General Atomics Sciences Education Foundation 3550 General Atomics Court San Diego, CA 92121-1194 (858) 455-3335 Fax: (858) 455-3379 www.sci-ed-ga.org

Since 1992, General Atomics (GA) has received wide recognition for its Science Education Outreach Program, a volunteer effort of GA employees and San Diego science teachers. They work closely with the Science Coordinators for the San Diego Schools in order to bring the business and research side of science into the classroom. The organization's goal is both to improve the quality of science education and to encourage more students to pursue science careers. In addition, the teachers' interactions with the scientists and exposure to everyday uses of their disciplines help them to be better educators. In order to expand their program, the General Atomics Sciences Education Foundation was established in 1995.

The General Atomics Sciences Education Foundation's goal is to play a major role in enhancing pre-college education in science, engineering and new technologies. To attain this goal, four areas of core competency at GA were initially selected to form the basis for the development of inquiry-based education modules and associated workshops. Scientist/teacher teams wrote these modules, which fuse the content and methodology of industrial research and development with the teaching skills of experienced science teachers.