NASA Selects Teachers to Fly Student Experiments in Reduced Gravity Aircraft

Ann Marie Trotta

Headquarters, Washington     

202-358-1601

ann.marie.trotta@nasa.gov

 

Jeannette Owens

Glenn Research Center, Cleveland

216-433-2990

jeannette.p.owens@nasa.gov

WASHINGTON -- Teachers from six NASA Explorer Schools (NES) have been selected to receive the 2012 School Recognition Award for their contributions to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education.

The teachers selected are from Woodrow Wilson Middle School, Glendale, Calif.; Franke Park Elementary School, Fort Wayne, Ind.; Mountview Road School, Morris Plains, N.J.; Corpus Christi Catholic School, Chambersburg, Pa.; Fairport High School, Fairport N.Y.; and Forest Lake Elementary Technology Magnet School, Columbia, S.C.

In April 2013, three teachers from each school will travel to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. There they will have the opportunity to fly aboard the agency's reduced gravity aircraft and conduct experiments designed by their students. The experiments will examine the acceleration and inertia of objects, how fluids with different viscosities behave in microgravity, and how the absence of gravity affects mass and weight.

"Congratulations to the NES teachers selected for this innovative NASA experience. The reduced gravity flights allow teachers to conduct scientific investigations in a microgravity environment, similar to how experiments are conducted on the International Space Station," said Cecelia Fletcher, acting program manager for primary and secondary education at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "This experiential learning opportunity helps to spread the excitement of STEM education with teachers and students throughout the NASA Explorer School network."

A team of NASA personnel reviewed many applications before selecting these six schools for their exemplary classroom practices and innovative uses of NES resources to engage a broad school population. These schools were chosen from more than 470 schools that are registered participants in the NASA Explorer Schools project.

The NASA Explorer Schools project is the classroom-based gateway for students in grades 4-12 that focuses on stimulating STEM education using agency content and themes.

For more information about the Explorer Schools Project, visit http://explorerschools.nasa.gov.

To watch a four-minute video that provides project information and shows previous winners aboard the reduced gravity aircraft, visit http://go.nasa.gov/SxR8KL.

For more information about NASA's education programs, visit http://www.nasa.gov/education.

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Maintaining Earth's Sustainability: Scientists, Engineers, Educators Take Coordinated Approach

National Science Foundation makes second set of awards in sustainability Research Coordination Networks program

Coordinating phosphorus research to create a sustainable food system; studying urban heat islands; and advancing social and environmental understanding of mountain landscapes are all topics of new grants totaling $5 million recently made through the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Science, Engineering and Education for Sustainability (SEES) portfolio.

The awards are through NSF's SEES-Research Coordination Networks (RCN) program.

Grants also include building a research network for promoting Arctic urban sustainability in Russia; multidisciplinary approaches to carbon capture, utilization and storage; creating an engineering research collaboratory for sustainable infrastructure in a changing climate; and developing an integrated network for social sustainability concepts, language and assessment.

"These collaborative projects address difficult challenges that threaten the sustainability of our country's natural resources and built environment," says Thomas Peterson, NSF assistant director for Engineering.

"With a sound base in science and engineering, sustainable development can benefit society, the economy and the environment over the long term."

SEES activities span the range of scientific domains at NSF.

SEES RCN awards are supported by NSF's Directorates for Biological Sciences; Computer & Information Science & Engineering; Education and Human Resources; Engineering; Geosciences; Mathematical & Physical Sciences; Social, Behavioral & Economic Sciences; Office of Cyberinfrastructure; Office of International Science and Engineering; and Office of Polar Programs.

These NSF directorates and offices support interdisciplinary research and education projects that will move society toward global sustainability; build new links among existing projects and partners; add new participants in sustainability research; and develop the workforce needed to understand and address the complex issues of environmental sustainability.

"An important metric of the success of a program like SEES RCN is the legacy it will leave long after the program has been completed," says Marge Cavanaugh, NSF acting assistant director for Geosciences.

"The interdisciplinary partnerships that SEES RCN projects will create, along with the broadly educated and creative students and young researchers they will produce, are just as important as the new processes and links that will be discovered."

Sustainability science and engineering goes beyond adaptation to and mitigation of environmental change.  A sustainable world is one in which human needs are met without harm to the environment, and without sacrificing the ability of future generations to meet their needs in turn.

This formidable task requires understanding the integrated system of society and the natural world, along with the alterations humans are making on Earth, scientists, engineers and educators believe.

NSF's SEES activities are addressing this need by supporting interdisciplinary research and education leading to a better understanding of, predictive capability for, and solutions to environmental challenges.

The RCN program's goal is to advance a scientific field or create new directions in research and education. Groups of investigators coordinate their research, training and education activities across disciplinary, organizational, geographic and international boundaries.

The program fosters new collaborations, including international partnerships, and addresses interdisciplinary topics.

By linking U.S. and international scientists in research on sustainable cities, energy, water, engineering and manufacturing sustainability, and related subjects, SEES RCNs are creating new directions in sustainability science and engineering.

