Abstract
The NASA Science Mission Directorate Heliophysics Science Education and Public Outreach Forum team has created a set of Heliophysics Concept Maps. The concepts are based on content related to the three major questions in the NASA Heliophysics Science Roadmap: What causes the Sun to vary? How do the Earth and the heliosphere respond? What are the impacts on humanity? These maps tie into the AAAS
Project 2061 Benchmarks for Scientific Literacy, a set of K–12 learning goals that are widely used by education professionals for curriculum development and program planning. The purpose of this effort was to identify key concepts related to heliophysics and map their progression to show how students’ understanding of heliophysics might develop from kindergarten through higher education. This effort creates more comprehensive
maps specific to heliophysics that provide content at a deeper level than what is in the existing Benchmarks. It also extends the concept maps to higher education, an
audience not included in the Benchmarks.
