Sheri Klug Boonstra has been a leader and innovator in Earth and space sciences education—especially where Mars is concerned—for decades.Throughout her career, she has created award-winning ways to use authentic planetary science data in classrooms via the Mars Student Imaging Project(MSIP) and has provided professional development experiences for educators thatintegrate scientists and the latest research with pedagogical excellence.She has created numerous curricula, always hands-on, mindson, and standardsbased.Most recently, her vision and hard work have come together into an online academy called L’SPACE (Lucy
Student Pipeline Accelerator and Competency Enabler), which embodies
the reality behind the process of planning and building planetary
science missions. L’SPACE uses actual high-value science targets from NASA to drive student projects to inform the engineering mission design. She also cocreated and coinstructs the expansive undergraduate set of courses called Space Works at Arizona State University.Both of these experiences cultivate 21st century skills for the next generation of explorers and provides them the mentorship needed to succeed.
Sheri is 100% committed to STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) equity and diversity and always walks the talk.She
has been invited to bring her programs to many STEM-neglected
communities, including rural, Native American, and Latinx. She
instituted an underserved-focused
skill-building internship program as part of L’SPACE and has achieved
40% minority and 40% female participation in their first 15 months of
programming. Throughout her career she has kept her finger on the pulse
of educational research and best practices; because of that, she
continues to find herself on the leading edge of trends.
Sheri
is in close touch with the needs and realities of the educators and
learners she serves and has designed and delivered all her products and
programs from their perspective. It is the same now with the undergrads she is working with in L’SPACE and Space Works.She is deeply listening and hearing what they need in order to see themselves in this career path and centers them in her workforce development conversations and efforts, which is, without a doubt, the best practice in STEM equity.
From
her beginnings as a classroom teacher in rural Idaho, to putting the
power to direct an instrument orbiting Mars in the hands of K–12
students, to her workforce development efforts at the university level,
Sheri has made a lasting impact on all kinds of learners over the
course of her career. She has balanced touching individual lives with
influencing policy and best practices. Her work is expansive and
multifaceted, and the places where she has infused her considerable
passion and energy have grown like wildflowers in a summer meadow.
—Daniella Scalice, NASA Astrobiology Program, Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CAIt
is a humbling honor to have been awarded the AGU 2020 Excellence in
Earth and Space Science Education Award. I would like to thank AGU, my
AGU colleagues, and those who wrote the recommendations—Daniella Scalice, Phil Christensen, Michael Meyer, and Orlando Figueroa—for their kindness.
My love for science, space, and education has always
been deeply rooted in my life. Throughout the past 25 years, my passion
for making science discovery and learning available to all, regardless
of their location, gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, or education
preparation, grew
to become my life’s calling. Being able to reach beyond geographical
boundaries to spread the wonder of the natural world to all those
interested helped shape my understanding of how learning science could
be reimagined. The Mars Student Imaging Project (MSIP), using Phil
Christensen’s THEMIS (Thermal Emission Imaging System) camera orbiting Mars, provided transformational deep STEM research experiences for 80,000+ students in fifth grade through early college. Many thanks to the Mars Program and Mars Odyssey Team for the long-term support of MSIP that made the transformational student learning possible.
I
have been privileged to collaborate with a great number of talented
people over the years. Defining, long-term partnerships with people and
organizations in the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) and the Navajo Nation
guided essential understandings and efforts by listening to and working
with communities of color to inform us what their audience needs are and
how best we can partner with them to achieve their learning goals. Many
thanks to Daniella Scalice for leading the NASA and the Navajo NationPrograms, allowing me to work with her and learn from the Diné elders
and medicine people within the Navajo Nation. Thank you also to the
Texas Valley Communities Foundation and especially Dann Garcia for the
15 years of partnership and mentoring while serving the Hispanic
communities in the RGV.
Finally, in the latest chapter of my life, I wish to thank the Lucy Mission Team and NASA Science Mission Directoratefor supporting a new type of student collaboration project—the Lucy Student PipelineAccelerator and
Competency Enabler (L’SPACE) Program. At the core of this program,
undergraduate students learn how to work together on virtual teams,
embracing diversity
and innovation. This NASA workforce development program has already
impacted the futures of thousands of students as they gain skills and
competencies that will empower them to shape the future of exploration
and meet the challenges facing this planet.
—Sheri Klug Boonstra, Arizona State University, Tempe
