New Horizons: Student Dust Counter Instrument and Program (K-12 and Undergraduate)
Overview
Program Element / Activity Title:
New Horizons: Student Dust Counter Instrument and Program (K-12 and Undergraduate)
E/PO Project Name:
New Horizons E/PO
Contact Information Shown to the Public:
The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
11100 Johns Hopkins Road (Mail Stop: 4-155)
Laurel, Maryland 20723
11100 Johns Hopkins Road (Mail Stop: 4-155)
Laurel, Maryland 20723
Program Element / Activity Website:
Short Description for Projects Page:
The Student Dust Counter (SDC) is a 20-year homework assignment, but you won’t hear any complaints from the students handed the task. Designed by students at the University of Colorado at Boulder, SDC is detecting dust grains produced by collisions among asteroids, comets, and Kuiper Belt objects during New Horizons’ journey. It is the first science instrument on a NASA planetary mission to be designed, built, and “flown” by students. With faculty supervision, the students also are distributing and archiving data from the instrument and lead a comprehensive education and outreach effort to bring their results and experiences to classrooms of all grades over the next decade. http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/ption
Audience Metrics
Who is the primary audience of your program element / activity?:
Who is the secondary audience of your program element / activity?:
Evaluation
National Priorities and Coordination Approaches as Articulated in CoSTEM:
- Increase and Sustain Youth and Public Engagement in STEM
- Enhance STEM Experience of Undergraduate Students
- Design Graduate Education for Tomorrow’s STEM Workforce