General Atomics - Educational Outreach

Educational Outreach

Since 1992, the General Atomics Science Education Outreach Program, a volunteer effort of GA employees and San Diego science teachers, has worked with Science Coordinators for the San Diego Schools to bring the business and research side of science into the classroom. The goal is both to improve the quality of science education and to encourage more students to pursue science careers. In addition, the teachers' interactions with the scientists and exposure to everyday uses of their disciplines help them to be better educators.

In 1995, the program was expanded, and the General Atomics Sciences Education Foundation was established. The General Atomics Sciences Education Foundation’s goal is to play a major role in enhancing pre-college education in science, engineering and new technologies. To attain this goal, four areas of core competency at General Atomics were initially selected to form the basis for the development of inquiry-based education modules and associated workshops. Scientist/teacher teams wrote these modules, which fuse the content and methodology of industrial research and development with the teaching skills of experienced science teachers.

Hundreds of teachers attended the initial workshops. Since the first workshops, additional educational modules have been developed and presented to teachers at local, state, and national conferences. Two of the modules developed attracted the interest of professional educational institutes, who have transformed them into educational modules that are being distributed nationally.

• The Line of Resistance module and the Explorations in Materials Science modules were revised in collaboration with the Institute for Chemical Education (ICE) at the University of Wisconsin. ICE is currently selling these modules worldwide.

When these workshops are presented at conferences, the General Atomics Sciences Education Foundation supports the printing of various associated materials that are handed out to all participants, as well as the travel expenses of the General Atomics scientist presenters.

The General Atomics Sciences Education Foundation has supported many local education projects such as the PISCES Project and the San Diego Science Festival.