7. NASA Space Education Teacher Diego Martinez on SF inspiring students

Diego Martinez is not your typical science teacher. He chose a career in teaching science to inspire young minds to learn and he has successfully used science fiction to do this. He is now a SEEC (Space Exploration Educators Conference) crew educator and has gone on to receive the Alan Shepard Technology in Education Award. To educators listening, Diego recommends taking your love for science fiction to the students to engender a purpose to learn science. Among his achievements: * He has been a Space Foundation Teacher Liaison since 2008 and Space Center Houston Space Educator Expedition Crew (SEEC) member since 2017. * He collaborated with 2013 Alan Shepard Award recipient Daniel Newmyer on T.E.S.L.A. 1.0 (Teaching Extraordinary Students Lessons in Aerospace). * He built TeslaAerospace.org website, with the goal of making STEM-related careers, such as avionics, drone piloting and flight, accessible to a wider population. The site features free, self-paced learning guides designed to be studied by anyone. * He mentored hundreds of students in their scientific research projects for state, national and international science fairs, resulting in one gold medal and dozens of silver and bronze medals at the international level. * He created a school-wide educational party for SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy launch. * He founded, with wife Gail, the “Lindbergh Challenge,” a nationwide aerospace challenge with student-built flight simulators and a challenge for students to fly them for 33.5 hours while learning about historic aviators, doing STEM lessons and logging simulation hours. Museums and schools across the country have pledged to participate with his team this May. * He arranged for a “Top Gun” student pilot from the Lindbergh Challenge in 2015 to take a flight lesson, and now more than 50 students have received initial flight lessons, leading to possible aerospace careers. The initial lessons were funded with the award money received when he won Colorado Lockheed Martin Science Teacher of the Year in 2015. * He developed Apollo Program workshops at Delphian School in partnership with Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum, McMinnville, Oregon. These workshops were designed as a model for educators to engage the public with lunar samples and other historical artifacts representing the history of spaceflight. * He contributed to the success of Delphian School’s public solar eclipse event in 2017, with more than 600 attending. The event featured a NASA planetary scientist as guest speaker, the Oregon High-Powered Rocketry Club, “Moon Vault” viewings with lunar samples and many other STEM engagement opportunities. * He is involved in Robotics Club, RC Car Club, the Association of Songwriters Composers Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), Science Fiction Fridays and has helped arrange a private tour of SpaceX for his students.