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  March 2014 Earth Science E/PO Nuggets

Updated on April 14, 2014 – 11:05 AM CDT
Posted on April 11, 2014 – 12:03 PM CDT

Tags: General Public | NASA Headquarters | SMD E/PO Community | Nuggets

Brian Campbell, Know Your Earth 2014 Quiz Collection

  • 25 participating Earth Science Missions
  • Quizzes focus on current NASA Earth Science Research
  • First quiz on Precipitation and the Water Cycle has been shared and played by thousands of people via social media.

 

Brian Campbell ([email protected])

 

Emily Schaller, Airborne Tropical Tropopause Experiment (ATTREX) Education and Public Outreach Guam 2014 Deployment

The NASA Airborne Tropical Tropopause Experiment (ATTREX) mission deployed to Guam January 18-March 12, 2014. Highlights include:

  • School Presentations: Thirty-four presentations at eight Guam schools (five local public and three DoD public schools) reached 3,555 students and their teachers.
  • Local public school presentations reached a large number of underrepresented students (85% Pacific Islander)
  • Field Trip: 206 Guam High School students and their teachers visited the Global Hawk at Anderson Air Force Base in Guam for a day-long field trip (February 12, 2014). Students and teachers learned about the Global Hawk and the NASA ATTREX mission.
  • Online Educational Chats: Twenty five classrooms from schools in Guam, the US, and Chile followed ATTREX flights in real-time and live-chatted with ATTREX mission personnel using the Mission Tools Suite for Education (MTSE).

 

Emily Schaller ([email protected])

 

Dorian Janney, GPM Embraces Women’s History Month by Hosting Several Earth4Girls Events

A summary of NASA’s Global Precipitation Measurement Mission (GPM) NASA Science4Girls in March, 2014 include:

  • Two presentations on NASA Careers for children ages 4-7, a one for children 8-12 at the Damascus Library, Damascus Maryland.
  • Two presentations at the Howard County (MD) libraries; one was on NASA careers and the second on how NASA studies natural hazards.

Dorian Janney ([email protected])

 

Dorian Janney, GPM assists with Fort Belvoir’s STEM Fair

 

  • GPM participated in Fort Belvoir’s STEM Family Night on the Virginia base March 20th.
  • Over 500 parents and their children attended the event
  • The GPM booth shared the importance of freshwater resources with hands-on activities including making rain gauges from recyclable bottles (testing was included). 🙂

 

Dorian Janney ([email protected])

 

Ellen Metzger, Scientific Storytelling with the Green Ninja. Connecting Climate Change to Students’ Lives and Communities            

 

Storytelling provides an engaging learning experience that fosters scientific understanding and skills aligned to Common Core English Language Standards and the Next Generation Science Standards.  For many students, developing a film in which they become the heroes of their own climate science-based stories may represent the first time they have identified with a scientist or engineer.

 

Building on the success of our NASA-funded NICE project and with additional funding from Chevron, we held a 3-day workshop in July 2013  that provided 25 teachers with instruction in climate science and the use of film.

  • More than 70 student films were submitted to the Green Ninja Film Festival held at San José State University on December 6, 2013.
  • 80 students, parents, and teachers attended
  • Second Film Festival: May 23, 2014

 

Ellen Metzger ([email protected])

 

Valerie Casasanto, Beautiful Earth at Texas A&M International STEM Alliance Fair March 30, 2014

 

The Texas A&M International University (TAMIU) hosted the Beautiful Earth program for more than 100 local female middle and high school students, their parents and teachers in Laredo, Texas.

 

  • The event targeted Hispanic and female students as they are underrepresented in the STEM fields
  • Students watched the Bella Gaia multi-media show in the planetarium dome,
  • participated in an interactive science talk by Dr. Ana Prados (Co-I),
  • performed “hands-on” experiments with Valerie Casasanto (PI) related to NASA Earth Science missions (Aquarius, Landsat, and GPM) and themes. Recycled tennis ball tubes were used in the Ocean circulation simulation experiment.

 

Valerie Casasanto ([email protected])

 

Dana Haine, North Carolina Coastal Retreat: Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation

March 28-30, 2014, 18 North Carolina high school science teachers participated in a professional development retreat at the UNC Institute for the Environment’s Outer Banks Field Site in Wanchese, NC.

Cooperative with the following:

  • Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge (ARNWR) (US Fish and Wildlife Service);
  • The Nature Conservancy’s Coastal Restoration and Adaptation Project at ARNWR,
  • US Army Corps of Engineers Field Research Facility,
  • UNC’s Coastal Studies Institute,
  • Jockey’s Ridge State Park, and
  • the Maury Project (American Meteorological Society)

 

A residential weekend retreat was designed to provide 18 teachers opportunities to interact with local scientists, educators and park rangers to learn about and witness climate change impacts along the barrier islands of NC’s Outer Banks.

 

Teachers explored the effects of sea level rise, salt water intrusion, wildfires and storms on diverse habitats including salt and fresh water marshes and forested wetlands and witnessed climate adaptation projects in action.

 

Climate Literacy:  Integrating Modeling & Technology Experiences in NC Classrooms, also known as the NC CLIMATE Fellows Program, is sponsored by UNC-Chapel Hill’s Institute for the Environment with funding provided by NASA's Innovations in Climate Education (NICE).

 

Dana Haine ([email protected])

 

Nancy Leon, NASA Space Place and Black Holes

  • NASA’s award-winning Space Place website engages upper-elementary-aged children in space and Earth science through interactive games, hands-on activities, fun articles, and short videos. With material in both English and Spanish and numerous resources for parents and teachers, Space Place has something for everyone.
  • NASA Space Place column for kids is carried in the newspapers of over 60 different communities.
  • This month’s column expanded to include extra material; two different quizzes, fun facts and the Black Hole poster.

 

Nancy Leon ([email protected])

 

Kevin Ward, NASA's Earth Observatory Tournament: Earth 2014

  • The second annual "Tournament: Earth" featured head-to-head competition between 32 images published in 2013,
  • Readers of Earth Observatory voted, 101,000+ votes!
  • Winning image, "Trailing the Canaries",
  • Wide coverage by Spanish media, particularly in final rounds.

 

Kevin Ward ([email protected])

 

 

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