Education News at NASA

The main goals of NASA’s Education Program are to inspire and motivate students to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, and to engage the public in shaping and sharing the experience of exploration and discovery. These goals are carried out by supporting education in national and international schools, as well as public outreach efforts.

The “Circle of Life” camp, run by the National Federation of the Blind, took place, in part, at the Goddard Space Flight Center.

NASA’s commitment to education places special emphasis on these goals by increasing elementary and secondary education participation in NASA programs; enhancing higher education capability in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines; increasing participation by underrepresented and underserved communities; expanding e-Education; and expanding participation with the informal education community.

The Office of Education will continue to support NASA’s strong historical role in education at all levels, with linkages to NASA research as a central part of
its focus.

Opening Blind Eyes to Science

Steven and Amelia are blind, yet both were able to read the temperature with a thermometer and measure precipitation with a rain gauge at a science camp last summer. Their secret?

Steven and Amelia, along with 10 other blind students, ages 11 to 14, were using a talking thermometer, a Braille-marked rain gauge, and other tools identified by NASA for use by the visually impaired.

The tools got their first major test in July at the end of the week-long “Circle of Life” camp hosted by the National Federation of the Blind and sponsored by NASA. On the camp’s final day, students visited a pond and forest area situated at Goddard Space Flight Center, where they made observations of the soil, vegetation, weather, and birds.

For many of the kids, it was the first time they had used observation instruments specifically geared toward the senses of sound and touch, rather than sight.

“I didn’t know they existed,” said Steven, now a ninth-grader at a science-oriented high school in New York. “It was amazing to ‘see’ the technology.”

Goddard soil scientist Elissa Levine has been leading NASA’s effort to introduce various blind-friendly gadgets to the visually impaired community. Her work is aimed at making a variety of activities more accessible to the blind, including GLOBE, a NASA-sponsored science education program in which K-12 students around the world take measurements of soil, land cover, air, water, and living things.

“I have been working with the GLOBE program for many years and am aware of how effective it is as a learning experience, which made me interested in seeing if it would be as effective for blind students as well,” Levine said.

The new instruments include two kinds of talking thermometers, one for the air and a meat thermometer that can be inserted into the soil. There is also a talking compass and a talking sensor that analyzes soil color. A graduated cylinder with a floating plug serves as a rain gauge. The plug moves up or down, depending on the volume of water, and is attached to a plastic measuring scale marked in Braille.

Unlike other sciences that are sometimes more abstract, Earth science provides plenty of convenient opportunities for interactive, nonvisual activities, such as listening to birds or rubbing soil between one’s fingers.

“The best thing about Earth science is that there is a natural laboratory right outside the classroom door,” Levine noted.

Promoting interest in science—Earth or otherwise—among the more than 93,000 estimated blind school-age children in the United States is as much about educating teachers as it is kids, according to the “Circle of Life” camp’s lead instructor, Robin House, who says teachers often underestimate the potential of blind students.

NASA works to capture the educational potential of its robotics missions by supporting educational competitions and events, facilitating robotics curriculum enhancements at all educational levels, and maintaining a Web site clearinghouse of robotics education information.

“Many times blind students are left out of sciences and math because some educators think, ‘Oh, this is too difficult, they couldn’t possibly grasp these concepts,’” said House, who herself is blind. “The idea of this particular camp was a little bit of exposure in all the areas of science to get kids going, ‘I can do science, I can do it. I can become a scientist if I want to.’”

In the days preceding their visit to Goddard, the campers dissected a dogfish shark and dug for dinosaur fossils at the Maryland Science Center, explored seashells with blind shell expert Geerat Vermeij, took a boat ride on the Chesapeake Bay, and listened to sounds from space with blind physicist Kent Cullers.

For 12-year-old Amelia, the camp was a rare chance to experience science up close and personal.

“There are a lot of tools out there that blind people can use to investigate science. Blind people can pretty much do anything, but they just do it differently.”

Back to top

Steven has a simple, straightforward message for both students and teachers: “Blindness doesn’t have to be a barrier. Being blind doesn’t stop you from having a brain and doing science.”

The camp was the first step in the National Federation of the Blind’s initiative to create a National Center for Blind Youth in Science. Another camp held last summer called “Rocket On!” challenged blind high school students to develop, build, and launch a 12-foot rocket from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility.

NASA Sponsors Eighth Annual Botball Robotics Competition

Thirty-three Northern California middle and high school teams demonstrated their robotics skills at the eighth annual northern California Botball Robotics Tournament in April at Santa Clara University.

