North Carolina, South Carolina, & North Dakota Space Grant Consortia Join Forces for IDEAS Educator Workshop
NDSGC Joins Forces for 2025 IDEAS Educator Workshop in Alaska
This summer, a team of passionate educators, scientists, and space enthusiasts gathered under Alaska’s midnight sun for a unique experience that blended cutting-edge STEM content with hands-on, classroom-ready activities. From July 7–10, 2025, the annual IDEAS Educator Professional Development Workshop brought together pre-service, in-service, and informal educators from across the country to learn new ways to inspire the next generation of space explorers.
Hosted at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks by the Alaska Space Grant Consortium, the 2025 IDEAS Workshop marked another successful year of collaboration between the North Dakota, South Carolina, and North Carolina Space Grant Consortia. Funded by NASA’s National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program, IDEAS—short for Innovative Differentiated Exploration Activities in Space Science—is more than just an acronym; it’s a mission to empower educators with dynamic teaching strategies grounded in real NASA science.
Reimagining STEM Education, the NASA Way
The goal? Equip educators with the tools, confidence, and resources to bring space science into any classroom—whether it’s a kindergarten class learning about the moon, or high schoolers prototyping a Mars habitat.
Participants explored a wide range of space science content areas, including human spaceflight, heliophysics, astronomy, and planetary science. The sessions weren’t just sit-and-listen lectures—they were built around problem-based learning, multi-modal teaching strategies, and experiential learning, all designed to spark creativity and promote critical thinking.
NASA Space Grant Consortia from Nebraska, Montana, Tennessee, Louisiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, North Dakota, and Alaska each supported teachers to attend.
Read the full story on blogs.und.edu.
Author Credit: Amanda Curatti | NDSGC
Image Credit: NDSGC, NCSGC, SCSGC
Original Post Date: July 21, 2025