NASA Education “Science WOW!” Message — Oct. 18, 2017

2017 von Kármán Lecture Series — Attend in Person or View Online
Audience: All Educators; Students in Grades 9-12 and Higher Education
Next Lecture Date: Oct. 19 and Oct. 20, 2017, at 7 p.m. PDT (10 p.m. EDT)

The Theodore von Kármán Lecture Series, named after the founder of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and presented by JPL’s Office of Communication and Education, shares the excitement of the space program’s missions, instruments and other technologies.

Lectures take place twice per month, on consecutive Thursdays and Fridays. The Thursday lectures take place in JPL’s Theodore von Kármán Auditorium, and Friday lectures take place at Pasadena City College’s Vosloh Forum. Both start at 7 p.m. PDT (10 p.m. EDT). Admission and parking are free for all lectures. No reservations are required, but seating is limited. The Thursday evening lectures are streamed live for viewing online. Archives of past lectures are also available online.

Next Lecture in the Series:

Sink or Swim? Using Radar to Protect California’s Water Supply
Event Date: Oct. 19 and Oct. 20, 2017, at 7 p.m. PDT (10 p.m. EDT)
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/events/lectures_archive.php?year=2017&month=10
California has highly variable annual precipitation and a great disparity between where precipitation falls and where people live and grow crops. To deal with these issues, a vast array of infrastructure is in place. Monitoring and maintaining this infrastructure is critical. Join Dr. Cathleen E. Jones, a signals analysis engineer, for a discussion about how NASA is using high-resolution, airborne radar to make this monitoring more efficient.

For more information about the Theodore von Kármán Lecture Series, including a complete list of upcoming lectures, visit http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/events/lectures.php.

Questions about this series should be directed to http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/contact_JPL.php.

Participate in International Observe the Moon Night
Audience: All Educators and Students
Event Date: Oct. 28, 2017

On Oct. 28, 2017, the whole world has the chance to admire and celebrate our moon on International Observe the Moon Night. And you can join in the fun! Visit the website to find a map of registered events and make plans to attend. If you don’t see an event near you, sign up to host your own! The website has step-by-step plans for hosting an event of any size. Ideas for hands-on activities are available to make your event a success.

To learn more, visit http://observethemoonnight.org/.

Please direct questions about this opportunity to https://eclipse2017.nasa.gov/contact-us.

Send Your Name to Mars on NASA’s Next Red Planet Mission!
Audience: All Educators and Students
Deadline: Nov. 1, 2017

NASA invites the public to send their names to the Red Planet aboard NASA’s InSight Mars lander! InSight will launch in May 2018 and land on Nov. 26, 2018. The mission will do an in-depth study of the interior of Mars to answer key questions about how the solar system’s rocky planets formed, including Earth. InSight will place the first seismometer directly on the surface of Mars and deploy a self-hammering heat probe that will burrow deeper into the ground than any device on the planet has ever done.

To get your boarding pass to fly your name on the next mission to Mars, visit https://mars.nasa.gov/syn/insight.

Questions about this opportunity should be directed to http://mars.nasa.gov/feedback/.

Science Opportunities for Educators of Grades K-12

Free Education Webinars From NASA Educator Professional Development
Audience: In-service, Pre-service, Home School and Informal Educators

The NASA STEM Educator Professional Development Collaborative at Texas State University is presenting a series of free webinars open to all educators. Join NASA education specialists to learn about activities, lesson plans, educator guides and resources that bring NASA into your classroom. Registration is required to participate. To register, simply click on the link provided beneath the webinar description.

