SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “STEM Engagement”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

SourceResearch connectionFrom yearThrough year

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 91 records · Page 5

All sources NASA NTRS DOE OSTI

NASA NTRS2015

Engaging Students with Subject Matter Experts and Science Content Through Classroom Connection Webinars

Connecting students and teachers in classrooms with science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) experts provides an invaluable opportunity. Subject matter experts can share exciting science and science-related events as well as help to "translate" science being conducted by professionals. The Expedition Earth and Beyond (EEAB) Program, facilitated by the Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science (ARES) Division at the NASA Johnson Space Center, has been providing virtual access to subject matter experts through classroom connection webinars for the last five years. Each year, the reach of these events has grown considerably, especially over the last nine months. These virtual connections not only help engage students with role models, but are also designed to help teachers address concepts and content standards they are required to teach. These events also enable scientists and subject matter experts to help "translate" current science in an engaging and understandable manner while actively involving classrooms in the journey of science and exploration.

Graff, P. V.↗

NASA NTRS2016

[STEM on Station Education]

The STEM on Station team is part of Education which is part of the External Relations organization (ERO). ERO has traditional goals based around BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal). The BHAG model is simplified to a saying: Everything we do stimulates actions by others to advance human space exploration. The STEM on Station education initiate is a project focused on bringing off the earth research and learning into classrooms. Educational resources such as lesson plans, activities to connect with the space station and STEM related contests are available and hosted by the STEM on Station team along with their partners such as Texas Instruments. These educational activities engage teachers and students in the current happenings aboard the international space station, inspiring the next generation of space explorers.

Lundebjerg, Kristen↗

DOE OSTI2024

GeoBridge: Connecting Communities to Geothermal Information and Opportunities: Preprint

The geothermal community is well established with long-standing events, organizations, and tools that are known across the geothermal community. But many of these tools and resources are located behind pay walls, require memberships, or are otherwise difficult to find, especially for people looking to join the geothermal community. These barriers to access can prevent outsiders from discovering valuable geothermal resources, limiting the geothermal community's potential for collaboration with other communities, such as clean energy entrepreneurs looking to expand into geothermal energy. The Department of Energy's (DOE) GeoBridge serves to bring these communities together by acting as a single, publicly accessible, searchable portal that facilitates easy access to available geothermal knowledge and information. It works to expand and diversify the pool of geothermal stakeholders by providing in-roads to geothermal information and community resources. It helps build a stronger geothermal community; one inclusive of individuals and groups from a variety of different backgrounds, including potential investors and start-up companies looking to accelerate innovation in geothermal technologies. By linking communities to geothermal information, analysis and expertise, GeoBridge serves as a launch point, directing interested parties to existing data and tools, events, educational resources, STEM programs, permitting and regulatory information, and other resources that can be used to evaluate, promote, and discover geothermal opportunities.

access↗

DOE OSTI2023

High-rate, high-capacity electrochemical energy storage in hydrogen-bonded fused aromatics

Designing materials for electrochemical energy storage with short charging times and high charge capacities is a longstanding challenge. The fundamental difficulty lies in incorporating a high density of redox couples into a stable material that can efficiently conduct both ions and electrons. We report all-organic, fused aromatic materials that store up to 310 mAh g –1 and charge in as little as 33 s. This performance stems from abundant quinone/imine functionalities that decorate an extended aromatic backbone, act as redox-active sites, engage in hydrogen bonding, and enable a delocalized high-rate energy storage with stability upon cycling. Here, the extended conjugation and hydrogen-bonding-assisted bulk charge storage contrast with the surface-confined or hydration-dependent behavior of traditional inorganic electrodes.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2024

Board 160: Empowerment in STEM Day: Introducing High School Girls to Careers at National Laboratories (Work in Progress)

