Authentic science experiences for high school students:the INSPIRE example Original Research Article

The National Science Education Standards call for students to participate in authentic scientific investigation [National Science Education Standards, National Academies Press, Washington, DC 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 te, 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 bas affected studentsʹ views of science and of themselves as scientists.