OSGC Educational Resources Blog

The Air Force is currently looking for Engineering students for internship opportunities at Air Force Research Laboratories (AFRLs) during the summer of their Sophomore or Junior year of college. Earn a great salary ($4,500 for 10 wks), plus paid lodging, transportation, and meals. Eligible students will be considered for a follow-on Air Force ROTC scholarship including full tuition and fees, $900 / year for books, and $450-500 / monthly stipend.

Application Deadline: January 15, 2008
Tentative Internship Dates: June 2 - August 5, 2008

Applicants must:
• Be a Sophomore with 2.50+ cum GPA in Electrical, Computer or Environmental Engineering
• Have completed at least 60 semester/90 quarter hours at time of internship
• Be able to graduate within two or three years of internship
• Be a U.S. citizen at time of internship and under age 31 on 31 December of graduation year
• Not be currently enrolled in Air Force ROTC
• Meet Air Force commissioning standards

Internship Locations
•Edwards AFB (Los Angeles, CA)
•Eglin AFB (Ft Walton Beach, FL)
•Hanscom AFB (Boston, MA)
•Kirkland AFB (Albuquerque, NM)
•Tyndall AFB (Panama City, FL)
•Wright-Patterson AFB (Dayton, OH)

Engineering Fields of Interest
•Computer Engineering
•Electrical Engineering
•Environmental Engineering

Contact the Local Air Force ROTC detachment for eligibility requirements and to start the application process. To locate the local detachment visit our website at http://www.afrotc.com  or call 866-423-7682.

In 2008, NASA will present a series of NASA Future Forums around the United States to support NASA’s 50th anniversary celebration and to bring the space exploration vision to the public.

One January 24-25, the Museum of Flight in Seattle is honored to be the first venue for the forum which focuses on the past, present, and future of NASA and its contributions to the Nation for the advancement of science, technology, engineering, education and the economy. The event will also highlight NASA’s Constellation Program—America’s return to the Moon and beyond.

NASA’s Future Forum takes place over two days and will feature a teacher workshop on January 24. Information on the events and how you can participate are provided below.

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Thursday, January 24, 2008
Becoming the Catalyst: Inspiring Students to Become 21st Century Explorers

In this two-part workshop, teachers are introduced to a wide variety of web-based educational resources developed by NASA and its Future Forums partners. Some sites demonstrate everyday applications of 21st century innovations, while others delve into the challenges NASA faces as Americans return to the Moon and head towards Mars.

As 21st century explorers, today’s students will play a significant role in helping STEM (Science-Technology-Engineering-Mathematics) communities achieve high goals. Part two of this workshop guides teachers through steps to create their own Space Weather Action Center in their classrooms. Through the Space Weather Action Center, students will monitor the progress of an entire solar storm from the time it erupts from the sun to the time it eventually sweeps past our small planet, generating changes in our magnetic field. Resources for this segment will come from NASA’s educational resources, “Tracking a Solar Storm” and the “Space Weather Action Center” Educator’s Guide. This hands-on component helps deepen an understanding of the Sun-Earth connection within and beyond Earth’s protective magnetosphere.

Content within this workshop aligns with Washington State GLEs. The effective use of technology will be modeled throughout this training. This workshop is taught by educators from the National Institute of Aerospace and NASA. Clock hours will be offered.

Time: 4:30 - 8:30 p.m.
Audience: Educators teaching students in grades 3 - 12

For registration information, please call 206-768-7216.

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Friday, January 25, 2008
NASA’s Future Forum

The forum is expected to consist of several panel discussions on the role of space exploration to innovation and its contribution to promoting and sustaining economic development. While the panel discussions are invitation-only, they will be simulcast in the Museum’s Murdock Theater.

Throughout the day, Washington NASA Space Grant Consortium members will highlight research and education opportunities available to Washington state students. In addition to the panel discussions, the Museum will host a special NASA exhibit in the side gallery reflecting aspects of the agency such as exploration, space operations, science and aeronautics.

