CONTACT THE FUTURE!
The Education Division - Proclamation

Whereas; CONTACT is a nonprofit public benefit corporation whose specific purpose is "to produce academic conferences, workshops, publications and other programs which bring together scientists, writers and artists to educate the general public about possibilities and problems that humanity will encounter in the future", and...

Whereas; "this corporation is organized and operated exclusively for educational and/or scientific purposes within the meaning of Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code", and...

Whereas; numerous educational projects have been suggested and/or presented to the Board of Directors for consideration, and...

Whereas; several educational projects have already been proposed and/or produced both within and outside of the CONTACT conference context,

Therefore; since it is clear that a) from both stated intent and actual operation, science education is a primary corporate function, and that b) a need has arisen to create a body to handle such projects, we hereby establish a standing committee of the organization, whose special interest and responsibility will be its educational affairs. The name of the committee shall be "The Education Division."

Simulations: From Conference to Classroom

The simulations that have been transformed from professional thought experiments of the CONTACT conference into educational tools are "Cultures of the Imagination" (COTI), an integrated curriculum that can be used to teach the whole range of the sciences, humanities and arts at any student level, and "The Solar System Simulation" (SolSys), an intercollegiate, computer-based, remote-learning course in community building and operation in which students interact at various campuses around the world by e-mail, internet and a text-based virtual reality program. COTI has been used in the classroom since 1983; SolSys was initiated in 1990.