More Education Stove Piping at NASA

I understand your point about information being centralized through the education division, but I suspect things have not changed since I was there and the mission directorates were always frustrated trying to get their information out because the education division rigidly parsed out the information by grade level or by whether one is a student, educator, citizen, goblin, vegetable, etc.

I'm not saying that going around the education division is right, but it surely is understandable.

It's a good point, but when I talk to friends who teach high school STEM curriculum, they tell me frankly that while human space flight is kind of exciting to their students, there is nothing about launching humans that uniquely relates to what they are required to teach. You don't need people on rockets to use space to teach about math, physics, mechanical/thermal/propulsion engineering, or even biology. One teacher actually suggested that human space flight is more useful in teaching about international relations and politics than STEM!

So while I too am somewhat put off by stovepiping, and always look for a more one-NASA view of the agency, you have to accept that this is about learning all about STEM, and not learning all about NASA.

It would be good to hear more from educators about how humans in space make for better STEM education. The Augustine Committee report was actually very brief in referring to how STEM education benefits from human space flight. That was remarkable, because Norm Augustine himself is extraordinarily sensitive to such "Gathering Storm" issues.

It is a sad commentary on the state of education in this country when people can't make the direct and obvious connection between NASA and STEM.