Inspire: Linking graduate students with K12 teachers to address remote sensing educational needs

The INSPIRE program links graduate students with middle school and high school teachers and students to simultaneously address the need to inspire future students in remote sensing fields as well as providing professional development opportunities for graduate students currently in those disciplines. The INSPIRE program involves each year 10 graduate students (a cumulative total thus far of 50), 5 public school teachers, and approximately 300 middle school and 300 high school students in three school districts with a majority of low-socio economic students, a demographic underrepresented in the remote sensing field in the U.S. The program has resulted in more than 400 formal lesson plans for teachers of grades 7 through 12. To date, the INSPIRE lesson plans have been accessed and downloaded more than 1000 times, resulting in widespread dissemination of the materials and far reaching impact on future generations of students entering the remote sensing field. This paper provides an overview of the program activities, impacted populations, and impact assessment and evaluation.