PASSPORT TO KNOWLEDGE offers an ongoing series of "electronic field trips to scientific
frontiers" that excite, inform and inspire students about the Universe around us.
PASSPORT TO KNOWLEDGE shares the latest factual information and contexts within which to
understand it, while developing positive attitudes towards the scientific process, and
demonstrating and encouraging technical and research skills in accessing and comprehending the
vast amounts of information which telecommunications and computers now make available.
Simulations in class relate to and link with the real-world research presented on camera and
on-line .
Integrated multimedia resources introduce students in schools and homes across America to the men
and women who are working on exciting research frontiers. Though "virtual", these encounters with
world-class scientists are made to feel personal. Students see creative scientists who are
life-long learners, young at heart, open to new information, and whose challenging work is as
rewarding as "play". These researchers serve as role models for life choices, as well as
professional mentors in their specific disciplines. Their personal stories inspire youngsters by
showing that what they learn while young can be a "passport" to a productive and rewarding career
and life.
PASSPORT TO KNOWLEDGE empowers teachers and students to begin an ongoing process of
individualized discovery by providing practical, flexible pathways, adaptable to the different
levels of technology and training to be found in any school, home or science center.
"Teacher-friendly" materials welcome first-time users, and more challenging online collaborations
engage those with the capacity to become involved. This pyramid of options enables widespread
participation, and minimizes the effects of inequality of resources. New technologies are
introduced through project-related activities which deliver immediate, practical learning
experiences, rather than abstract training.
PASSPORT TO KNOWLEDGE is informed by the suggestions of the national science reform
panels, the national science standards, and state guidelines and frameworks, and provides
"replacement modules" which can serve as readily-integrated "plug and play" units in the existing
curriculum.
As an ongoing series of Modules, PASSPORT TO KNOWLEDGE will enable teachers to build on
previous experiences, and implement succeeding Modules with increasing effectiveness. Educators
will "cache" successful teaching strategies, and apply this positive feedback loop to the new
content of each new field trip.
Believing that science should be experienced as both "content" and "process", PASSPORT TO
KNOWLEDGE will develop and implement assessment tools to measure student learning outcomes.
These will assess growth in positive attitudes and development of skills, as well as increasing
mastery of content.
PASSPORT TO KNOWLEDGE focuses on the continuing enterprise of scientific research and
exploration and not the achievements of individual adventurers and expeditions. It collaborates
with the nation's leading science agencies (principally NASA and NSF) and university-based
researchers, and presents ongoing activities in which students may envisage themselves playing a
role in the future. Research itself is the adventure.
The core PASSPORT TO KNOWLEDGE team serves as conductor for a large and evolving orchestra
of individual research agencies and scientists, teachers and students, schools, science centers
and home-schoolers, articulating and amplifying the grand theme of humanity's ever-increasing
understanding of the world and its processes of growth and change.
