NES Project Update – Page 5 – NES Teachers Corner

Design a Spacecraft to Explore Mercury

NASA and the American Association for the Advancement of Science have teamed up to create a website for students in support of the MESSENGER mission to Mercury. In the Make a Mission module, students design a spacecraft capable of completing several mission goals as it explores the planet closest to the sun.

NASA Explorer Schools educators may want to consider using this website in conjunction with the NES module MESSENGER: Staying Cool — My Angle on Cooling — Effects of Distance and Inclination.

Link to the NES Virtual Campus website.

Curiosity Cam-A View of Curiosity

Artist conception of curiosity rover on Mars

NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory mission is preparing to send a large, mobile laboratory — the rover Curiosity — to the Red Planet. Plans call for a launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., between Nov. 25 and Dec.18, 2011, and an arrival at Mars in August 2012.

Curiosity is about twice as long (about 3 meters or 10 feet) and five times as heavy as NASA’s twin Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity.

You and your students look inside the clean room at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., to watch the next Mars rover being built. The camera is located in a viewing gallery above the clean room floor. There is no audio on this video feed. As of October 2010, technicians are working from approximately 8 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. PDT Monday through Friday.

For more information about the mission, download the pdf, and then check out the cool mission website.

Link to the NES Virtual Campus website.

September NES Professional Development Opportunities

NASA Explorer Schools provides full support for educators wanting additional information about using any of the growing selection of NASA education activities supported by the project. Each activity is designed to excite and inspire students in grades 4-12 by involving them in authentic NASA problems often using NASA data.

The project is pleased to offer one-hour electronic professional development sessions throughout the year for each education activity supported by the project. These highly informative sessions are delivered through NES partner organizations, National Science Teachers Association and Georgia Tech. All NES electronic professional development are free of charge.

Participation in a session requires a computer connected to the Internet. For audio, the computer must have either working speakers or earphones; a headset with microphone connected to the computer; or simultaneous access to a telephone capable of calling a toll-free telephone number.

Each interactive session provides an overview of all support materials in each product module. In addition to introducing and explaining the featured classroom lesson, presenters will review the lesson’s essential question, subjects and topics covered, instructional objective, a connection to NASA and extension activities that may be done by students. Other classroom support resources also will be reviewed.

Participants may ask questions of the presenter through a chat window or on the telephone or headset, if available.

Shortly after signing up for a professional development session, the participant will receive confirmation e-mail with information about joining the online session.

Registered NES educators may sign up for as many electronic professional development opportunities as they would like to attend. However, space is limited in each session.

If, after signing up for a session, you find you cannot attend the session you signed up for, please send e-mail to NASA-Explorer-Schools@mail.nasa.gov. Include your name and the session you had signed up for. Then, return to this site, select a new session, and sign up for it.

Sessions will be repeated several times throughout the school year, so if you can’t participate in a session when it’s offered, you will have other opportunities to sign up for that session.

NOTE: All times shown are EASTERNtimes.

Module Title	Day	Date	Time (ET)
Lunar Nautics: Designing a Mission to Live and Work on the Moon	Tuesday	9/14/10	6:30 – 7:30 p.m.
Rockets Educator Guide: High-power Paper Rockets	Wednesday	9/15/10	9:00 – 10:00 p.m.
Earth Climate Course: Modeling Hot and Cold Planets	Monday	9/20/10	6:30 – 7: 30 p.m.
Smart Skies: Line up with Math	Wednesday	9/22/10	9:00 – 10:00 p.m.
MY NASA DATA: Solar Cell Energy Availability	Thursday	9/23/10	6:30 – 7:30 p.m.
Messenger: Cooling with Sunshades	Tuesday	9/27/10	6:30 – 7:30 p.m.
GENESIS: Exploring Data-A First Look	Wednesday	9/29/10	6:30 – 7:30 p.m.
Engineering Design Challenge: Water Filtration	Wednesday	9/29/10	9:00 – 10:00 p.m.