Botball is a robotics program designed to engage students in learning science, technology, engineering, and math. Students are given 7 weeks to design, build, and program two microcontrolled robots with LEGO structures, to compete in a fast-paced regional tournament consisting of head-to-head double elimination rounds. By building robots, students are exposed to high-tech equipment, gain knowledge of project design and computer programming, and develop team problem-solving skills. Unlike many robotics competitions, though, Botball robots are programmed in the “C” programming language and, therefore, use no remote controls. Game play is based solely on the skill of the team programmers. Students also can compete in the creation of Web sites to document their team progress.

The tournament is presented by the KISS Institute for Practical Robotics, based in Norman, Oklahoma, in conjunction with Santa Clara University and NASA’s Robotics Education Project at Ames Research Center. The NASA Robotics Education Project is supported through NASA’s Science Mission Directorate and is directed by David Lavery, program executive for Solar System Exploration.

NASA Explorer School Concept Goes International

A NASA education initiative designed to bring science, technology, engineering, and mathematics learning and activities to U.S. educators, students, and families is going abroad to the Netherlands.

NASA Chief Education Officer, Dr. Adena Williams Loston, signed an agreement among NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science, establishing the Delta Researchers Schools (DRS) Program.

Patterned after the NASA Explorer School (NES) Program, the DRS Program will identify and develop innovative methods to inspire Dutch primary school students to pursue careers in mathematics and science. The program will focus on stimulating the interest of children between the ages of 9 and 12. It also will generate positive awareness of human space flight, the International Space Station, and other international cooperative projects. The Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science initially will launch, manage, and fund activities for selected schools for 3-year periods.

The program’s name derives from the ESA Delta Mission, which was conducted as part of the International Space Station/Soyuz crew-exchange missions flown in April 2004. As part of the cooperation, NASA will provide opportunities for Dutch teachers to participate in summer NES workshops at NASA centers. Teachers will acquire new resources and technology tools using NASA’s unique content. NES officials will be available for content consultation and to coordinate distance-learning capabilities to support the DRS Program. One ham-radio opportunity will be scheduled each year for Dutch students to talk with the Earth-orbiting Space Station crew.

The NES Program has provided more than 70,000 U.S. elementary, middle, and high school students with information and interactive activities on future careers, to fulfill the Vision for Space Exploration.

NASA Summer High School Program Celebrates Silver Anniversary

The NASA Summer High School Apprenticeship Research Program (SHARP) recently celebrated 25 years of selecting high-achieving students to serve as apprentices in a variety of NASA professions. Students, representing nearly every state, Puerto Rico, and American Samoa have participated in the education program.

Students participating in the NASA Explorer School Program join NASA’s mission of discovery through educational activities and special learning opportunities tailored to promote careers in science, mathematics, and engineering.

Created in 1980, SHARP is designed to attract and increase participation among underrepresented students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The apprenticeship runs approximately 8 weeks during the summer and includes an hourly stipend for students. It engages them in research opportunities and reinforces educational excellence. The program also seeks to enrich and inspire the students by promoting interaction within their academic, workplace, and social environments.

All 10 NASA centers and several universities participate in SHARP, including the California State University, Los Angeles; the Georgia Institute of Technology; North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University; Hampton University, Hampton, Virginia; the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque; and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Back to top

There is a commuter component for students residing within a 50-mile radius of a NASA center and a residential for those living on a participating university campus.

NASA and University of North Dakota Sign DC-8 Agreement

NASA has signed a cooperative agreement with the University of North Dakota (UND), Grand Forks, to house and operate the Agency’s DC-8 jet aircraft. The purpose of the agreement is to create a National Suborbital Education and Research Center (NSERC) at the university with the DC-8 suborbital laboratory as the centerpiece. The agreement is intended to expand the science conducted using the DC-8 and enhance hands-on educational opportunities for students.

Transfer of the aircraft to the university is targeted for fall 2005, pending completion of a safety review. The aircraft will be housed at the Grand Forks Air Force Base.

Hands-on research gives college students work experience in the NASA environment, and in the field.

The DC-8 has been part of NASA science programs since 1986. It has supported satellite validation, Earth science studies, and the development of remote-sensing techniques for space-based observing systems. It has operated from several NASA centers and has been deployed worldwide to support research including ozone depletion, tropical rainforest ecology, hurricane studies, and ice sheets. Its most recent campaign was to New England last January to support arctic ozone studies and validation of NASA’s Aura satellite.

UND is home to the Northern Great Plains Center for People and the Environment, which will have oversight for the NSERC. The university is also home to the largest collegiate aviation program in the United States. It maintains and operates 120 aircraft throughout the country, including 80 aircraft in Grand Forks. The aircraft support aviation, atmospheric sciences, space studies, and computer science education activities.

Through the agreement, the university will maintain, operate, and manage educational and science flight missions. NASA retains operational control including safety, airworthiness, and mission management.

LEGO™ is a trademark of the LEGO Group.

Back to top