Filed under: Higher Education, Internships, NASA, Research, Science, Student Opportunities
NASA’s Undergraduate Student Research Project is currently accepting applications for 15-week fall 2009 internships. These internships offer students the opportunity to work alongside NASA scientists and engineers at NASA’s field centers, laboratories and test facilities.
Applicants must be rising sophomores, juniors or seniors with a 3.0 GPA. They must have an academic major or course work concentration in engineering, math, computer science, or physical or life sciences. Participants work on practical problems that will be applied in aerospace or on future NASA missions. Applicants must be U.S. citizens.
The application deadline for the fall 2009 session is March 6, 2009.
For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/postsecondary/programs/Undergraduate_Student_Research_Project.html
Filed under: Biology, Environmental Science, Higher Education, Internships, NASA, Science, Student Opportunities
The NASA Planetary Biology Internship Program provides opportunities each year for nine or 10 interns to undertake research at NASA research centers, NASA-sponsored laboratories, and academic institutions. The pursuit of such studies is expected to broaden the base of this new science by encouraging people in many different fields to take part.
Graduate students accepted in the PBI program will be expected to carry out research with a NASA-sponsored investigator for eight weeks, usually during the summer months. Typical programs in which interns may become involved include: global ecology and remote sensing; microbial ecology and bio-mineralization; advanced life support; and origin and early evolution of life.
Applications are due March 2, 2009. For more information, visit http://www.mbl.edu/education/courses/other_programs/pbi.html
Filed under: Higher Education, Internships, NASA, Science, Student Opportunities | Tags: History
The NASA History Division is seeking undergraduate and graduate students for summer 2009 internships. The History Division maintains archival materials to answer research questions from NASA personnel, journalists, scholars, students at all levels and others from around the world. The division also edits and publishes several books and monographs each year. It maintains a large number of Web sites on NASA history.
Students of all majors are welcome to apply. While detailed prior knowledge of the aeronautics and space fields is not necessary, a keen interest and some basic familiarity with these topics are needed. Strong research, writing and editing skills are essential. Experience with computers, especially HTML formatting, is a plus.
Intern projects are flexible. Typical projects include handling a wide variety of information requests, editing historical manuscripts, doing research and writing biographical sketches, updating and creating Web pages, and identifying and captioning photos.
The deadline for applications is Feb. 25, 2009. For more information, visit:
http://history.nasa.gov/interncall.htm
Filed under: Aeronautics, Astronomy, NASA, Science, Webcasts | Tags: Black History Month
Join NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., in celebrating Black History Month.
Each week in February, a different African-American employee from GSFC will be featured. In the opening week, two will be featured. The employees will talk about their careers, career paths and, in some cases, obstacles and challenges they have faced.
Week of Feb. 2 — Dewayne Washington, Public Affairs Officer
Week of Feb. 2 — Noble Jones, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Engineer
Week of Feb. 9 — Denna Lambert, Disabilities Program Manager
Week of Feb. 16 — Danielle Wood, M.I.T. Ph.D. Student/NASA Researcher
Week of Feb. 23 — Jahi Wartts, Business Resource Analyst
Each day a two- to three-minute video clip of the NASA employees talking about their careers will be available at http://www.nasa.gov/goddard
Filed under: Competitions, Environmental Science, K-12, NASA, STEM, Science, Student Opportunities | Tags: geoscience
The Institute for Global Environmental Strategies is currently accepting entries for the 2009 Thacher Scholars Awards. The awards will be given to students in grades 9-12 who demonstrate the best use of geospatial technologies or data to study Earth. Eligible geospatial tools and data include satellite remote sensing, aerial photography, geographic information systems and Global Positioning System. The main focus of the project must be on the application of the geospatial tool(s) or data to study a problem related to the Earth’s environment.
Applicants must be U.S. citizens currently in grades 9-12. Students in public, private, parochial, Native American reservation and home schools are eligible. Entries can be submitted by individuals or teams.
Cash awards will be given to students who place in the top three. First, second and third place will receive $2,000, $1,000 and $500, respectively. Teachers or adult “coaches” of winning entrants will receive a $200 gift card.
Entries must be postmarked by April 6, 2009. Entries may also be submitted electronically.
For more information, visit www.strategies.org/ThacherScholars
Filed under: Competitions, K-12, NASA, Robots, STEM, Science, Student Opportunities
NASA is looking for the right stuff, or in this case, the right name for the next Mars rover. NASA, in cooperation with Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures’ movie WALL-E from Pixar Animation Studios, is conducting a naming contest for its car-sized Mars Science Laboratory rover that is scheduled for launch in 2011.
