNet workshops are now offered at more than 15 Challenger Learning Centers (CLCs) nationwide, with the number of participating CLCs to grow to 24 during the 2002-03 academic year.

The goal of SEDNet is to introduce grade 3-8 educators to an exemplary physical and space science curriculum and provide sustained support to the teachers using those materials. After in-depth training with the SEDNet staff, teams from the CLCs are certified to provide content-rich physical and space science workshops employing a pedagogical model based on contemporary learning theory. Most teams consist of two CLC flight directors and one classroom teacher.

ARIES, the SED’s astronomy-based physical and space science program, is the curriculum featured in SEDNet. There are eight ARIES modules, four in a space science strand, and four others in a physical science strand. On average the CLC fee-based workshops—offered during both the academic year and in the summer months—include about 20 hours of instruction per module, and in many cases, a classroom set of materials (teacher manual, 30 student science journals, and a bin of any specialized apparatus). Charlesbridge Publishing Company, the publisher of ARIES, offers one-day seminars focused on physical and space standards at many CLCs in conjunction with SEDNet.

Funding for SEDNet is provided by the National Science Foundation (NSF), grant numbers ESI-9819459 and TE-9819459, with additional support from Harvard University, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Christa Corrigan McAuliffe/Challenger Learning Center. The Challenger Center for Space Science Education, headquarters for the nationwide consortium of CLCs, has endorsed SEDNet and provides network assistance to the project.