Technology for Exploration: Engineering a Satellite
Audience: Grades 4-10, Informal and Pre-service Educators
Event Date: Oct. 18, 2017, at 5 p.m. EDT
Materials going into space encounter extremely harsh conditions not normally encountered on Earth. Probes dropped into the atmosphere of a planet like Jupiter or Saturn’s moon, Titan, may encounter tremendous pressures, temperatures and corrosive gases. Learn how to bring these challenges into your classroom with two satellite engineering design challenges. Register online to participate. https://www.eiseverywhere.com/271398

**NEW** Technology for Exploration: Speed of Sound
Audience: K-12, Informal and Pre-service Educators
Event Date: Oct. 24, 2017, at 6:30 p.m. EDT
Explore NASA’s efforts to reduce aircraft noise. Learn about motions and forces, transfer of energy and the abilities of technological design to reduce or eliminate noise. Use hands-on experiments and physical demonstrations to make and share connections to aircraft noise research within the classroom. Register online to participate. https://www.eiseverywhere.com/281497

**NEW** Technology for Exploration: Mysteries of Saturn and Cassini
Audience: Grades 4-10, Informal and Pre-service Educators
Event Date: Oct. 26, 2017, at 6:30 p.m. EDT
Saturn’s ringed world has attracted attention ever since humans first looked at the sky. Scientists first got a close-up look at the planet when the Pioneer and Voyager spacecrafts swung by Saturn in the 1970s and 1980s. Explore the incredible Cassini mission and learn Saturn facts to share with your students. Register online to participate. https://www.eiseverywhere.com/282865

For a full schedule of upcoming NASA Educator Professional Development webinars, visit http://www.txstate-epdc.net/events/.

Questions about this series of webinars should be directed to Steve Culivan at stephen.p.culivan@nasa.gov.

Sign Up to Receive the NASA Space Place Gazette
Audience: K-6 Educators

Something new is always going on at NASA Space Place. Do you want to keep up with all the latest articles, activities and games? Sign up to receive the NASA Space Place Gazette!

This monthly e-newsletter for educators and parents has information on all of the latest and greatest offerings from the NASA Space Place website. To sign up, visit https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/subscribe/en/.

Please direct questions about the NASA Space Place Gazette to info@spaceplace.nasa.gov.

Opportunities for Higher Education and Informal Institutions

Apply to Receive Free ‘Explore Science: Earth & Space 2018’ Toolkits
Audience: Children’s Museums, Science Centers, Science Museums, NASA Visitor Centers, Public Planetariums and Observatories Located in the U.S.
Application Deadline: Nov. 1, 2017

The National Informal STEM Education Network, or NISE Network, is pleased to offer free “Explore Science: Earth & Space 2018” toolkits to new and existing eligible partners in the United States. In collaboration with NASA, the NISE Network has assembled a new set of engaging, hands-on Earth and space science experiences with connections to science, technology and society. In addition to the physical toolkits, all digital materials will be available online as a free download in February 2018.

A total of 250 toolkits will be awarded to eligible organizations through a competitive application process. Eligible organizations include children’s museums, science centers, science museums, public planetariums and observatories, and NASA visitor centers located in the U.S.

Applications are due Nov. 1, 2017. To learn more, visit http://www.nisenet.org/blog/post/applications-free-physical-2018-explore-science-earth-space-toolkits-hands-activities-due.

Please direct questions about this opportunity to Catherine McCarthy at cmccarthy@smm.org.

Help NASA Search the Realm Beyond Neptune at Backyard Worlds: Planet 9
Audience: All Educators and Students
Project Timeframe: Ongoing

Is a large planet at the fringes of our solar system awaiting discovery, a world astronomers call Planet Nine? Using data from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer mission, NASA scientists are looking for this planet and for new brown dwarfs in the backyard of the solar system. But they need your help! Finding these dim objects requires the human eye to comb through the images to distinguish moving celestial bodies from ghosts and other artifacts. Participants in this citizen science project will share the credit for their discoveries in any scientific publications that result from the project.

For more information and to learn how to participate, visit the “Backyard Worlds: Planet 9” website at http://backyardworlds.org.

To learn more about NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer and its mission to image the entire sky in the infrared, visit https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/WISE/main/index.html.

Please direct questions about this opportunity to Marc Kuchner at marc.j.kuchner@nasa.gov.