SESDA outreach staff is promoting the Goddard Science Visualization Lab’s Hyperwall as a showcase for NASA science. The most recent exhibition was at the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society (IGARSS) 2011 meeting, Vancouver, Canada, July 25-29, 2011. A well-planned joint NASA/JAXA (Japanese Space Agency) public event was the highlight of the exhibit. Hyperwall technology was used to showcase stunning data visualization and to communicate science results to the public as well as to attendees. The goal is to promote international collaboration and data sharing. A special evening of a NASA and JAXA joint presentation was held July 25, 2011. The display is shown.
SESDA II staff were on hand recently to watch Goddard’s giant centrifuge in action. The ISIM (Integrated Science Instrument Module) structure, a key piece of hardware for the James Webb Space Telescope, was installed on the centrifuge as part of the rigorous testing that all spaceflight hardware must undergo before it can be certified as flight-ready. Because this was only the initial balance testing, our intrepid staffer was able to directly observe the ISIM structure, securely wrapped in plastic, being slowly spun. To read a blog posting with more details and action photographs please click here.
The "Think Scientifically" book series is a three part elementary school outreach program created by the SESDA II Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) E/PO team. The first book, entitled "The Day Joshua Jumped Too Much," addresses the Sun as Earth's ultimate source of energy. Joshua's dad teaches him that life on Earth would not exist without the Sun. The innovative feature in each book that sets it apart from other science stories is the Concept Enhancement Lesson Plan. The plans are designed with elementary teachers in mind, and include math, science, language arts, and reading connections. Because of the pressure to focus on math and reading at the elementary level, it's easy for science to be put in the back seat. The "Think Scientifically" book series will elicit ways for science to easily integrate with the math and reading curriculum.
As of March 24, 2011, our Science Proposal Support Office (SPSO) support team organized and implemented 30 proposal reviews (mostly Red Teams) in only 19 working days! Without counting the value of a major Earth system science Senior Review proposal (EO-1), the total request of these proposals exceeded $13M. Most proposals were in response to solicitations for Advanced Component Technology (ACT), Mars Science Lab Participating Scientist (MSL PS), Astrophysics Research and Analysis (APRA), Strategic Astrophysics Technology (SAT), and Airborne Science.
SESDA II staff supporting the James Webb Space Telescope are helping to promote and facilitate the RealWorld-InWorld NASA Engineering Design Challenge, a unique education initiative that targets students in grades 9-12 and encourages them to explore and build skills essential for successful careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math through two phases of project-based learning and team competition.
The Challenge invites high school students to work cooperatively as engineers and scientists to solve real-world problems related to the James Webb Space Telescope. In Phase 1 students (working in teams of three-to-five) explore and design solutions to two real-world problems related to the James Webb Space Telescope. Teams who complete Phase 1 are then paired with participating college engineering students to begin Phase 2, the InWorld phase of the challenge. Working in a virtual world setting, each newly formed InWorld team uses 21st-century tools to refine designs and create 3-D models of the Webb telescope.
A SESDA II staff member presented a poster promoting the project at the recent meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Seattle, WA. More information on this exciting project can be found at http://jwst.nasa.gov/realworld.html.
Filed under: SESDA2 News
