Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “Curriculum Development”

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.

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

At least 145 records · Page 8
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1997

IITA Cooperative Agreement Projects for Classroom Usability

Based on this review, the following conclusions are drawn regarding the 'school readiness' of the sites. All six of the sites had great appeal to the reviewers and therefore we can conclude that each has tremendous potential for use in the classroom. None, however, were given a completely 'school-ready' assessment. With recommended revisions, each site will be a valuable asset to the classroom teacher. For each as well, teachers particularly had problems with access or finding them, but once there, felt they all had some relevance. Many of the weaknesses noted related to lack of guidance for teachers with links to their curriculum or provision of activities. Other weaknesses related to the lack of educational purpose, however, this may be addressed in the development of strong teacher resources and guides linked to the sites. For those sites with a weak or without a teacher's guide, adding this component would be worth the expenditure of time and money needed.

Grabowski, Barbara↗
NASA NTRS2010

Design and Testing of a Prototype Lunar or Planetary Surface Landing Research Vehicle (LPSLRV)

This handbook describes a two-semester senior design course sponsored by the NASA Office of Education, the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate (ESMD), and the NASA Space Grant Consortium. The course was developed and implemented by the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department (MAE) at Utah State University. The course final outcome is a packaged senior design course that can be readily incorporated into the instructional curriculum at universities across the country. The course materials adhere to the standards of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), and is constructed to be relevant to key research areas identified by ESMD. The design project challenged students to apply systems engineering concepts to define research and training requirements for a terrestrial-based lunar landing simulator. This project developed a flying prototype for a Lunar or Planetary Surface Landing Research Vehicle (LPSRV). Per NASA specifications the concept accounts for reduced lunar gravity, and allows the terminal stage of lunar descent to be flown either by remote pilot or autonomously. This free-flying platform was designed to be sufficiently-flexible to allow both sensor evaluation and pilot training. This handbook outlines the course materials, describes the systems engineering processes developed to facilitate design fabrication, integration, and testing. This handbook presents sufficient details of the final design configuration to allow an independent group to reproduce the design. The design evolution and details regarding the verification testing used to characterize the system are presented in a separate project final design report. Details of the experimental apparatus used for system characterization may be found in Appendix F, G, and I of that report. A brief summary of the ground testing and systems verification is also included in Appendix A of this report. Details of the flight tests will be documented in a separate flight test report. This flight test report serves as a complement to the course handbook presented here. This project was extremely ambitious, and achieving all of the design and test objectives was a daunting task. The schedule ran slightly longer than a single academic year with the complete design closure not occurring until early April. Integration and verification testing spilled over into late May and the first flight did not occur until mid to late June. The academic year at Utah State University ended on May 8, 2010. Following the end of the academic year, testing and integration was performed by the faculty advisor, paid research assistants, and volunteer student help

Murphy, Gloria A.↗
NASA NTRS1999

Multidisciplinary Design and Analysis for Commercial Aircraft

Multidisciplinary design and analysis (MDA) has become the normal mode of operation within most aerospace companies, but the impact of these changes have largely not been reflected at many universities. On an effort to determine if the emergence of multidisciplinary design concepts should influence engineering curricula, NASA has asked several universities (Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech, Clemson, BYU, and Cal Poly) to investigate the practicality of introducing MDA concepts within their undergraduate curricula. A multidisciplinary team of faculty, students, and industry partners evaluated the aeronautical engineering curriculum at Cal Poly. A variety of ways were found to introduce MDA themes into the curriculum without adding courses or units to the existing program. Both analytic and educational tools for multidisciplinary design of aircraft have been developed and implemented.

Cummings, Russell M.↗
NASA NTRS2003

NASA Glenn OHIOVIEW FY01/02 Project

The results of the research performed by the university principal investigators are herein compiled. OhioView's general goals were: 1) To increase remote sensing education for Ohio s undergraduate and graduate students, and also enhancing curriculum in the mathematics and science for K-12 students using the capabilities of remote sensing; 2) To conduct advanced research to develop novel remote sensing applications, i.e. to turn data into information for more applications; 3) To maximize the use of remote sensing technology by the general public through outreach and the development of tools for more user-friendly access to remote sensing data.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS2010

Unique Education and Workforce Development for NASA Engineers

NASA engineers are some of the world's best-educated graduates, responsible for technically complex, highly significant scientific programs. Even though these professionals are highly proficient in traditional analytical competencies, there is a unique opportunity to offer continuing education that further enhances their overall scientific minds. With a goal of maintaining the Agency's passionate, "best in class" engineering workforce, the NASA Academy of Program/Project & Engineering Leadership (APPEL) provides educational resources encouraging foundational learning, professional development, and knowledge sharing. NASA APPEL is currently partnering with the scientific community's most respected subject matter experts to expand its engineering curriculum beyond the analytics and specialized subsystems in the areas of: understanding NASA's overall vision and its fundamental basis, and the Agency initiatives supporting them; sharing NASA's vast reservoir of engineering experience, wisdom, and lessons learned; and innovatively designing hardware for manufacturability, assembly, and servicing. It takes collaboration and innovation to educate an organization that possesses such a rich and important history~and a future that is of great global interest. NASA APPEL strives to intellectually nurture the Agency's technical professionals, build its capacity for future performance, and exemplify its core values~alJ to better enable NASA to meet its strategic vision~and beyond.

