Middle School Students – Page 8 – NES Teachers Corner

NASA Now: Operation IceBridge

During this week’s NASA Now program, you’ll meet Michael Studinger, Project Scientist for Operation IceBridge. He’ll describe the purpose of the IceBridge campaign and how the campaign objectives will be met. He also explains why studying Earth’s ice is important for understanding climate changes and how they related to humans.

IceBridge uses airborne instruments to map Arctic and Antarctic areas once a year. The first IceBridge flights were conducted in March/May 2009 over Greenland and in October/November 2009 over Antarctica. Other smaller airborne surveys around the world are also part of the IceBridge campaign.

Link to this NASA Now episode (must be logged into the NES Virtual Campus)

Link to other NASA Now events (must be logged into the NES Virtual Campus)

Link to the NES Virtual Campus home page.

DLiNFocus: NASA Careers ‘What’s in Your Future?’ Special Event Series

Students and teachers have an opportunity to learn about the wide variety of career choices at NASA — astronauts aren’t the only folks who work at NASA! NASA employees representing various projects and missions will be in the Digital Learning Network studios for a series of webcasts focusing on careers. They will share their academic experiences from elementary school through college and talk about what motivated them to pursue their careers.

Each event will be webcast to allow students from all over the world to watch the interviews. Any student can interact by sending questions via e-mail.

The schedule of events through December is:

— Dec. 1: Marshall Space Flight Center featuring Tristan Curry — Aerospace Engineer.

— Dec. 8: Dryden Flight Research Center featuring Kathleen Stanton — Nurse.

— Dec. 15: Glenn Research Center featuring Mike Foreman — former astronaut and current Chief of External Programs at GRC.

Each hour-long webcast event begins at 2 p.m. EST.

For more information, visit the DLN website at http://dln.nasa.gov and click the Special Events button.

Inquiries about the DLiNFocus series should be directed to Caryn Long.

Link to the NES Virtual Campus home page.

NASA Now: A-Train: Clouds

During this episode of NASA Now, you’ll meet NASA physical scientist Lin Chambers, learn about the role of clouds in the Earth’s energy and water cycles, and find out how NASA collects cloud data. Understanding the impact of clouds is an important key to predicting how Earth’s climate may change in the future. Currently, five Earth observing satellites, known as the “A-Train” orbit the Earth. These satellites orbit in formation, following each other and barrel across the equator at about 1:30 p.m. local time each day. This behavior gives the constellation of satellites its name: The “A” stands for afternoon. By combining different sets of nearly simultaneous observations from these satellites, scientists are able to study important parameters related to climate.

Link to the NASA Now video page. (must be logged into the NES Virtual Campus)

Link to the NES Virtual Campus.

Operation IceBridge Web Chat with Project Scientists

Sun setting over the Antarctic

On Thursday, Nov. 18, IceBridge scientists will be on hand from the field to answer your questions about the mission. Joining the chat is easy. Simply visit this page on Thursday, Nov. 18, from 1 to 2 p.m. EST. The chat window will open at the bottom of this page starting at 12:30 p.m. EST. You can log in and be ready to ask questions at 1 p.m. The time and date is subject to change due to changes in the flight schedule to meet requirements for good weather over science targets.

Link to the IceBridge Mission page.

Link to the NES Virtual Campus.

Spaced Out Sports Contest for Students

Spaced Out Sports is a national student design challenge for students in grades 5-8. The purpose is for students to apply Newton’s Laws of Motion to designing or redesigning a game for International Space Station astronauts to play in space. As students design a new sport, they learn about Newton’s Laws of Motion and the effect of gravity on an object. They predict the difference between a game or activity played on Earth and in the microgravity environment of the ISS.

Participating student teams submit game demonstrations via a playbook and a video. Winning teams will be selected regionally and nationally by NASA Stennis Space Center’s Education Office.

Entries must be postmarked by February 1, 2011.

For more information head on over to the Spaced Out Sports website. http://education.ssc.nasa.gov/spacedoutsports.asp

Link to the NES Virtual Campus website.