The contest is open to students 5-18 years old who attend a U.S. school and are enrolled in the current academic year. To enter the contest, students will submit essays explaining why their suggested name for the rover should be chosen. Essays must be received by Jan. 25, 2009. In March 2009, the public will have an opportunity to rank nine finalist names via the Internet as additional input for judges to consider during the selection process. NASA will announce the winning rover name in April 2009.
Disney will provide prizes to students submitting winning essays, including a trip to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., where the rover is under construction. The grand prize winner will have an opportunity to place a signature on the spacecraft and take part in the history of space exploration.
For more information, visit http://marsrovername.jpl.nasa.gov/
The NASA INSPIRE Program is seeking chaperones for the summer of 2009. This position requires a professional educator to coordinate NASA INSPIRE activities at the assigned NASA center during non-work day hours. The INSPIRE Chaperone will be the designated point of contact for INSPIRE participants regarding safety and health-related issues. Chaperones are also responsible for transporting participants to and from work each day.
Each Chaperone will be the advisor to participants during their eight-week experience away from home on a NASA center. During NASA field center work hours, INSPIRE Chaperones are off-duty from their work assignments and have the opportunity to earn graduate credit, if desired.
One position is available at each of the ten NASA field centers. Event dates vary by NASA field center, as reflected in the following schedule:
– June 1-July 24, 2009: Stennis Space Center
– June 8-July 31, 2009: Dryden Flight Research Center, Kennedy Space Center and Marshall Space Flight Center
– June 15-Aug. 7, 2009: Glenn Research Center, Johnson Space Center and Langley Research Center
– June 22-Aug. 13, 2009: Jet Propulsion Laboratory
– June 22-Aug. 14, 2009: Ames Research Center and Goddard Space Flight Center.
The INSPIRE Chaperones’ travel expenses to and from their assigned NASA field center, lodging, meals, salary, and Oklahoma State University graduate credit (if desired) are paid by OSU. Training will be provided prior to the work assignment, with travel to OSU required.
Applicants must have a minimum of a four-year degree in science, mathematics and/or technology education. A master’s is preferred. Applicants must also have a valid teaching certificate. They must have a minimum of three years of successful teaching experience in grades 6-12, or a combination of classroom and NASA education experience. Participants must also be U.S. citizens.
INSPIRE counselors receive compensation for travel to and from the NASA field center, lodging, and meals during the eight-week event. Counselors may receive Oklahoma State University graduate credit, if desired. They are paid a salary of $5,800 for the event.
The Web site for applications will be open until Feb. 27, 2009.
For more information, visit https://opportunities.nasa.okstate.edu/index.cfm?liftoff=applications.PositionDetails&JobPostingID=21
Filed under: Astronomy, Best Practice, Cool Science, Educational Materials, K-12, Webcasts
Join NASA’s Langley Research Center and the National Alliance of Black School Educators for a series of free, interactive programs that allow you and your students to learn more about our home planet and the universe beyond through video-conferencing and webcasts.
Exploring the Planets: Visiting Other Worlds
Jan. 22, 2009, 11 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. EDT
Go on a tour of the planets and explore the surface features, atmospheric structure and composition, and moon and ring systems of each planet. Learn about the terrestrial or inner planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars) and the features they have in common, such as solid surfaces surrounded by atmospheres composed mostly of carbon dioxide (Venus and Mars) or nitrogen and oxygen (Earth). Investigate the outer planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune) and the features they share such as thick and massive atmospheres with no evidence of a solid surface beneath.
The Earth System
Feb. 19, 2009, 11 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. EDT
The components of the Earth system, the lithosphere (the solid planet), the hydrosphere (the water), the atmosphere (the air) and the biosphere (life), will be discussed. Learn about the various processes on the Earth system including the structure of the Earth’s interior and surface, the formation of impact craters, volcanism and volcanic craters, the circulation of the atmosphere and oceans, the water cycle (evaporation, condensation and precipitation), the formation of clouds, and meteorological phenomena. The interactions between the components of the Earth system will be also discussed.