In the US, women are still vastly underrepresented in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) careers, and various studies have shown that girls' interest in STEM careers wane as high school progresses. With this challenge in mind, Empowerment in STEM Day was organized by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), hosting 47 high school students from 6 public high schools in the area. This one-day event was designed and executed through a collaboration between the Women's Support and Empowerment Council (WSEC) and the K-12 STEM Education and Outreach Program at LBNL. The main goal of this program was to provide high school girls, who have little access to STEM career role-models in their immediate surroundings with insights into how a career in STEM looks like. Invitations to participate in the program were sent out to six local high schools in the Bay area asking educators to identify female students that were interested in STEM. Each high school participant was provided with an opportunity to experience a national laboratory environment, learn more about summer workshops and paid summer research internship opportunities at LBNL for high school students, and engage directly with LBNL's employees through job shadow, career mapping and speed networking sessions. In this paper, we will present an overview of the event organization, challenges faced during planning and execution of the event, discuss the lessons learned from the first Empowerment in STEM Day and suggest strategies for incorporating such events at other national laboratories and academic institutions as part of a vital effort into recruiting and retaining more high school girls in STEM-based careers. Additionally, since this was the first in-person event hosted by LBNL's K-12 Program after the pandemic, we will also share the strategies implemented at the event so as to engage both remote and on-site employees as volunteers.

Bose, Baishakhi↗

NASA NTRS2022

Building Space Weather Literacy Through Sustained Engagement

Space weather affects all space systems, both natural and artificial. There is a rapid growth of awareness in past decades of this reality and a critical need for space weather prediction due to technology advances. Above all, space weather science and its history are outstanding vehicles for teaching science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) topics. As a white paper group, we recommend that the Decadal Survey builds space weather literacy within K–14 classrooms and the general public, covering all areas of studies in Heliophysics through sustained engagement beyond celestial and spacecraft events.

Space Weather↗

NASA NTRS2017

The Curiosity Effect

This conference aims to improve how we learn through integrative project and discovery-based methods. My talk highlights areas in my experience as a scientist, and most recently working for our national space agency, NASA, where we work in teams with a "discovery-based" mindset. When you demonstrate broad curiosity, you become open to different viewpoints and ways to approach and manage situations. Sometimes working only from "what you have been trained to do" or "what you know" is not enough, especially when the rules may be changing. Increasing our openness in our learning, and sharing what we know, can lead to a more diverse and innovative community, solving problems in new ways, overcoming resistance to new ideas, and hopefully creating a dynamic and faring-forward society. Let us not kill curiosity, at any age, in any situation. Let us remind ourselves, at any time, in any circumstance, to continue to learn, to mentor, to stimulate, to engage and reconnect with that "open sense of possibility."

STEM↗

DOE OSTI2025

GeoBridge: Connecting Communities to Geothermal Information and Opportunities

access↗

DOE OSTI2021

Structures of flavivirus RNA promoters suggest two binding modes with NS5 polymerase

Flaviviruses use a ~70 nucleotide stem-loop structure called stem-loop A (SLA) at the 5' end of the RNA genome as a promoter for RNA synthesis. Flaviviral polymerase NS5 specifically recognizes SLA to initiate RNA synthesis and methylate the 5' guanosine cap. We report the crystal structures of dengue (DENV) and Zika virus (ZIKV) SLAs. DENV and ZIKV SLAs differ in the relative orientations of their top stem-loop helices to bottom stems, but both form an intermolecular three-way junction with a neighboring SLA molecule. To understand how NS5 engages SLA, we determined the SLA-binding site on NS5 and modeled the NS5-SLA complex of DENV and ZIKV. Our results show that the gross conformational differences seen in DENV and ZIKV SLAs can be compensated by the differences in the domain arrangements in DENV and ZIKV NS5s. We describe two binding modes of SLA and NS5 and propose an SLA-mediated RNA synthesis mechanism.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

NASA NTRS2014

Inspiring the Next Generation: The International Space Station Education Accomplishments

