NASA Microgravity University for Educators Acceptance

Our team first learned of our acceptance into the NASA Microgravity University for Educators (MgUE) with a call from NASA on December 12, 2016.  My colleague and NASA team member came into my classroom while I was teaching her students and said NASA was on the phone.  Even though it was a day earlier than the scheduled announcement, we both knew what this might mean.  I ran to the office to take the phone call because that was my first inclination.  I took the call in the office.  I found my self on a conference call with the Education Program division at NASA Johnson Space Center.  I recognized all the names from the informational session I had watched to help us with the proposal.  It was so exciting when they told me we had received provisional acceptance.  It was provisional because we needed to make some changes to our design.  However, that was no surprise to us.  Upon completing the call, I rushed back to my classroom and told my team member that we had been accepted.  Strangely enough, I began to doubt if it had been real.  Our team had not received any further communication.  On December 21, 2016 we received email confirmation of the phone call.  It began to set in that we were really going to get to work with NASA and travel to NASA Johnson Space Center.  It was great to be able to let the students and teachers know.  Students had been asking me when I thought we would know if NASA had accepted our proposal.  I'm so excited for this opportunity and what it means for the students and teachers involved.

I encourage anyone else who is interested to apply.  Just developing the materials for the proposal was a fantastic opportunity for students and teachers, both of which grew during the process.  Not only are we positively impacting students, but we get to participate in some amazing professional development.  Below is the schedule we worked towards during the proposal process.

Proposal Opens                 10/17/2016 2:00pm         Central Time
Information Session         10/27/2016 7:00-8:00pm Central Time
Information Session         11/01/2016 7:00-8:00pm Central Time
Information Session         11/17/2016 7:00-8:00pm Central Time
Proposal Submission Ends 12/01/2016 11:59pm         Central Time
Team Announcements         12/13/2016 2:00pm         Central Time

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