Sallie has been a science teacher for fifteen years, but she's taken on a new role recently. This year, Sallie is a liaison between NASA and the JASON Project, a program that encourages students to explore the biology and geology of Earth. She takes the vast amount of information that NASA has collected about the Earth and incorporates it into JASON's project curriculum.

For example, JASON is taking a look this year at the Channel Islands, a chain of five islands off the coast of California. Students in the JASON Project will be able to compare data about the islands gathered by NASA's remote-sensing planes and satellites with ground truth measurements.

Sallie has also used her talents to develop TechTours, which are collaborative student projects where students perform research using the Web. "Peculiar Pluto," the TechTour she created this past year, deals with the question of Pluto's classification - some scientists now believe it should be classified a minor planet, as comets and asteroids are. In her TechTour, students compare the planet with other space objects, and even get to interact with scientists who are dealing with this question themselves.

On the advantages of TechTours:
"The new strategies I've learned from being a member of the TechTour Advance Team have enabled me to create and facilitate TechTours which the students find engaging. The TechTour framework is a valuable tool in engaging students - it strengthens student technology skills and can accommodate individual student needs."