The International Space Station (ISS) has a unique ability to capture the imagination of both students and teachers worldwide. Since 2000, the presence of humans onboard ISS has provided a foundation for numerous educational activities aimed at capturing that interest and motivating study in the sciences, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Over 43 million students around the world have participated in ISS-related educational activities. Projects such as YouTube Space Lab, Sally Ride Earth Knowledge-based Acquired by Middle Schools (EarthKAM), SPHERES (Synchronized Position Hold Engage and Reorient Experimental Satellites) Zero-Robotics, Tomatosphere, and MAI-75 events among others have allowed for global student, teacher and public access to space through student classroom investigations and real-time audio and video contacts with crewmembers. Educational activities are not limited to STEM but encompass all aspects of the human condition. This is well illustrated in the Uchu Renshi project, a chain poem initiated by an astronaut while in space and continued and completed by people on Earth. With ISS operations now extended to 2024, projects like these and their accompanying educational materials are available to more students around the world. From very early on in the program's history, students have been provided with a unique opportunity to get involved and participate in science and engineering projects. Many of these projects support inquiry-based learning that allows students to ask questions, develop hypothesis-derived experiments, obtain supporting evidence and identify solutions or explanations. This approach to learning is well-published as one of the most effective ways to inspire students to pursue careers in scientific and technology fields. Ever since the first space station element was launched, a wide range of student experiments and educational activities have been performed, both individually and collaboratively, by all the international partner agencies, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Canadian Space Agency (CSA), European Space Agency, (ESA), Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), and a number of non-participating countries, some under commercial agreements. Many of these programs still continue, and others are being developed and added to the stations tasks on a regular basis. These diverse student experiments and programs fall into one of the following categories: student-developed experiments; students performing classroom versions of ISS experiments; students participating in ISS investigator experiments; education competitions; students participating in ISS Engineering Education; Education Demonstrations and Cultural Activities. This paper summarizes some of the main student experiments and educational activities that have been conducted on the space station.

Alleyne, Camille W.↗

DOE OSTI2020

Two-Electron–Two-Proton Transfer from Colloidal ZnO and TiO 2 Nanoparticles to Molecular Substrates

Transfers of multiple electrons and protons are challenging yet central to many energy-conversion processes and other chemical and biochemical reactions. Semiconducting oxides can hold multiple redox equivalents. This study describes the 2e – /2H + transfer reactivity of photo-reduced ZnO and TiO 2 nanoparticle (NP) colloids with molecular 2e – /2H + acceptors, to form new O-H, N-H, and C-H bonds. The reaction stoichi-ometries were monitored by NMR and optical spectroscopies. Faster 2e – /2H + transfer rates were observed for substrates forming O-H or N-H bonds, presumably due to initial hydrogen bonding at the oxide surface. Chemically reduced ZnO NPs stabilized by Na + or Ca 2+ also engage in 2e – /2H + transfer reactivity, showing that protons transferred in these processes are inherent to the oxide nanoparticles and do not exclusively stem from photoreduction. Furthermore, these results highlight the potential of ZnO and TiO 2 for multiple proton-coupled electron transfer (PCET) reactions.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

NASA NTRS2017

Space Plants for Astronaut Consumption

Growing plants in space will be an essential part of sustaining astronauts during long-range missions. During the summer of 2017, three female NASA interns, have been engaged in research relevant to food production in space, and will present their projects to an all female program known as Girls in STEM camp. Ayla Grandpre, a senior from Rocky Mountain College, has performed data mining and analysis of crop growth results gathered through Fairchild Botanical Gardens program, Growing Beyond Earth. Ninety plants were downselected to three for testing in controlled environment chambers at KSC. Ayla has also managed an experiment testing a modified hydroponics known as PONDS, to grow mizuna mustard greens and red robin cherry tomatoes. Emma Boehm, a senior from the University of Minnesota, has investigated methods to sterilize seeds and analyzed the most common microbial communities on seed surfaces. She has tested a bleach fuming method and an ethanol treatment. Emma has also tested Tokyo bekana Chinese cabbage seeds from four commercial seed vendors to identity differences in germination and growth variability. Lastly, Payton Barnwell, a junior from Florida Polytechnic University has shown that light recipes provided by LEDs can alter the growth and nutrition of 'Outredgeous' lettuce, Chinese cabbage, and Mizuna. The results of her light quality experiments will provide light recipe recommendations for space crops that grown in the Advanced Plant Habitat currently aboard the International Space Station.

