How To Get Started Partner School Science Program Schools are paired by the GFTSE staff. Teachers will be assigned an e-mail address in our own GFTSE E-Pal system accessed on GFTSE’s website and start e-mailing each other about how the partnership will work.  Inform each other about: Location of school, something about your school, and school mailing address. School calendar, school holidays. Contact information. You may give alternates to e-mail address:  fax number, phone numbers, etc. Each school determines whether their participation will be through an after-school program or as part of the school day curriculum.  This can be different for each partner school. Teachers form a class or after-school club and determine the number of students who will participate.  Teachers exchange student lists including full name, age and gender.  This information should also be given to Tolga Yıldırım and Marilyn Anderson. (tyildirim@gftse.org and marilyn@gftse.org ) E-mail accounts will be provided by our organization for each student. Please see the How to E-Mail section for more information. Each student will be assigned an e-pal by the teachers. Teachers should attempt to pair students who are close in age. Students should start e-mailing each other with introductory information about themselves. Students and teachers work together to choose a topic from our recommended curriculum and start working on the lesson plans. (See Curriculum and NASA’s distance learning website http://nasadln.nmsu.edu/dln/eventcatalog/?code=1 .) If possible, arrange a “Meet and Greet Videoconference” between the two schools.  This is a videoconference without NASA and gives the students an opportunity to see each other “live”.  It is a great way to get students and teachers excited about the program.  Students should have exchanged at least two sets of e-mails before a “Meet and Greet Videoconference”.  See the Videoconferences section for complete details. As soon as the curriculum topic has been chosen, check the Videoconferences section on this website to see how to set up the first three-way videoconference with NASA and the two schools. Please check sections on Curriculum, How to E-Mail, and Videoconferences for complete information. Printable versions