Earth and Mars: A Tale of Two Planets
March 19, 2009, 11 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. EDT
Mars is a cold, dry, very inhospitable planet. Its thin atmosphere has a surface pressure of only about 6 millibars (the pressure of Earth’s atmosphere is about 1013 millibars). Scientists now think that early Mars was a very hospitable planet with abundant surface water in the form of lakes, rivers and even planetary-scale oceans. They believe it had an atmospheric pressure comparable to that of Earth. What caused the very divergent evolutionary paths of Earth and Mars? Scientists believe that some 500 million years after its formation about 4.6 billion years ago, Mars lost its planetary dipole magnetic field. The field had protected its atmosphere from the “sand-blasting” effects of the solar wind, the continuous stream of energetic protons, electrons and ions emitted by the sun into interplanetary space. Once Mars lost its planetary magnetic field, the direct interaction of the energetic solar wind particles with the atmosphere resulted in the planet’s losing more than 99 percent of its atmosphere. Once Mars lost the bulk of its atmosphere, surface liquid water was no longer stable and was either lost to space and/or migrated to the subsurface of Mars as frozen water.
Global Warming: Causes and Consequences
April 9, 2009, 11 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. EDT
The temperature of the surface of Earth and the other planets is controlled by incoming solar radiation and the outgoing thermal or infrared radiation generated at the surface by the absorption of the incoming solar radiation. As the surface-emitted thermal radiation travels upward through the atmosphere, certain atmospheric gases absorb and then re-emit the radiation. This process results in an additional warming of the surface. This additional warming is called the “greenhouse effect.” Gases that absorb and then re-emit thermal radiation are called “greenhouse gases.” Carbon dioxide, while only a very minor gas in the atmosphere, is an important greenhouse gas. Measurements indicate that atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide are increasing, most likely as a result of certain human activities, such as the combustion of fossil fuels for transportation and energy generation and the burning of vegetation for deforestation and other land-clearing activities. The causes and consequences of global warming will be discussed.
For more information about this series of webcast events and to submit questions to be answered during the events, visit http://dln.nasa.gov/dln/content/catalog/details/?cid=1646
Filed under: Funding, Higher Education, NASA, Professional Development, Science, fellowships | Tags: Postdoctoral Fellowship
The NASA Postdoctoral Program provides talented postdoctoral scientists and engineers with valuable opportunities to engage in ongoing NASA research projects. The Postdoctoral Program serves as a source of talent to ensure the continued quality of the NASA research workforce. These one- to three-year fellowship appointments are competitive and are designed to advance NASA’s missions in space science, Earth science, aeronautics, space operations, exploration systems and astrobiology.
Applicants must have a Ph.D. or an equivalent doctorate degree before beginning the fellowship. Applicants must have U.S. citizenship, Lawful Permanent Resident status, Employment Authorization Document with pending LPR status, or J-1 Visa status as a Research Scholar before beginning the fellowship. An H-1B Visa status is not acceptable because the NPP is not an employment program.
Stipend rates for Postdoctoral Fellows start at $50,000 per year. Moderate supplements are given for Ph.D. degrees in certain specialized fields, such as engineering, computer science, clinical space-biomedical science, etc., and for high cost-of-living areas. Funds are available for relocation expenses. Fellows also receive $8,000 per appointment year to support travel to conferences, meetings and other activities (i.e., travel to field sites or observatories to collect data or for required training) that directly support their research projects.
Applications for this opportunity are due on March 1, 2009.
For further information about this opportunity and to apply online, visit http://nasa.orau.org/postdoc/description/index.htm
The Systems Teaching Institute is offering a 10- to 12-week summer research program for graduate students in fields relevant to the research done at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California. Selected students will gain hands-on experience working with cutting-edge research and development teams, an increased understanding of the NASA mission, and mentoring in research management skills. Besides working closely with Ames scientists and engineers, students will have the opportunity to attend seminars tailored to their level of expertise, career development workshops, and an end-of-summer symposium where they can share their results with other student interns. Awards (in the form of travel support to a national conference) will be given for the best symposium poster presentations.
To be eligible, students must be enrolled in (or accepted into) a master’s or doctoral program. Students must demonstrate their potential to contribute to Ames research via enrollment in a highly relevant degree program (science, technology, engineering or mathematics) and/or articulation of:
–Acquired skills that might be of special interest.
–Prior educational background that shows interdisciplinary knowledge.
–Specialized career goals directly related to NASA’s mission.
Underrepresented and underserved students are strongly encouraged to apply.
Starting and ending dates are flexible to allow for varying institutional academic calendars. However, students are expected to work a minimum of 10 weeks between May 1 and Sept. 30, 2009.
All application materials should be postmarked on or before Jan. 31, 2009. Unofficial transcripts will be accepted for the Jan. 31 deadline. However, official transcripts must be received by March 31, 2009. The Systems Teaching Institute will make selections and send out notification letters to all applicants on or before April 30, 2009.
For further information about this opportunity, visit http://uarc.ucsc.edu/sti/grad_09.shtml
