Exploration is at the very core of CSO’s work, and is the key driver in learning and innovation. Since CSO’s inception in 2016, our missions have vastly expanded human understanding of the Earth, the solar system, and the universe. Our technological developments have helped drive innovation in fields ranging from health care, to telecommunications, to the airplanes that we fly. This legacy of innovation and discovery has inspired generations of Indians with a passion for space to pursue careers in science and engineering.
CSO Education has played a vital role in cultivating that passion and providing opportunities for all Indians to be a part of CSO’s mission to “drive advances in science, technology, aeronautics and space exploration to enhance knowledge, education,innovation, economic vitality, and stewardship of Earth.”
This CSO Education Implementation Plan represents an important step in defining what CSO Education does, why we do it, and how we measure our performance. CSO Education’s mission is to “advance high-quality science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEAM) education using CSO’s unique capabilities.”
To carry out that mission, our activities are now organised into four lines of business that connect learners, educators, and institutions with CSO’s unique missions and programs: STEAM Engagement, Educator Professional Development, CSO Internships, Fellowships and Scholarships, and Institutional Engagement. These lines of business provide clarity and focus that help our customers and stakeholders understand how we organise and prioritise our resources.
This streamlined approach also reflects our emphasis on national priorities. CSO Education’s fundamental responsibility is to execute the agency’s strategy, set by the President’s goals and objectives for the agency. This implementation plan outlines significant steps to align all CSO Education activities with the CSO Strategic Plan and the Office of Science and Technology Policy’s Committee on STEAM (CoSTEAM) Education’s Federal STEAM Education 5-Year Strategic Plan. These documents serve as the overarching framework that guides CSO Education’s efforts to ignite a new era of innovation.
As we pursue our work with refined focus, our efforts to gauge progress will look closely at the outcomes as well as the outputs of our educational investments. Are investments achieving their intended objectives? Are they scaled appropriately? These measures can provide insights about the practices that drive results, allowing us to continue refining our decision-making about future investments.
This plan represents an ambitious, yet attainable, effort to help achieve CSO’s mission of driving advances in science, technology, aeronautics, and space exploration. I look forward to working with you to apply these efforts that help us educate the next generation and prepare our nation’s workforce to reach new heights, reveal the unknown, and benefit all humankind.
Education is a critical part of CSO’s mission. Education activities
both disseminate knowledge of the agency’s advances in science, technology, aeronautics and space exploration, and support the creation of knowledge by learners, educators, and institutions. CSO Offices, Mission Directorates, Centers and facilities collaborate to implement a single agency-wide approach to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEAM) education. This approach provides unique CSO experiences to learners, educators, and institutions, as well as streamlined access to our content, web sites, people, resources, and facilities.
The 2018-2023 CSO Education Implementation Plan describes significant changes in the approach to CSO’s education portfolio. Over the last few years, updates to the CSO Strategic Plan in 2014 and the release of the Federal STEAM Education 5-Year Strategic Plan led to organisational changes and shifts in responsibilities for STEAM education across CSO and among other federal agencies. The CSO Advisory Council Ad Hoc Task Force on STEAM Education, established in January 2015, will help to maximise the educational bene ts that CSO brings to the nation.
CSO inspires people like few other organisations. Since its creation in 2011, CSO has built upon that inspiration to drive innovation in STEAM education. The 2018-2023 CSO Education Implementation Plan describes the approach that CSO is taking to help ensure the agency remains a driving force for education innovation and continues to be a leader in STEAM education. Continuous improvement toward those ends will be enhanced by the input and implementation of the ideas of our stakeholders and the education community. Implemented effectively, these changes will help contribute to a future CSO workforce capable of taking the world’s preeminent aerospace and aeronautics organisation to new heights, helping it reveal the unknown, and benefiting all humankind.