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August |
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August |
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Our Vision |
Our Mission |
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| TABLE OF CONTENTS | CLICK ON THE RED LINKS BELOW TO VIEW ARTICLES |
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Air Force Report |
Space makes case in youth education |
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Fall Project |
Celebrate the 10th Anniversary of World Space Week, October 4-10, 2009 |
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From Scientific Computing |
Computing Climate Change: Just the Tip of the Iceberg |
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A Look Back |
Science remains driving force of space exploration |
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News From NOAA |
Help Wanted: Be a NOAA National Weather Service Storm
Spotter And NOAA Scientists Look Beyond Earth to Understand Auroras |
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News From NASA |
Bolden takes control of NASA And GOES-14 Shows First Image |
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Education Tools |
An out-of-the-box web resource for faculty and students of science |
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Go to SEA's Home Page |
Visit the Satellite Educators Association home page |
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_____________________________________________________ Celebrate the 10th Anniversary of World Space Week, October 4-10, 2009
This October 4-10, the world will have a very special celebration of the contributions of space to humankind. It will be the 10th celebration of UN-declared World Space Week.
(Media-Newswire.com) - This October 4-10, the world will have
a very special celebration of the contributions of space to humankind. It
will be the 10th celebration of UN-declared World Space Week.
Click
here to learn more.
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Calculating the impact of environmental changes on the world is a complex
assignment that must consider myriad variables spanning ocean, air and
earth, and nearly everything that comes into contact with them. My team at
the University of Maine’s Computer Science Department is focusing on one
small piece of the puzzle — climate change. While most scientists conceal
research findings until their work is published, we see enormous potential
in sharing findings, especially when it comes to climate change. Our team is
developing Maine’s first scientific grid portal that will execute
climate-change models and provide high-resolution visualizations of output
data in real time for use by researchers as well as students and educators
in the state’s public school system.
Our team’s vision is that students and powerful research groups alike will
ultimately use the research and tools available through the grid portal,
which can be accessed over the state’s high performance optical network. We
are trying to make some of our research available to the public, and are
designing a special interface so it can be accessed by the public and
students in K-12. Of course, the project not only addresses the needs of
researchers and grade school students; it also presents enormous learning
opportunities for the department’s undergraduate students. Funded through a
research grant provided by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the grid
will give University of Maine students dual learning experience in research
and supercomputing, as well as experience with team collaboration —
classroom and real-world experiences that will prepare them for a wide
spectrum of future careers. ______________________________________________________________
Science remains
driving force of space exploration
No man ever looked so heroic stepping off a ladder. Neil Armstrong remains a fixture of collective memory and
imagination, an American in bulky gear frozen forever in murky black and
white. His words, with electronic crackle from roughly 238,000
miles overhead, have the staying power of that visual. Few denied, among the
half-billion people watching on television worldwide, it was “a giant leap
for mankind.” The first moon landing, with Mr. Armstrong’s historic
descent onto a surface not Earth, happened 40 years ago on Monday. Just 66
years after man achieved powered flight, astronauts rode a rocket to another
world and radioed back to tell about it. Citizens of the world leaned their heads back and let
their jaws drop. “It gave me sort of a sense of pride that human beings
could accomplish something so seemingly impossible,” said Dr. Christopher
Godfrey, who teaches physics at Missouri Western State University. “It gave
you confidence in the future of what could be done.” For Americans, the achievement proved a particular
triumph. The nation remained mired in Vietnam. The 1960s had long before
spun out of control, with civil unrest, Cold War tensions and political
assassinations. Yet here arrived a challenge fulfilled, a goal met to
reach the moon before decade’s end. Americans accomplished this through a
union of sciences and engineering and gumption. Our side crossed the finish
line first, a chest-beating win in the race started by the ideologically
wayward Soviets. “Can-do” became the operative description of a nation. And
there was some sci-fi adventure thrown in for good measure. Then, the adventure subsided. The space agency NASA wanted
to make its flights routine, and it did so. American attention strayed.
Twelve men would walk on the moon, the last in 1972. In the years since, no
manned vehicle has strayed beyond Earth’s orbit. A space program mishap refocuses people occasionally. But
a shuttle full of U.S. astronauts circles the planet this weekend after a
launch on Wednesday, and a small percentage of Americans know or care. “We’ve become numb to some of that,” conceded Jay Meyers,
the St. Joseph School District’s secondary science coordinator. Focus on science Science in the post-Sputnik days focused on a mission,
that of discovery but also succeeding ahead of an adversary. Today, Mr.