NASA will also loan the Museum a Mars meteorite for a limited engagement. The meteorite, named Elephant Moraine 79001 (or EETA79001 for short) was found in Elephant Moraine Antarctica on Jan. 13, 1980 and is classified as a Basaltic Shergottite. Weighing 34 grams and approximately the size of a thumb, it will be on display beginning Jan. 24. The Museum is hoping to extend the loan beyond the end of the NASA Future Forum exhibit which ends Jan. 27.

Time: Throughout the day
Audience: School audiences; general public

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Educational Progams related to NASA’s Future Forum

Education programs offered by the Museum that relate to the NASA Future Forum include:

The Dream of Flight Tour - A Docent led tour for students in grades 7 – 12.
Program fee: $4.00 per student.

Challenger Learning Center
A simulated space mission for students in grades 5 – 12.
Program fee: $500 per group, $400 if the teacher attends a CLC Educator Workshop.

Additional information about all of the Museum’s education programs can be found on the Museum’s web site, http://www.museumofflight.org . To register for a program, please call 206-764-1384.

The Museum of Flight offers a number of financial assistance options for groups that would like incorporate this once-in-a-lifetime experience into an interactive, education program. Financial assistance is available for all groups that have at least 35 percent of students receiving free or reduced school lunch. Additional information and an application form can be found on the Museum’s web site, http://www.museumofflight.org .

For more information on attending NASA’s Future Forum, please contact Washington NASA Space Grant Program at 206-543-1943 or e-mail nasa@u.washington.edu

FIRST Robotics’ mission is to inspire young people to be science and technology leaders, by engaging them in exciting mentor-based programs that build science, engineering and technology skills, that inspire innovation, and that foster well-rounded life capabilities including self-confidence, communication and leadership. 

The 2007/08 FIRST Programs include:

• FIRST Robotics Competition for high-school students
• FIRST Tech Challenge for high-school students 
• FIRST LEGO League for 9 to 14 year-olds
• Junior FIRST LEGO League for 6 to 9 year-olds
• FIRST Place for ages 6 to adult

Visit the FIRST Robotics website to find robotics competitions and events near you! Compete, volunteer, get involved!
http://www.usfirst.org/whatsgoingon.aspx

Are you an Eco Hero?

In an effort to acknowlege the accomplishments of young people (age 8-16), Action For Nature will award cash prizes of up to $500 to young Eco-Heroes from around the world for their outstanding accomplishments in environmental advocacy, environmental health, research or protection of the natural world. Their individual initiatives will inspire others to preserve and protect our fragile environment.

If you or somebody you know is an eco hero, just fill out the application available at the Action For Nature website found here: http://www.actionfornature.org/eco-hero/ecoheroawards.html

The application deadline is February 28. 2008.  Full rules and project guidelines are available at the website.

More than 50 educational video clips have been added to the Videos section of the NASA Educational Materials site. Educational video clips are short segments about aeronautics, Earth science, space science, space exploration and other NASA-related topics.  Designed for students in grades K-12, these short videos are ideal for supplementing teaching ideas in the classroom.

Use the Find Teaching Materials tool at the link below to select Video Learning Clips and the appropriate grade level.
http://search.nasa.gov/search/edFilterSearch.jsp?empty=true

These activities comprise a series of 20 practical math applications in space science. Students looking for additional challenges in math and physical science are encouraged to use these as potential extra credit problems. The problems are authentic glimpses of modern engineering issues that arise in designing satellites to work in space. Each word problem has background information providing insight into the basic phenomena of the sun-Earth system, specifically space weather. The one-page assignments are accompanied by one-page teachers guides with answer keys.

http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/topnav/materials/listbytype/Extra-Credit_Problems_in_Space_Science.html

The Lunar Nautics: Designing a Mission to Live and Work on the Moon Educator Guide (Grades 6- features 40 activities that challenge students to assume the roles of workers at Lunar Nautics Space Systems, Inc., a fictional aerospace company specializing in mission management, lunar habitat and exploration design, and scientific research.

The guide includes information to teach the basics on Newton’s Laws of Motion, rocket design, microgravity, and the moon. Students design, test and analyze a model lunar lander, a robot, and a soda bottle rocket. They also build edible models, a solar oven to cook hot dogs, and a microgravity sled while underwater.