For information about each product module, visit the NASA Explorer Schools Virtual Campus website.

Sign-up for NES Project Orientation Sessions

On Sept. 7, 2010, an e-mail was sent to all registered NASA Explorer Schools participants requesting they sign up for a project orientation session. One-hour orientation sessions begin on Sept. 15. The sessions will provide an overview of the NES Virtual Campus website, professional development opportunities for educators, NASA Now student broadcasts, and recognition opportunities and research experiences for educators, students and schools.

Participation in an orientation session requires a computer connected to the Internet and simultaneous access to a telephone capable of calling a toll-free number.   If you registered to participate in the NES project and didn’t receive an e-mail about the orientation sessions, check your junk mail folder and be sure to add NASA-Explorer-Schools@mail.nasa.gov to your e-mail safe senders list.

If you did not receive the NES e-mail, please send a follow-up e-mail to NASA-Explorer-Schools@mail.nasa.gov.

Link to the NASA Explorer Schools Virtual Campus.

Update: NASA Explorer Schools Orientation Sessions

NASAExplorerSchools provides free teaching and learning resources that promote student engagement in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. It provides opportunities for teachers and students to participate in NASA’s mission of research and discovery through inquiry-based experiences directly related to the work of NASA scientists and engineers.

If you work in an accredited K-12 education institution in the U.S. or U.S. territory and want to be a part of the NASAExplorerSchools project, sign-up for an orientation session. You will be contacted for orientation prior to the start date scheduled for mid-September.

Link to orientation sign-up page.

For more information visit the NES Virtual Campus home page.

NASA Explorer Schools Orientation Sessions

NASAExplorerSchools provides free teaching and learning resources that promote student engagement in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. It provides opportunities for teachers and students to participate in NASA’s mission of research and discovery through inquiry-based experiences directly related to the work of NASA scientists and engineers.

If you work in an accredited K-12 education institution in the U.S. or U.S. territory and want to be a part of the NASAExplorerSchools project, sign-up for an orientation session. You will be contacted for orientation prior to the start date scheduled for the first week of September.

Link to orientation sign-up page

For more information visit the NES Virtual Campus home page

Subscribe to the NES Teachers Corner

Really Simple Syndication, or RSS, is an easy way to keep up with posts to the NES Teachers Corner. Headlines, summaries and links to each post’s full text are automatically delivered to you in near real-time each time a new post is added.

As an NES participant, you’ll want to keep up to date with what’s going on with the project. Information about NES live and recorded events, special opportunities and NASA mission updates will be posted on the Teachers Corner.

Setting up your Web browser to automatically receive the latest project information is as easy as making a few clicks in your browser. Once you subscribe you’ll never miss updates to the NES Teachers Corner. Whenever a new post is added, you’ll see a number next to your bookmark or favorite indicating the number of new posts since the last time you visited the site. Subscribing is quick, easy and convenient.

From the NES Virtual Campus home page, click on the Teachers Corner link. Then click on the small orange icon (see image with this post) in the upper right corner of the page. A browser window will open, showing all of the current posts. Add this page as a bookmark or favorite to your browser’s bookmark or favorites bar. That’s all there is to it!

Link to the NES Virtual Campus home page

Welcome to the NASA Explorer Schools Teachers Corner

Welcome to the NASA Explorer Schools Teachers Corner! This forum supports the NES project by disseminating NES project information as well as providing NASA mission updates that may be of interest to students and teachers. It is also a place for educators to share comments and ideas on how NASA’s educational materials and mission of research and discovery connect with what is taught in classroom.

Use the comment feature below each entry to share your thoughts or ideas with the NES team and your fellow educators. The comments are moderated so they won’t appear instantly. Please do not include URLs, e-mail addresses or links to websites in your comments, we cannot post comments that include these items.

Stay tuned! Throughout the summer the Teachers Corner will be updated with NES project information and educational opportunities and provide information about current NASA missions and projects.

Link to the NES Virtual Campus home page.