DePaul University’s Space Science Center for Outreach and Education has received a $1.625 million, five-year grant from the Office of Space Science (OSS) of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to continue its work of linking scientists with educators and students throughout the Midwest.

Four years ago when NASA named DePaul one of five regional brokers in its educational outreach efforts, there was “a vacuum in the Midwest when it came to an understanding of NASA and its programs,” explained Lynn Narasimhan, director of the university center and associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Science.

Under the direction of Narasimhan, the DePaul Space Science Center for Education and Outreach has forged partnerships between scientists and educators of numerous types. The center is one of only two university-based sites established by OSS and serves Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri and Wisconsin.

“The DePaul University [center] has been exemplary in building strategic alliances between space scientists and educators in Chicago, the rest of Illinois and Wisconsin,” said Phillip Sakimoto, broker/facilitator program manager, OSS.

“The project’s goal is to get NASA scientists more effectively involved in science education and outreach, especially in under-served urban and rural schools and in under-utilized communities such as women and minorities,” said Narasimhan. Major NASA missions are now required to spend 1 to 2 percent of their multi-million dollar budgets on such educational initiatives. Individual scientists are encouraged to do the same, but they often have only a few thousand dollars to spend and no method for identifying high-impact opportunities.

That’s where DePaul’s Space Science Center steps in. Narasimhan and her staff find (and sometimes create) networks of educators, museums, planetariums, associations for minorities in math and science – identifying educational needs and opportunities. When scientists call, they are matched with appropriate partners. The expertise of the center’s staff allows scientists to create opportunities beyond a classroom visit or Web site development.

“Our job is to help them make a significant and rewarding impact with their time and money,” said Narasimhan.

A classic example is the Illinois Magnet project, which grew out of a visit by high school teachers to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. Scientist Stan Odenwald demonstrated how to build soda-bottle magnetometers, which reveal variations in the earth’s magnetic field caused by solar activity, for less than $5 each. DePaul’s Space Science Center stepped in to turn the teachers into a network, underwriting a Web site and database to share resources between schools.

“That’s their greatest strength,” said Sam Dyson, the faculty member at Walter Payton High School in Chicago who manages the Illinois MagNet Web site. “They aren’t just brokering the exchange of information through seminars. They make an effort all the time to sit people down, scientists and teachers, to have conversations about what really matters.”