National Center for Earth and Space Science Education (NCESSE)

NCESSE, a Project of the Tides Center (www.tides.org), creates and oversees national initiatives addressing science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education, with a focus on earth and space. The project’s central objective is to help continue America’s legacy as a leader on the frontiers of science and technology well into the 21st century by helping to ensure a scientifically literate public and a next generation of scientists and engineers. Programs are designed to provide an authentic window on science as a human endeavor, and to inspire… then educate.

NCESSE’s programs are delivered by teams of scientists, engineers, and science educators from research and education institutions across the nation—scientists and engineers who are passionate about their research and gifted at communicating that passion to audiences of all ages.

NCESSE created the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP) in 2010 and maintains the U.S.-based part of the program through partnerships with DreamUp PBC, NanoRacks LLC, and CASIS. Outside the U.S., the Arthur C. Clarke Institute for Space Education leads SSEP.

NCESSE embraces a Learning Community Model for STEM education. When the Center’s programs for diverse audiences are combined through the Journey through the Universe initiative, an entire community—thousands of grade K-12 students, their teachers, their families and the public—can be taken to the frontiers of human exploration in a sustainable way. For example, the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP) does not enroll individual people or schools. Entire communities (districts, cities, or towns) register to participate in the program, and each community holds its own competition with multiple student teams.