NSF SEES RCN 2012 awardees and their institutions and projects are:

James Elser, Arizona State University: RCN-SEES: Coordinating Phosphorus Research to Create a Sustainable Food System

James Gosz, University of Idaho: RCN-SEES: Advancing our social and environmental understanding of complex mountain landscapes and their vulnerability to environmental change

Jennifer Jacobs, University of New Hampshire: RCN-SEES: Engineering Research Collaboratory for Sustainable Infrastructure in a Changing Climate

Robert Orttung, George Washington University: RCN-SEES: Building a Research Network for Promoting Arctic Urban Sustainability in Russia

Ah-Hyung Park, Columbia University: RCN-SEES: Multidisciplinary Approaches to Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage

Nicole Peterson, University of North Carolina at Charlotte: RCN-SEES: Integrated Network for Social Sustainability: Concepts, Language, and Assessment

Peter Snyder, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities: RCN-SEES: Urban Heat Island Network

 -NSF-

Math And Science Summer Fun

Alex Taylor went back to school this week geared up to appreciate her math and science classes even more than before, all thanks to a Robotics Summer Day Camp held Aug. 13-17, at Wiesbaden High School.

“I like to learn new things and robotics seemed like a really good program,” Taylor said on the last day of the camp. “I have a better understanding of science as it is right now and I’d say that’s great.”

Taylor was one of 31 students to participate in the camp, which taught participants how to build a robot and program it, said Frank Pendzich, instructor of engineering technology at Wiesbaden High School and the camp’s organizer.

He is also adviser to the school’s RoboWarriors team, which competes in the FIRST Robotics Competition each year.

Campers, who were in grades 7-9, also learned the beginning steps of the engineering design process, Pendzich said.

This was the camp’s second year, Pendzich said, and members of the RoboWarriors team acted as camp counselors. In addition, members of the Air Force 485th Intelligence Squadron volunteered, as well as parents.

Taylor, 13, said she was glad to learn not only how to build a robot, but how to program it as well.

Max Johnson, 12, said he enjoyed the camp because he got to build a robot and compete against other campers with it. “I’m interested in robots and computers,” he said, and he plans to learn more about robots in the future.

The camp culminated in a game on the last day called “Not in My Backyard,” where teams of two students each had to try and shove balls and robots from one side of a playing field to another, all while navigating seesaw bridges at mid-field, Pendzich said.

The game is based on the social observation that when people do not like something, they often try to move it into someone else’s back yard, Pendzich said.

In order to play the game, students had to program the robots to act autonomously for 30 seconds and then switch to remote control mode, Pendzich said.

At the end of the three-minute match, teams could receive points if they were successful in balancing their robot on a seesaw bridge, Pendzich said. Winning teams had the fewest balls in their yard.

The game was a scaled-down version of some of the games at the FIRST Robotics Competition, and the room was packed with campers and their parents during the event. Campers laughed, called out and sometimes shook their heads as they first watched the robots during autonomous mode and then controlled the robots from laptops.

Demi Colon-Rios, 12, said she liked being able to program the robot to make it do what she wanted.

She has always liked robots and electronics, Colon-Rios said, and she and her father built a robot together when they lived in Georgia. She hopes to work on them more in the future.

Matthew Taylor, 13, said he decided to participate in the camp because he thought it would be a challenge and he wanted to earn the Robotics Merit Badge for Boy Scouts. “It was great,” he said.

He particularly liked it because the camp organizers focused on what campers could do with the robots, and not what they could not do, Taylor said.

Air Force Tech. Sgt. Ryan Hunter said he and four other volunteers from the 485th helped build robots, supervise students and make sure everyone was operating safely.

Hunter said he was interested in volunteering for the camp because computers and technology are a hobby for him, and he was happy to help the campers learn about those subjects.

“It helps students develop teamwork skills and learn how to overcome obstacles,” Hunter said. “It’s a good outlet for learning and applying new skills.”

By Wendy Brown, USAG Wiesbaden

 From www.army.mil

Space-age Comes to Middle School

Image 1: Mirna Galdámez (Lehigh '06) (right) and a student from Harrison-Morton Middle School examine a robot in the school's Mars Yard, part of the Dr. John A. McAdams Jr. Space Center. Galdámez is now a faculty member in the computer science department in the School of Mathematics at the University of El Salvador. The new center seeks to prepare more students in middle and high school for careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields.

Image 2: Christopher Janneck (right), a Ph.D. candidate in computer science and engineering at Lehigh University, works with a Harrison-Morton Middle School student in the school's Dr. John A. McAdams Jr. Space Center. The new center seeks to prepare more students in middle and high school for careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields.

More About These Images

 Faculty and students from Lehigh, in collaboration with the Allentown School District, built the Dr. John A. McAdams Jr. Space Center, a 21st century space center complete with Mission Control. The center teaches students the fundamentals of software programming and robotics and lets them use wireless remote control to guide robots across an extraterrestrial terrain called the "Mars Yard." The Mission Control at the space center, designed by Butz Architects of Allentown in collaboration with NASA, is a replica of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. The Mission Control features advanced teleconference systems and Internet2, which will allow the students to connect with the outside world.

"The goal is for students to use the technology now in place to communicate in real time with NASA scientists or even astronauts on space missions," says Henry Odi, executive director of academic outreach at Lehigh.

The project at Harrison-Morton has received two multi-year grants from NSF as well as funding from the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Technology Alliance and from Air Products and Chemicals Inc., Alvin H. Butz Inc. and other companies. The school also receives education support from NASA through the NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) Explorer School program.

NSF also provides support through its STEM program, which enables professors and students from Lehigh to teach at Harrison-Morton and a half dozen other elementary, middle and high schools. NSF's STEM program enlists universities to help public schools teach science, encourages students to seek STEM careers, and reaches out to black, Hispanic and female students, who are underrepresented in STEM fields. (Date of Image: 2010)

Credit: Theo Anderson on behalf of Lehigh University