Space Weather Action Center

The Space Weather Action Center (SWAC) is an educational program that merges new-media technologies with NASA science to create a fun and engaging classroom experience for students and teachers. This program was originally named Tracking a Solar Storm and was so successful that NASA Headquarters decided to develop a whole host of educational programs based on its structure.

My Role

The early development of this project was challenging because there was a strong idea and a strong educational program, but virtually no organization to the content and no direction or concept for how the project would translate to the web. I was brought on board as the only front end designer/developer but quickly found myself deep within the decision making process in regards to the core principals of the program and content structure. In 2008 the program took a sharp turn and began to focus on engaging our audience with new-media, which allowed me to re-think my approach to presenting the material on-line.

The original structure of Tracking a Solar Storm was tightly focused on stepping through an enormous amount of NASA based science and data. This approach proved to be overwhelming at times, and didn't always fit into the time constraints of a school year. We were able to focus the program on a smaller portion of the science while still providing access to the rest of the science for more advanced students and classrooms.