VEGGIE↗

NASA NTRS2011

ELaNa - Educational Launch of Nanosatellite Enhance Education Through Space Flight

One of NASA's missions is to attract and retain students in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. Creating missions or programs to achieve this important goal helps strengthen NASA and the nation's future work force as well as engage and inspire Americans and the rest of the world. During the last three years, in an attempt to revitalize educational space flight, NASA generated a new and exciting initiative. This initiative, NASA's Educational Launch of Nanosatellite (ELaNa), is now fully operational and producing exciting results. Nanosatellites are small secondary satellite payloads called CubeSats. One of the challenges that the CubeSat community faced over the past few years was the lack of rides into space. Students were building CubeSats but they just sat on the shelf until an opportunity arose. In some cases, these opportunities never developed and so the CubeSat never made it to orbit. The ELaNa initiative is changing this by providing sustainable launch opportunities for educational CubeSats. Across America, these CubeSats are currently being built by students in high school all the way through graduate school. Now students know that if they build their CubeSat, submit their proposal and are selected for an ELaNa mission, they will have the opportunity to fly their satellite. ELaNa missions are the first educational cargo to be carried on expendable launch vehicles (ELY) for NASA's Launch Services Program (LSP). The first ELaNa CubeSats were slated to begin their journey to orbit in February 2011 with NASA's Glory mission. Due to an anomaly with the launch vehicle, ELaNa II and Glory failed to reach orbit. This first ELaNa mission was comprised of three IU CubeSats built by students at Montana State University (Explorer Prime Flight 1), the University of Colorado (HERMES), and Kentucky Space, a consortium of state universities (KySat). The interface between the launch vehicle and the CubeSat, the Poly-Picosatellite Orbital Deployer (P-POD), was developed and built by students at California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly). Integrating a P-POD on a NASA ELV was not an easy task. The creation of new processes and requirements as well as numerous reviews and approvals were necessary within NASA before the first ELaNa mission could be attached to a NASA launch vehicle (LV). One of the key objectives placed on an ELaNa mission is that the CubeSat and PPOD does not increase the baseline risk to the primary mission and launch vehicle. The ELaNa missions achieve this objective by placing a rigorous management and engineering process on both the LV and CubeSat teams. So, what is the future of ELaNa? Currently there are 16 P-POD missions manifested across four launch vehicles to support educational CubeSats selected under the NASA CubeSat Initiative. From this initiative, a rigorous selection process produced 22-student CubeSat missions that are scheduled to fly before the end of 2012. For the initiative to continue, organizations need to submit proposals to the annual CubeSat initiative call so they have the opportunity to be manifested and launched.

Skrobot, Garrett Lee↗

NASA NTRS2018

Educación Global

The International Space Station has a unique ability to capture the imaginations of both students and teachers worldwide. The presence of humans aboard the station provides a foundation for numerous educational activities aimed at capturing interest and motivating children towards the study of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Projects such as the Amateur Radio on International Space Station (ARISS); Earth Knowledge Acquired by Middle School Students (EarthKAM); and Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient Experimental Satellites (SPHERES) Zero Robotics competition, among others, have allowed for global student, teacher and public access to space through student image acquisition and radio contacts with crew members. Projects like these and their accompanying educational materials are distributed to students around the world. Through the continued use of the station, we will challenge and inspire the next generation of scientists, engineers, writers, artists, politicians and explorers.

Lopez, Erik↗

NASA NTRS2018

Science Engagement Through Hands-On Activities that Promote Scientific Thinking and Generate Excitement and Awareness of NASA Assets, Missions, and Science

The public with hands-on activities that infuse content related to NASA assets, missions, and science and reflect authentic scientific practices promotes understanding and generates excitement about NASA science, research, and exploration. These types of activities expose our next generation of explorers to science they may be inspired to pursue as a future STEM career and expose people of all ages to unique, exciting, and authentic aspects of NASA exploration. The activities discussed here (Blue Marble Matches, Lunar Geologist Practice, Let's Discover New Frontiers, Target Asteroid, and Meteorite Bingo) have been developed by Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science (ARES) Science Engagement Specialists in conjunction with ARES Scientists at the NASA Johnson Space Center. Activities are designed to be usable across a variety of educational environments (formal and informal) and reflect authentic scientific content and practices.

