Month: February 2012

NASA Launches Destination Innovation Video Series

Destination InnovationNASA has launched a new video series called Destination Innovation that will air on NASA Television. The series is featured on the agency’s website, YouTube, Facebook and NASA’s apps for iPhone®, iPad® and Android™.


The first episode of Destination Innovation details the Kepler mission and is a great extension to the NES featured lesson, Algebraic Equations: Transit Tracks — Finding Habitable Planets.

To access the related NES featured lesson, log into the Virtual Campus and navigate to Algebraic Equations: Transit Tracks — Finding Habitable Planets, in the lesson library.

iPhone, iPad and iTunes are registered trademarks of Apple Inc.Android is a registered trademark of Google Inc.

Episode 1 – Kepler

NASA Now: Earth and Space Science: Asteroids

NASA Now logoThere are thousands of comets and asteroids in our solar system. When these objects enter Earth’s neighborhood, scientists classify them as Near Earth Objects. Senior Research Scientist Don Yeomans tells us where they are, how big they are and if they pose a threat to our planet.


This program is available on the Virtual Campus beginning Feb 8, 2012.


Preview of this program


Video Chat: Sea Level Rise and Global Climate Change

Josh WillisGive your students the opportunity to ask questions of a NASA oceanographer and climate scientist. Dr. Josh Willis is an oceanographer and climate scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. He was the Deputy Project Scientist and a member of the science team on Jason 1 and 2. Willis is currently the Lead Project Scientist for the Jason 3 project.


To join the chat, go to the chat page up to 15 minutes prior to noon EST, where you will find instructions for logging into the chat room to ask questions.


Link to the chat page where you will find a list of resources to help you prepare your students for the chat: https://www.nasa.gov/offices/education/programs/national/nes2/home/chat-sea-level.html



Student Spaceflight Experiments Program Inspires with Mission 1

Johnston Middle School in HoustonMiddle school students are doing research on the International Space Station? You better believe it!

“Insulin’s Molecular Structure in Microgravity” and “Hepatocyte Development in Bioscaffolds Infused with TGFB3 in Microgravity” are both titles of experiments developed by students from Johnston Middle School, in Houston, Texas.

For proof of the inspirational impact of the International Space Station, you need only speak to the educators of the students participating in the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program, or SSEP. The program offered 41,200 students from around the nation the chance to propose and design a microgravity experiment with the chance of having their experiment flown aboard the space station.

You may read more about this story at www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/SSEP.html.

See how you can inspire your students by getting them involved in a simulated International Space Station experience. Log in to the NASA Explorer Schools Virtual Campus website and check out the featured lesson Engineering Design Challenge: Lunar Plant Growth Chamber and the NASA Now program Exercise Physiology: Countermeasures.

NASA Now: Electromagnetic Spectrum — NuSTAR

NASA Now logoAstrophysicist Ann Hornschemeier explains how NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, uses high-energy X-rays to search for and take pictures of the densest, hottest and most energetic regions in the universe!


This program is available on the Virtual Campus beginning Feb. 2, 2012.

Preview this program