Tyler ISD Teachers Take On NASA Training A group of Tyler ISD
teachers are learning how to better engage students in science
education through some specialized NASA training. Sheri Klug
Boonstra, education leader for NASA's Mars Education Program,
recently visited the district to help teachers learn how to get
kids involved in the Mars project. The Imagine Mars Project
encourages hands-on learning, according to a TISD news release.
A science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)-based
project, it requires students to imagine and design a community
on Mars. The project has the potential to enrich students'
understanding in various aspects of the Texas Essential
Knowledge and Skills, which is the state standards for what
students should know. In one of the training exercises, teachers
created a scaled version of the solar system using string, beads
and other tools. This is a project they could complete with
students next year. Caldwell Elementary Arts Academy fifth-grade
teacher Andre Williams said s