Graff, P. V.↗

DOE OSTI2024

The Active Asteroids Citizen Science Program: Overview and First Results

Abstract We present the Citizen Science program Active Asteroids and describe discoveries stemming from our ongoing project. Our NASA Partner program is hosted on the Zooniverse online platform and launched on 2021 August 31, with the goal of engaging the community in the search for active asteroids—asteroids with comet-like tails or comae. We also set out to identify other unusual active solar system objects, such as active Centaurs, active quasi-Hilda asteroids (QHAs), and Jupiter-family comets (JFCs). Active objects are rare in large part because they are difficult to identify, so we ask volunteers to assist us in searching for active bodies in our collection of millions of images of known minor planets. We produced these cutout images with our project pipeline that makes use of publicly available Dark Energy Camera data. Since the project launch, roughly 8300 volunteers have scrutinized some 430,000 images to great effect, which we describe in this work. In total, we have identified previously unknown activity on 15 asteroids, plus one Centaur, that were thought to be asteroidal (i.e., inactive). Of the asteroids, we classify four as active QHAs, seven as JFCs, and four as active asteroids, consisting of one main-belt comet (MBC) and three MBC candidates. We also include our findings concerning known active objects that our program facilitated, an unanticipated avenue of scientific discovery. These include discovering activity occurring during an orbital epoch for which objects were not known to be active, and the reclassification of objects based on our dynamical analyses.

Astronomy & Astrophysics↗

NASA NTRS2011

Project KEWL: Kinect Engineering With Learning

Project KEWL is a joint project between NASA/JPL and NASA/JSC to stimulate interest of children in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) and bring the NASA space exploration experience to the classroom, museum and ultimately the living room. Using the Kinect game controller KEWL allows children to engage in NASA s missions in a fundamentally new way. KEWL allows children to experiment with gravity on Mars and the Moon; navigate through the International Space Station; fix a torn solar array on the ISS; drive a robot on Mars; visit an Asteroid; learn about the differences in gravity on different planets and control Robonaut 2 using their body as the input device. Project KEWL complements NASA s outreach investments in television, mobile platforms and the web by engaging the public through the rapidly expanding medium of console gaming. In 2008, 97% of teenagers played video games and 86% played on a home gaming console. (source: http://pewresearch.org/pubs/953/) As of March 2011, there have been more than 10 million Kinects sold. (source: http://www.itproportal.com/2011/03/10/kinect-record-breaking-sales-figures-top-10-million/) Project KEWL interacts with children on a platform on which they spend much of their time and teaches them information about NASA while they are having fun. Project KEWL progressed from completely custom C++ code written in house to using a commercial game engine. The art work and 3D geometry models come from existing engineering work or are created by the KEWL development team. Six different KEWL applications have been demonstrated at nine different venues including schools, museums, conferences, and NASA outreach events. These demonstrations have allowed the developers the chance to interact with players and observe the gameplay mechanics in action. The lessons learned were then incorporated into the subsequent versions of the applications.

Norris, Jeff↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Advancing STEM in Bhutan through Increased Earth Observation Capacity: Applying NASA DEVELOP’s Model to Bhutanese Scholars

The NASA DEVELOP Program, a dual capacity building effort within NASA’s Applied Sciences, fosters the development of skills and knowledge to use Earth observations for environmental decision making. The program engages students, recent graduates, early career individuals, and transitioning career professionals through 10-week feasibility studies that assess the potential for integrating NASA Earth observing satellite data into partner organization decision making processes. DEVELOP projects provide an experiential learning opportunity for participants while building the institutional capacity of partner organizations. Since 2020, DEVELOP has worked with the Government of Bhutan to engage 30 Bhutanese scholars on a series of projects focused on environmental issues in Bhutan. These projects have offered an opportunity for Bhutanese scholars studying in the US to gain geospatial knowledge and skills, project management and leadership skills, and science communication experience. This presentation will highlight the DEVELOP model of empowering its participants, collaborative projects, and highlight example outcomes of the Bhutan engagement.

Capacity Building↗