Join Dr. Liz Warren in this NASA Now classroom video as she discusses some very serious negative long-term effects and some interesting short-term changes the human body experiences in space.
Link to the NASA Explorer Schools home page.
NASA Explorer Schools and the National Science Teachers Association are hosting a 90-minute live professional development Web seminar for educators on Feb. 20, 2013 at 6:30 p.m. EST. During this professional development session, participants will receive information about the applications of linear equations at NASA and learn how to implement the Breaking Barriers activity. Breaking Barriers provides students an opportunity to step into the shoes of a NASA engineer to design, build and test an X-1 balloon.
This seminar will not be offered again during this school year.
For more information and to register online, visit the NSTA Learning Center.
As part of a series of electronic professional development experiences, the NASA Explorer Schools project and the National Science Teachers Association are hosting a 90-minute Web seminar on Feb. 21, 2013 at 6:30 p.m. EST. Learn how to use authentic NASA mission data to investigate the composition and distribution of ices in the high-latitude regions of Mars through analysis of visible light, infrared light and gamma rays. The seminar includes information about a unique student extension activity, where students access a free computer simulation illustrating how gamma rays are used to determine the chemical composition of Mars.
This is the last time this Web seminar will be offered during the current school year.
For more information and to register online, visit the NSTA Learning Center.
On Friday, Feb. 15, NASA Television will provide commentary from 2 – 2:30 p.m. EST during the close, but safe, flyby of the small near-Earth asteroid named 2012 DA14. The half-hour broadcast from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., will incorporate real-time animation to show the location of the asteroid in relation to Earth, along with live or near real-time views of the asteroid from observatories in Australia, weather permitting. The commentary will be available via NASA TV and streamed live online at https://www.nasa.gov/ntv and http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl2.
In addition to the commentary, near real-time imagery of the asteroid’s flyby, made available to NASA by astronomers in Australia and Europe, weather permitting, will be streamed beginning at about noon EST and continuing through the afternoon at http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl2.
Also, a Ustream feed of the flyby from a telescope at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., will be streamed for three hours starting at 9 p.m. EST. To view the feed and ask researchers questions about the flyby via Twitter, visit http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nasa-msfc.
For more information, including graphics and animations showing the flyby of 2012 DA14, visit www.nasa.gov/asteroidflyby.
On Feb. 15th, an asteroid some 50 meters wide, neither very large nor very small, and is probably made of stone, as opposed to metal or ice will fly past Earth closer than many man-made satellites. Since regular sky surveys began in the 1990s, astronomers have never seen an object so big come so close to our planet.
FULL STORY: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2013/28jan_2012da/
If you are using the NASA Explorer Schools featured lesson Engineering Design: Forces and Motion — Balloon Aerodynamics Challenge, you may extend the lesson’s relevancy by introducing your students to NASA’s Super-TIGER balloon.
Flying high over Antarctica, a long-duration balloon has broken the record for longest flight by a balloon of its size.
The record-breaking balloon, carrying the Super Trans-Iron Galactic Element Recorder — or Super-TIGER — experiment, has been afloat for 46 days and is on its third orbit around the South Pole.
This feat is an outstanding achievement for NASA’s Astrophysics balloon team. Keeping these huge balloons aloft for such long periods lets NASA do “forefront” science that would be difficult to do otherwise.
To read more about this record-setting flight, visit https://www.nasa.gov/centers/wallops/news/supertiger-record.html.
You can find Engineering Design: Forces and Motion — Balloon Aerodynamics Challenge on the NES Virtual Campus.
As part of a series of electronic professional development experiences, the NASA Explorer Schools project and the National Science Teachers Association are hosting a 90-minute live professional development Web seminar on Feb. 13, 2013 at 6:30 p.m. EST. This seminar showcases two lessons from the “On the Moon” educator guide: “On Target” and “Feel the Heat.” Learn how to use the engineering design process to challenge students to solve problems related to exploring the moon. This session will fully prepare you to implement these activities in your classroom.
This is the last time during this school year that this Web seminar will be offered.
For more information and to register online, visit the NSTA Learning Center.
Connect with NASA’s Digital Learning Network, and let your students explore history and science with NASA and Tuskegee. On Feb. 20, from 2-3 p.m. EST, your students will have a chance to discuss the early frontiers of aviation with a contrail scientist and a pilot who is president of the Howard Baugh Chapter-Tuskegee in Petersburg, Va.
Classes will be selected to participate in this live event by Feb. 11, 2013.
Spots are limited. Email Bonnie Murray if you are interested in having your students participate.
For more information about this event, visit the Digital Learning Network website.
Link to the NASA Explorer Schools home page.
Congratulations to two NASA Explorer Schools educators, Lanena Berry from the Houston Independent School District, in Houston, Texas, and Joan Labay-Marquez from Curington Elementary School in Boerne, Texas, who are two of seven recipients of the 2013 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Foundation Educator Achievement Award.
The AIAA Foundation presents the Educator Achievement Awards every two years to classroom teachers who have demonstrated exemplary efforts in exciting students in grades K–12 about the study of mathematics, science and related technical studies, and in preparing them to use and contribute to tomorrow’s technologies.
AIAA Executive Director and former NASA astronaut Sandra H. Magnus stated: “The seven educators selected to receive the 2013 AIAA Foundation Educator Achievement Award are a testament to how love of a subject coupled with inspiring teaching helps build the next generation of aerospace engineers and scientists. All it takes is a single spark, lit by an engaging teacher, to ignite the curiosity and interest of a student about the wonder and creativity resident in the world of science and engineering.”
Each winner will receive a trip to Washington, D.C., and will be honored at the AIAA Aerospace Spotlight Awards Gala on May 8, 2013.
The AIAA Foundation Educator Achievement Award has been presented to over 52 educators since 1997 and has become a sought-after honor in the education community.
For more information on the AIAA Foundation Educator Achievement Award, please contact Lisa Bacon or call 703-264-7527.
Link to the NASA Explorer Schools home page.
The deadline for nominations is April 1, 2013. The nomination form should be completed early enough to ensure that the nominated teacher is given enough time to thoroughly prepare an application that reflects exemplary teaching prior to the application deadline. Applications are due by May 1, 2013.
Nominate outstanding secondary, grades 7-12 mathematics and science (including computer science) teachers now for the 2013 awards.
The Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching (PAEMST) are the highest honors bestowed by the United States government specifically for K-12 mathematics and science (including computer science) teaching. Established by Congress in 1983, the PAEMST program authorizes the President to bestow up to 108 awards each year.
Awards are given to mathematics and science (including computer science) teachers from each of the 50 states and four U.S. jurisdictions. The jurisdictions are Washington, D.C.; Puerto Rico; Department of Defense Education Activity schools; and the U.S. territories as a group (American Samoa, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands).
The award recognizes those teachers who develop and implement a high-quality instructional program that is informed by content knowledge and enhances student learning. Since the program’s inception, more than 4,200 teachers have been recognized for their contributions in the classroom and to their profession.
Awardees serve as models for their colleagues, inspiration to their communities, and leaders in the improvement of mathematics and science (including computer science) education. The National Science Foundation administers PAEMST on behalf of The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
Visit the Presidential Awards website for additional information, to nominate someone, or to apply.
