The Public Broadcasting Service has established an advisory panel of educators and broadcasters for its elementary/secondary service.
Committee members, chosen by their respective institutions, will try to identify educational needs that public television and instructional technology can fill, pbs officials said in announcing the creation of the new panel.
Included on the 26-member committee are representatives of major education6groups, members of the pbs board of directors, officials of national and regional public-television organizations, and public-television station managers.
Among the prominent educators named to the group are Gregory R. Anrig, president of the Educational Testing Service; Gordon Cawelti, executive director of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development; and Jerry L. Evans, state superintendent of public instruction for Idaho.
The next civilian to fly on a space shuttle will be a teacher, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration has reaffirmed.
Once the agency’s “backlog of high-priority missions” has been reduced and the shuttles’ capability for “safe, reliable operation” has been proven, nasa officials said in a statement Jan. 12, “first priority will be given to a ‘Teacher in Space’ in fulfillment of space-education plans.”
The agency has received numerous queries about the status of plans to put a teacher and a journalist into space, officials said.
Civilians were barred from such missions after the shuttle Challenger, carrying Sharon Christa McAuliffe, a high-school teacher from Concord, N.H., and a crew of six professional astronauts, exploded on Jan. 28, 1986.
Barbara R. Morgan, an elementary-school teacher from McCall, Idaho, who was Ms. McAuliffe’s backup, is awaiting her chance to fly when nasa issues the call, said Pamela Bacon, coordinator of the Teacher-in-Space program. “She has always wanted to do it and she still does,” Ms. Bacon said last week.
