Authentic Science Experiences for High School Students: The Inspire Example

J. Marshall, W. Taylor, B. Pine, and J. Green


The National Science Education Standards call for students to participate in
authentic scientific investigation (NRC, 1996). Opportunities are rare,
however, for students to experience the full spectrum of space science
investigation: developing and assembling equipment, planning observations,
obtaining and recording data in coordination with other observers, analyzing
data and, finally, publishing results. The Interactive NASA Space Physics
Ionospheric Radio Experiment (INSPIRE) is one ongoing program that provides
high school students with just such opportunities. INSPIRE participants
assemble and test very low frequency (VLF) radio receivers, use them to
record natural and artificial atmospheric radio signals as part of a
coordinated campaign, analyze the resulting data, and publish their results
in The INSPIRE Journal and elsewhere. The investigations students carry out
as part of INSPIRE are not the canned experiments usually found in high
school laboratories. Rather, INSPIRE seeks to answer authentic questions
about the propagation of radio waves in the ionosphere and magnetosphere.
For example, INSPIRE participants provided ground stations for a virtual
antenna experiment on a 1992 Shuttle mission. This article presents the
history of the program, an example of student observations, and reports of
how INSPIRE has affected students' views of science and of themselves as
scientists.

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Presented at the 34th COSPAR Scientific Assembly, Houston, Texas, U.S.A.  
10-19 October 2002