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The Minnesota Space Grant Consortium is one of 52 national affiliates of the NASA Space Grant College Consortium, a group organized to promote education in the sciences and engineering throughout K-12 and higher education. The total NASA Space Grant College Consortium is funded at $10.5 million, with a Minnesota share of $205,000. The original members of the Minnesota Space Grant Consortium were Augsburg College, Bemidji State University and the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. In the past year, seven new members were added: Bethel College, the College of St. Catherine, the College of St. Thomas, Fond du Lac Community College, Macalaster College, Normandale Community College and the University of Minnesota-Duluth. Two industrial affiliates, Rosemount Inc. and Honeywell Inc., are associated with the Consortium and more industrial affiliates are presently being sought. The Consortium supports outreach activities, undergraduate and graduate research, curriculum development, fellowships, scholarships and special activities.
In the past year, the consortium has continued to co-sponsor the Sverdrup Visiting Scientist Program hosted by Augsburg College, to develop and implement K-12 outreach activities for youth in Minnesota interested in math and science and to award scholarships and fellowships to university-level students statewide. BSU's Space Studies Minor has been successfully implemented and five affiliated institutions of the consortium, four of which were added this year, have begun the planning and development of a new Associated Colleges of the Twin Cities (ACTC) minor in Space Science, which will be available to interested students at these school. With the addition of Fond du Lac Community College, a tribal college, we have began to formally expand our outreach activities to the Native American community. This affiliate is in the process of creating a video documentary that will be shown to Native American students that will illustrate how their ancestors were scientists in their own time. Also, with the help of the consortium, Normandale Community College has begun improvement of its pre-engineering physics curriculum. As a stepping stone for many Minnesotans aspiring to transfer to a four-year institution, Normandale plays an important role in educationing our youth.
We have had a very successful year and anticipate additional positive changes in our program during the next several years.
William L. Garrard
