Amateur Radio on the International Space Station

Most of the DIY Podcast topic modules feature astronauts on the International Space Station explaining or demonstrating scientific concepts. Your students can create audio podcasts with the sound clips we provide on the Audio Clips page of each topic module. But what if your students could interview an astronaut aboard the space station and ask the specific questions they want answered? Amateur Radio on the International Space Station, or ARISS, offers this opportunity.

If you or one of your students’ parents is a ham radio operator, you may be able to contact an astronaut aboard the station. Record the conversation audio, and then your students will have unique content to add to their podcasts. As students prepare for a 10-minute session with a space explorer, they could study a topic related to a DIY Podcast module, listen to the clips provided in the module, and then ask informed questions to get answers they would like to include as sound bites in their own podcasts.

ARISS
International Space Station Reference: Ham Radio
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Worldwide Resources Through CORE

When you need supplemental materials for NASA-related lessons and activities, the Central Operation of Resources for Educators may be your answer. CORE serves as the worldwide distribution center for NASA-produced multimedia materials. You may purchase the materials for a minimal charge. Resources available from CORE include activity kits, CD-ROMs and DVDs, posters, and space memorabilia. The kits and memorabilia may be especially useful for student demonstrations in DIY Podcast video productions.

CORE
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NASA Educational TV

When students are searching for more information to build their products with the DIY Podcast activity, NASA TV is a good place to look. You can watch live events, including live space station video and mission coverage.

 

NASA Television is a multichannel, digital service that includes the NASA TV Education Channel, which provides grade-level programming for teachers and students. You may refer to the NASA Television Education File for the monthly programming schedule. Much of the educational programming is theme-related. Monthly themes are listed at the top of the Web page, and a link to the previous month’s theme is listed at the bottom of the page.

 

The education file also provides links to information on sources for viewing NASA TV, how to get digital NASA TV and a list of program descriptions. As you click through the educational programming descriptions, you’ll find links to CORE, the Central Operation of Resources for Educators, where you can order many of the videos. You’ll also find links to NASA eClips™ that are available for online viewing.

 

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NASA Career Resources

As your students engage with NASA content in the DIY Podcast activity, we hope they’ll become intrigued with NASA’s mission and want to be a part of it. NASA offers fulfilling careers for engineers, mathematicians, astronomers, physicists, chemists, pilots, surgeons, attorneys, accountants and experts in many other exciting fields that may interest your students. NASA Education has launched a new Web page to help students learn about jobs at NASA. It provides career information, such as opportunities for students to intern at NASA, descriptions of jobs at NASA and career resources sorted by grade levels.

 

NASA Careers

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Finding Apollo and Space Shuttle Photos


The DIY Podcast Rocket Evolution module includes links to some of NASA’s Apollo and space shuttle images. But, as you might expect, NASA has many photos of the Apollo/Saturn V and the space shuttle. These images are available online in several places.

The JSC Digital Image Collection from Johnson Space Center in Houston offers most of the Apollo images, early shuttle images and images from other human spaceflight missions. Browse the collection to find images from a specific mission. NASA Images features a timeline at the bottom of the main page that could be helpful as students collect information and multimedia content for their podcasts. Rolling over the timeline causes different NASA missions to pop up. Students may select the mission they want and then narrow their search by selecting from a list of What, Where, Who and When. Students also may use the search box to find images of specific parts of Apollo or the shuttle, such as the J-2 engine or solid rocket boosters.

Each shuttle mission has its own image gallery. The Space Shuttle Gallery has photos from preflight to postflight and lets you select images associated with a specific mission. Some of the best pictures of the spacecraft are captured during launch and landing, and are available in Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Archives.

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DIY Podcast: Rocket Evolution

Scriptwriting Idea for Solar Arrays Production


In the DIY Podcast Solar Arrays topic module, Expedition 12 Commander Bill McArthur details some of the uses of electricity on the International Space Station. Electricity is a lifeline for astronauts on the space station. They can’t even breathe without it. While electricity is very important on Earth, it’s not generally considered a necessity for survival.

It might be fun for your students to compare or contrast uses of electricity on Earth to those in space. When you create your student podcast, insert a NASA video clip of McArthur listing one of the ways electricity is used in space and follow it with a student listing a similar or different way they use electricity on Earth. Repeat this several times to create a montage of students and functions of electricity in their everyday lives. Video clips 9-v through 14-v or audio clips 8-a through 12-a are well-suited for this approach to your script. You can download the files from the Audio Clips and Video Clips pages of the Solar Arrays module.

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DIY Podcast: Solar Arrays

New Teacher Resource to Supplement Rocket Evolution


NASA’s newest educator guide about rockets and rocketry is Ares: Launch and Propulsion. It’s a great resource to supplement lesson planning if your class uses the DIY Podcast Rocket Evolution module to create multimedia projects. This guide focuses on NASA’s Ares launch vehicles and includes the science and history of rockets. The activities call for students to work in teams to investigate one variable at a time in detail by performing tests. By completing these tests, students will learn various aspects involved in launching a rocket. In the assessment, students compete and apply what they have learned about rockets to build a launch vehicle that flies as high as possible.

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DIY Podcast: Rocket Evolution

NASA Educator Resource Centers Offer Freebies for Teachers

Summer is a great time to go “shopping” at a NASA Educator Resource Center. NASA has 69 ERCs across the United States, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands to provide free NASA curriculum support products for teachers. Many of the ERCs have NASA educator guides, posters and lithographs that will enhance your teaching of subjects related to the DIY Podcast modules. Take time this summer to prepare for an exciting new school year by picking up NASA educational products and becoming acquainted with your ERC. Some ERCs offer professional development opportunities.

Visit the NASA Educator Resource Center Network Web site to find the location of an ERC that serves your area. Your nearest ERC may be in a different state.

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Resources That Shed Light on Solar Arrays and Electricity


The main page of the Solar Arrays module lists resources for students to use if they want to gather more information for their podcast script. Here are a few more NASA educational resources that you may find helpful in teaching about solar arrays and electricity.


NASA’s Student Observation Network includes the Living and Working in Space: Energy module, which promotes inquiry as students answer questions such as “What variables might affect the operation of solar panels?”

Classroom of the Future offers ISS: Electricity and Power in Space, an electricity module with simulations.

The NASA SCI Files’ The Case of the Electrical Mystery educator guide contains activities that will get students “charged up” about electricity.

NASA’s Environmental Control and Life Support Systems Water Filtration Challenge Educator Guide is an engineering design challenge in which students build and test water filtration systems.

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DIY Podcast: Solar Arrays

Education Standards Supported by Rocket Evolution Module


As we celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission, we’re also looking forward to the flight of our next spacecraft that will replace the shuttle after it retires in 2010. The Constellation Program is in the works to replace the Space Shuttle Program. NASA Education’s new DIY Podcast module, Rocket Evolution, looks at past, present and future NASA rockets. Students can use Apollo and space shuttle video and audio clips along with animation of future spacecraft to show how rockets include technology built on what’s already been learned.


Student podcasts created with this module will support National Science Education Standards, including:
•    Abilities of technological design
•    Understanding about science and technology
•    Science technology and society

Student podcasts built using the Rocket Evolution module will also support the International Technology Education Association educational standard: Students will develop an understanding of the relationships among technologies and the connections between technology and other fields of study.

In addition to audio and video clips, the Rocket Evolution module features information to help students write a podcast script, along with links to related resources and images.

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DIY Podcast: Rocket Evolution

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