Anita Krishnamurthi

NASA Advisory Council

Task Force on STEM Education

July 28, 2016
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Taskforce on STEM Education

Members:

• Margaret Honey 

• Aimee Kennedy

• Anita Krishnamurthi *chair

• Michael Lach

• Ray Mellado

• Jim Stofan

• Carl Person * vice-chair

Meetings in 2016: March 2016, June 2016, July 2016
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Observations

The Business Services Assessment is currently conducting 

an assessment of NASA education. 

1) We suggest that this effort should describe how NASA’s 

education efforts are currently structured or should be 

structured to embody the following principles:

• Shared ownership and vision (does everyone at NASA see 

education as part of their mission and job?)

• Engenders trust (do individuals and teams have the relationships 

and collaboration opportunities to work together effectively as 

equal partners?)

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Observations (contd.)

• Transparency (Is it clear who’s doing what, with what 

money , to what end and how decisions are made?)

• Authority and accountability— (which offices have 

authority in what projects)

• Resources— are the resources allocated appropriately 

for the desired outcome)

2) Does the Office of Education have the capacity required 

to be successful? This includes personnel, funding, political 

clout, access to people across the agency and externally, 

and relationships.

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Finding

• A narrower strategic focus for NASA’s education 

discretionary/non-directed dollars will allow the agency’s 

education efforts from being spread too thin.

– For example, we encourage NASA to consider focusing on 

particular age bands, geographic areas, segments of the 

population, or content areas in each solicitation cycle. 

– To make this determination, NASA should collect and utilize 

additional impact data to inform solicitations and strategic 

directions for NASA’s education programs. 

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Finding

• NASA education grantees and the larger network of NASA 

educators and researchers would benefit from deeper 

connections with the broader STEM education community.

– STEM education research is advancing rapidly and offers insights 

into design of effective programming. Encouraging increased 

collaborations with national STEM education focused 

organizations, including researchers in such organizations, will 

help individuals be more knowledgeable about the broader 

context of STEM education research and programming.

– Engagement can be used to provide ongoing professional 

development of NASA’s education personnel.

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Recommendation

• NASA education will benefit from a high level external 

taskforce or committee to provide strategic guidance and 

content expertise on all of NASA’s Education program 

investment priorities. The taskforce recommends that 

NASA should appoint a standing advisory taskforce or 

committee for education.

– Such a group will be able to provide a “big picture” vision of the trajectory of 

STEM education and help NASA education leverage ongoing national 

initiatives.

– An advisory group that includes members from the stakeholder community 

will be able to describe educational needs, opportunities or challenges in 

local communities. This information will help NASA determine its future 

strategy for education investments.

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