Tag: NASA Education Update

ISS EarthKAM Winter 2013 Mission

Middle school educators are invited to join NASA for the International Space Station EarthKAM Winter 2013 Mission from Jan. 29 – Feb. 1, 2013. Guide your students in hands-on research as they program cameras aboard the space station to take pictures of specific locations on Earth.

If you’re new to EarthKAM or if you registered for a past mission but weren’t sure how to navigate the website and request images, you can sign-up to attend a 30-minute online EarthKAM information session.

For more information about EarthKAM and to register for the upcoming mission, visit the EarthKAM home page.

If you have questions about the EarthKAM project, email ek-help@earthkam.ucsd.edu.

NASA's Commercial Crew Program Making Progress on Future of American Human Spaceflight

Shuttle clearing the launch towerThrough innovative partnerships with commercial rocket and spacecraft developers, NASA is making great strides to advance America’s next human space transportation systems.

In 2010, President Barack Obama set the agency on a course to provide new transportation into space for its astronauts, while expanding human presence beyond low Earth orbit and enabling new missions of exploration across the solar system.

NASA’s Commercial Crew Program was formed to facilitate the development of a U.S. commercial crew space transportation capability with the goal of achieving safe, reliable and cost-effective access to and from the International Space Station and low Earth orbit.


To read more about the progress of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, visit the Commercial Crew Program Feature page.This article is tied to the NASA Explorer Schools featured lesson, Linear Regression: Exploring Space Through Math — Space Shuttle Ascent. To gain access to this lesson, visit the NES Virtual Campus at http://explorerschools.nasa.gov. 

NASA RECOMMENDS DISCONTINUATION OF STUDENT ROCKET ACTIVITY

Recently, an air pressurized paper rocket launcher being used by an educator failed. This launcher is described in NASA’s Rockets Educator Guide, publications EG-2011-11-223-KSC, pp. 86-90 and EG-2008-05-060-KSC, pp. 86-90. NASA completed an engineering investigation into the failure and determined that the launcher, or design equivalents, should not be used. NASA has removed the launcher design from its website and its education curriculum. Individuals and organizations should immediately discontinue use of the launcher published in the referenced NASA publications. The point of contact for additional information is James Stofan, Deputy Associate Administrator for Education Integration at nasaedpartners@nasa.gov. We request that your organization assist NASA in disseminating this information as widely as possible throughout the education community.

NASA Astronaut Leland Melvin Black History Month Message

NASA’s Associate Administrator for Education and two-time space shuttle astronaut Leland Melvin’s Black History Month message reflects on space-related milestones of the past and challenges viewers to use their talents to inspire today’s youth to future achievement.

NASA Releases First Multi-player Facebook Game

Space Race Blastoff logoNASA has launched its first multi-player online game totest players’ knowledge of the space program. Who was the firstAmerican to walk in space? Who launched the first liquid-fueledrocket? These are only a few of the questions players can answer inSpace Race Blastoff. 


Available on Facebook, Space Race Blastoff tests players’ knowledge ofNASA history, technology, science and pop culture. Players whocorrectly answer questions earn virtual badges depicting NASAastronauts, spacecraft and celestial objects. Players also earnpoints they can use to obtain additional badges to complete sets andearn premium badges. 

“Space Race Blastoff opens NASA’s history and research to a wide newaudience of people accustomed to using social media,” said DavidWeaver, NASA’s associate administrator for communications. “Spaceexperts and novices will learn new things about how explorationcontinues to impact our world.” 

NASA chose to make the game available through Facebook to takeadvantage of the social media site’s large audience and enableplayers to compete against others. Individuals also can play sologames. 

Once in the game, players choose an avatar and answer 10multiple-choice questions. Each correct answer earns 100 points, witha 20-point bonus to the player who answers first. The winner advancesto the bonus round to answer one additional question for more points. 

Correctly answering the bonus question earns the player a badge. 

Space Race Blastoff was developed by Scott Hanger, Todd Powell andJamie Noguchi of NASA’s Internet Services Group in the Office ofCommunications. Play the game now at http://apps.facebook.com/spacerace

Link to the NES Virtual Campus home page.


NES National Student Symposium

The NES Virtual Student Symposium provides the opportunity for up to two teams of two students to share the results of an investigation or NASA design challenge with NASA scientists, engineers, technicians and educators. Participation in the Virtual Student Symposium is a prerequisite for getting invited to the all-expenses-paid NES National Student Symposium to be held at a NASA field center on May 2-5, 2012. The investigation or design challenge may be conducted as a classroom activity or done by students on their own, based on their own interests. The investigation or design challenge must relate to a NASA Explorer Schools teaching module or NASA Now episode on the NASA Explorer Schools Virtual Campus.


For more information about this exciting student opportunity, log into the NES Virtual Campus and visit the Student Recognition page.



New NASA iPhone App: Tracking Meteoroids

Surprising but true: Every day, on average, more than 40 tons of meteoroids strike our planet. Most are tiny specks of comet dust that disintegrate harmlessly high up in Earth’s atmosphere, producing a slow drizzle of meteors in the night sky. Bigger chunks of asteroid and comet debris yield dozens of nightly fireballs around the globe. Some are large enough to pepper the ground with actual meteorites.


With so much “stuff” zeroing in on our planet, NASA could use some help keeping track of it all.

Enter the Meteor Counter–a new iPhone app designed to harness the power of citizen scientists to keep track of meteoroids.The app is available free of charge in Apple’s app store. Just click on the link in the previous sentence or search for Meteor Counter in the app store, and let the observing begin.

Take a Tour of the Electromagnetic Spectrum

Front cover of Tour of the Electromagnetic Spectrum showing various planets and Isaac Newton, among others.This resource presents the electromagnetic spectrum by introducing how we interact with these waves on a daily basis and how NASA scientists use the unique qualities of each wavelength to study the sun, planets and origins of the universe. EM waves measured by Earth-observing satellites help NASA scientists understand our Earth system and changing global patterns and climate.


For more information and links to the education materials, visit https://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/tour_EMS.html

Expedition 31 and 32 In-flight Education Downlink Opportunity

NASA is seeking formal and informal educational organizations, individually or working together, to host a live, in-flight education downlink during Expeditions 31 and 32 (approximately from March 2012 to September 2012). To maximize these downlink opportunities, NASA is looking for organizations that will draw large numbers of participants and integrate the downlink into a well-developed education plan. 

The deadline to submit a proposal is Dec. 21, 2011.

A high school student interviews crew members on the International Space StationDuring Expeditions 31 and 32, crew members aboard the International Space Station will participate in downlinks. Downlinks are approximately 20 minutes in length and allow students and educators to interact with astronauts through a question and answer session. Downlinks afford education audiences the opportunity to learn firsthand from astronauts what it is like to live and work in space. Downlinks are broadcast live on NASA TV and are streamed on the NASA website. Because of the nature of human spaceflight, organizations must demonstrate the flexibility to accommodate changes in downlink dates and times.

Interested organizations should contact Teaching From Space, a NASA Education office, to obtain information related to expectations, format, audience, guidelines and forms by sending an email to JSC-Teaching-From-Space@mail.nasa.gov or calling 281-244-7608.