Educators can use this guide in a variety of formats such as week- long day camps, after-school programs, a classroom unit or as supporting curriculum. http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/topnav/materials/listbytype/Lunar_Nautics_Designing_a_Mission.html 

Join NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Science Foundation and the National Science Teachers Association for three, free Web seminars on the topic of the International Polar Year. Designed for educators of grades 5-8, the seminars will focus on land and marine adaptations to extreme conditions, species migration, and the role of humans in polar ecosystems. The presenters will share their expertise, answer questions from the participants and provide information regarding Web sites that students can use in the classroom.

The Web seminars are 90-minute, live professional development sessions that use online learning technologies to allow participants to interact with nationally acclaimed experts, scientists, engineers and education specialists funded by NASA, NOAA and NSF. Each Web seminar is a unique, stand-alone program. Archives of the Web seminars and the presenters’ presentations will be available online. The Web seminars in this series are scheduled for Dec. 30, 2007, Jan. 17 and Jan. 24, 2008. Each seminar will begin at 6:30 p.m. EDT.

Online registration for each is now open.
http://learningcenter.nsta.org/products/symposia_seminars/fall07/IPY_Birmingham/webseminar.aspx

Spaceward Bound is an educational program designed to train the next generation of space explorers. Students participate in the exploration of scientifically interesting but remote and extreme environments on Earth as analogs for human exploration of the moon and Mars.

The student program enables students at the upper-undergraduate and graduate levels to participate as crew members in two-week-long immersive, full-scale simulations of living and working on the moon and Mars at the Mars Desert Research Station. The Spaceward Bound crew rotations at MDRS take place from October to March each year. They are currently planned through 2010.

Applications for these expeditions are available through The Mars Society, which established and operates the Research Station. Each Spaceward Bound MDRS participant receives a $500 stipend toward travel expenses.

For more information, visit http://quest.nasa.gov/projects/spacewardbound/mdrs.html

The Pacific International Space Center for Explorations Systems (PISCES) announces its second annual Student Design Competition and invites team from universities to participate.  Design Competition contributions from student teams are invited in the following areas:

• Overall habitat design (architecture). Teams considering submissions should review last year’s reports, which can be found on the PISCES web site http://pisces.hilo.hawaii.edu/ . (up to two awards will be given)
• Lunar resource utilization. This could include work in finding, extracting and utilizing lunar materials for support of a lunar outpost or for commercial purposes. This is of particular interest to NASA, who is supporting up to three awards in this area. NASA has requested that design studies in this area focus on the problems/solutions for extracting water from deposits in permanently shadowed craters near the lunar poles.
• Supporting subsystems (life support systems, communications, robotics, energy conversion and power, surface transportation, etc.) that may be simulated in the PISCES environment. (up to two awards)
• Issues of operations in space and on planetary surfaces, such as the conduct of field geology, remote exploration from a planetary base, or problems of human performance and health.(up to two awards)
• Business students are invited to participate by submitting business plans detailing concepts for developing commercial goods or services aligned with a lunar outpost, or with the PISCES simulation facility (up to two awards)

A total of up to six awards will be offered this year. Each award will consist of travel funds to bring two students and a faculty advisor to the PISCES annual conference to be held on the Big Island of Hawaii, November 10-11, 2008. At this conference, the university studies will be presented to the PISCES team and the student teams will be able to observe and participate in further planning of the PISCES program.

A brief indication of interest is requested from university teams by January 31, 2008. This letter should include: team name; university; composition of team (number of graduate and undergraduate members, names, if available), contact information for faculty advisor, and topical area chosen for study. This indication of interest will be used by PISCES to provide technical help to the university team and to coordinate interaction with Japanese teams. No selection of teams will be made at this time; everyone can participate and will receive recognition from PISCES for their participation.  Communication between each team and PISCES at approximately bi-monthly intervals is recommended as the study proceeds.

Learn more about the PISCES program and the 2008 Design competition here:
http://pisces.uhh.hawaii.edu/competitions.php