The Virginia Space Grant Consortium in partnership with Old Dominion University is offering a space-themed middle grades Career Technical Education (CTE) professional development program.

The professional development will help schools integrate standards-aligned, inspiring, and engaging space instruction into their existing CTE middle school programming. Each teacher will be supported by a school administrator and a counselor

• Open to middle school CTE teachers from across Virginia
• Must be U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents
• $2,000 stipend plus a $500 mini grant for classroom materials
• Required participation in immersive two-week residential space-themed professional development program held in Hampton, Virginia (80 hours) July 7-18, 2025
• Required participation in 16 hours of professional development sessions during the academic year, virtual with one in-person day
• Engaging activities, lessons, plans, tours, and speakers based on aerospace applications and aligned with CTE competencies
• One-day tour at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia
• One-day trip to NASA Wallops Flight Facility and Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Virginia’s Eastern Shore

Click here to apply.

This project will develop employer-aligned instructional materials and provide hands-on professional development and mentoring to educators. Based on NASA and industry input, VSGC and partners will provide support to a cohort of community college faculty and high school teachers to:

• Build knowledge, skills, and capacity to train the future technician workforce
• Build student pathways, dual-enrolled courses, industry partnerships, and SSL opportunities in their service regions
• Pass the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Part 107 Remote Pilot Certificate (RPC) exam. 
• Take the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) Basic Proficiency in Evaluation for Remote Pilot (BPERP) Certificate

RPC Workshop: This virtual workshop will prepare educators to pass the Part 107 RPC exam. The course will be offered in spring 2025 by the Virginia Geospatial Extension Program at Virginia Tech. Following the virtual course, the educators will obtain their RPC by taking and passing the exam. Because the teachers will have their RPC, this will allow the team to provide more in-depth training on flying skills, data collection and analysis, and safety.

UAS Faculty Institute: A faculty professional development institute will be held in the summer of 2025 and the same educators will return in 2026 for an advanced institute. Institute content will include: operations team management, site limitations, UAS selection, manual piloting, autonomous navigation, sensors, troubleshooting, maintenance, calibration, cybersecurity,  data collection and processing, creating maps, safety, ethics, and regulations, service learning projects, and creating and maintaining a sustainable network.

Following successful completion of the first institute, attendees will be eligible to submit a mini-grant proposal of up to $2,000 to obtain UAS and related supplies to teach their course

Outreach Events: VSGC UAS Events for K-12 Students Coming Soon! 

Dates and Application Link Coming Soon!