Meyers said, science education includes a technical application. The monumental achievement of the moon landing, he said,
was the bringing together of so many disciplines ... physics and astronomy,
chemistry and biology, engineering and mathematics. An academic upsurge in
those areas followed. “We do science for a wide number of reasons,” Mr. Meyers
said, “but one of them is to make our lives better.” Dr. John Shaw, who teaches physics at Northwest Missouri
State University, grew as a space-race kid, smuggling a transistor radio
into his grade school classroom to listen to Alan Shepard’s flight in a
Mercury capsule. While space flight impacted his life and others of his
generation, the broader influence was short-lived. He noted that American
doctoral degrees awarded in physics peaked in 1973, and engineering
bachelor’s degrees amount to 5 percent or less of the nation’s undergraduate
total. In some nations, 30 percent of graduates get engineering degrees. “As someone with an intense interest in science, I’m not
sure why it has become so unfashionable,” Dr. Shaw said. A manager in communications network integration at the
Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, Mr. Bangerter says the motivation
of space exploration is as old as ancient man’s desire to see over the top
of the next hill. It remains essential to human nature. “We explore, we experiment, we discover, in ways no one
else can,” the Central High School graduate said. “Science and discovery is
what NASA does best.” Mr. Bangerter said all NASA employees involved in human
space flight missions understand the history of manned programs. He said the
lessons of Mercury and Apollo carry forward to all agency endeavors,
including the Constellation program that will follow the space shuttle
accomplishments. “(Constellation) borrows a great deal of its mission
concepts from the Apollo program, integrating the best of the past with the
best of the present,” he said. Cooper Snapp, a Benton High School graduate who has
settled into a NASA career, regards the agency’s science as a good
investment of taxpayer dollars. “It is very hard to pick up an issue of Popular Science
and not see how a NASA spinoff is helping society,” he said. An engineer and a manager in NASA’s development of
spacecraft thermal protection, Mr. Snapp said the agency’s goals to return
to the moon and explore other planets should capture the imagination of
young people and advance the nation’s understanding of energy sources such
as nuclear and solar. He admits, though, that not everyone has a sense of NASA’s
history. When Mr. Snapp moved from Florida to Houston, he encountered Apollo
13 commander Jim Lovell in the NASA badging office. The young woman making
the badges failed to recognize the former astronaut. “He commented, ‘Come on, I was the guy that Tom Hanks
played in the movie,’” Mr. Snapp recalled. Still an interest While young people may not hold the fascination with space
travel like they did at the time of the moon landing, they remain interested
in the stars. Jerry Wilkerson directs shows at Missouri Western’s Bushman
Planetarium, about 35 a year for elementary students. The kids always stay afterward and ask questions about the
solar system. “It’s kind of human nature to be interested in what’s up
there,” he said. Janet Fite, a St. Joseph teacher for more than 30 years,
watched the moon landing from her Savannah home with a father entranced by
rocketry. They were always launching something. With a laugh, she recalls one occasion of having to stay
with her grandparents when a rocket fuel incident smelled up their house. “If you’ve ever seen the movie ‘October Sky,’ that was my
life,” she said. A recipient of fellowships to study at NASA facilities,
Ms. Fite works to pass along her knowledge of space to young people. This
extends to evenings outdoors with her grandchildren, eyes upward to study
the heavens. She remains heartened by their interest. “I guess the whole idea is that there is so much out there
we don’t know,” the educator said. “If we don’t explore, then we’ve lost
that opportunity.” ______________________________________________________________
Help Wanted: Be a NOAA National
Weather Service Storm Spotter NOAA's National Weather Service meteorologists across the country could use a hand — or more precisely extra eyes — to help them produce the most accurate weather information possible. If you are fascinated by weather, you have the opportunity to become a trained volunteer SKYWARN® storm spotter for your local weather forecast office. Your Eyes on the SkiesStorm spotters provide valuable information on all types of weather hazards to meteorologists in their local National Weather Service forecast offices. Meteorologists use this information, especially when it comes to severe storms, to create a more complete picture of area weather conditions. The SKYWARN program helps improve the timeliness and accuracy of weather warnings. When coupled with Doppler radar imagery, satellite and other data, reports from storm spotters help forecasters know exactly what is happening on the ground with rapidly developing storms. “The more lead time we can provide with our warnings, the more time people have to take cover from life-threatening storms,” says Christopher Maier, who oversees the national SKYWARN program. Training in Your AreaYou can take storm spotter training through your local weather forecast office. Classes are free and each last about two hours. Covered topics include thunderstorm development, storm structure, severe weather features, weather reporting, and weather safety. To find out when classes are offered in your area, contact
your
local weather forecast office.
Back to top
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______________________________________________________________ NOAA Scientists Look Beyond Earth to Understand Auroras
The English poet Sir Walter Scott in 1805 conjured up otherworldly beings when he wrote, "He knew, by the streamers that shot so bright, That spirits were riding the northern light." But it was a French scientist, not a poet, who named the sight after Roman gods. In 1621, Pierre Cassendi paired Aurora, goddess of dawn, with Boreas, god of the north wind, to christen the northern lights “aurora borealis.” Those centered above the South Pole are called aurora australis for “southern dawn.” Even today, scientists and forecasters at NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colo., look beyond the Earth itself for the first step in a chain of events that ultimately paints brilliant hues across the night sky at opposite ends of the planet The Anatomy of an Aurora
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Science
remains the driving force of the space program, according to James Bangerter,
who followed a path from St. Joseph to NASA.
From
22,336 miles in space, NOAA’s newest 
The eerie beauty
of the northern and southern lights has evoked visions of the supernatural
for centuries: foxes of fire whisking their tales, the fighting souls of
dead warriors or ancestors dancing around a ceremonial fire. 
During
an aurora, vivid arcs, curls, waves and bands of green, red, and sometimes
blue dance across the sky for minutes or hours, peaking near midnight — all
between 60 and 600 miles above the ground.
Bolden,
a former Marine Corp pilot, flew in the space shuttle four times between
1986 and 1994 (STS-61C, STS-31, STS-45, and STS-60), which included the 1990
deployment of the 
Visionlearning
is a very useful out-of-the-box educational resource for faculty and
students. It is an online endeavour of years of individual and
collaborative effort towards improving teaching and learning Science
subjects.