Forsgren, Roger C.↗
NASA NTRS2002

Young PHD's in Human Space Flight

The Cooperating Hampton Roads Organizations for Minorities in Engineering (CHROME) in cooperation with the NASA Office of Space Flight, Human Exploration and Development of Space Enterprise sponsored a summer institute, Young PHD#s (Persons Having Dreams) in Human Space Flight. This 3-day institute used the curriculum of a workshop designed for space professionals, 'Human Space Flight-Analysis and Design: An Integrated, Systematic Approach.' The content was tailored to a high school audience. This institute seeks to stimulate the interest of pre-college students in space flight and motivate them to pursue further experiences in this field. Additionally, this institute will serve as a pilot model for a pre- collegiate training program that can be replicated throughout the country. The institute was complemented with a trip to the Goddard Space Flight Center.

Wilson, Eleanor↗
NASA NTRS1975

College curriculum-sharing via CTS

Domestic communication satellites and video compression techniques will increase communication channel capacity and reduce cost of video transmission. NASA Ames Research Center, Stanford University and Carleton University are participants in an experiment to develop, demonstrate, and evaluate college course sharing techniques via satellite using video compression. The universities will exchange televised seminar and lecture courses via CTS. The experiment features real-time video compression with channel coding and quadra-phase modulation for reducing transmission bandwidth and power requirements. Evaluation plans and preliminary results of Carleton surveys on student attitudes to televised teaching are presented. Policy implications for the U.S. and Canada are outlined.

Hudson, H. E.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Encouraging the pursuit of advanced degrees in science and engineering: Top-down and bottom-up methodologies

The MassPEP/NASA Graduate Research Development Program (GRDP) whose objective is to encourage Black Americans, Mexican Americans, American Indians, Puerto Ricans, and Pacific Islanders to pursue graduate degrees in science and engineering is described. The GRDP employs a top-down or goal driven methodology through five modules which focus on research, graduate school climate, technical writing, standardized examinations, and electronic networking. These modules are designed to develop and reinforce some of the skills necessary to seriously consider the goal of completing a graduate education. The GRDP is a community-based program which seeks to recruit twenty participants from a pool of Boston-area undergraduates enrolled in engineering and science curriculums and recent graduates with engineering and science degrees. The program emphasizes that with sufficient information, its participants can overcome most of the barriers perceived as preventing them from obtaining graduate science and engineering degrees. Experience has shown that the top-down modules may be complemented by a more bottom-up or event-driven methodology. This approach considers events in the academic and professional experiences of participants in order to develop the personal and leadership skills necessary for graduate school and similar endeavors.

Maddox, Anthony B.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Space Mathematics: A Resource for Secondary School Teachers

A collection of mathematical problems related to NASA space science projects is presented. In developing the examples and problems, attention was given to preserving the authenticity and significance of the original setting while keeping the level of mathematics within the secondary school curriculum. Computation and measurement, algebra, geometry, probability and statistics, exponential and logarithmic functions, trigonometry, matrix algebra, conic sections, and calculus are among the areas addressed.

Kastner, Bernice↗
NASA NTRS2009

Expedition Earth and Beyond: Using NASA Data Resources and Integrated Educational Strategies to Promote Authentic Research in the Classroom

Teachers in today s classrooms are bound by state required skills, education standards, and high stakes testing. How can they gain skills and confidence to replace units or individual activities with curriculum that incorporates project and inquiry-based learning and promotes authentic research in the classroom? The key to promoting classroom authentic research experiences lies in educator professional development that is structured around teacher needs. The Expedition Earth and Beyond Program is a new geosciences program based at the NASA Johnson Space Center designed to engage, inspire and educate teachers and students in grades 5-14. The program promotes authentic research experiences for classrooms and uses strategies that will help NASA reach its education goals while still allowing educators to teach required standards. Teachers will have access to experts in terrestrial and planetary remote sensing and geoscience; this will enhance their use of content, structure, and relevant experiences to gain the confidence and skills they need to actively engage students in authentic research experiences. Integrated and powerful educational strategies are used to build skills and confidence in teachers. The strategies are as follows: 1) creating Standards-aligned, inquiry-based curricular resources as ready-to-use materials that can be modified by teachers to fit their unique classroom situation; 2) providing ongoing professional development opportunities that focus on active experiences using curricular materials, inquiry-based techniques and expanding content knowledge; 3) connecting science experts to classrooms to deepen content knowledge and provide relevance to classroom activities and real world applications; 4) facilitating students sharing research with their peers and scientists reinforcing their active participation and contributions to research. These components of the Expedition Earth and Beyond Education Program will be enhanced by providing exciting and diverse research opportunities that are inspired by views of Earth from space taken by astronauts on board the International Space Station. The interest and connection to viewing our home planet from space will inevitably spark questions that will drive students to pursue their research investigations, as well as forming a basis for comparisons to the exploration of other planetary bodies in our solar system.

Graffi, Paige Valderrama↗
NASA NTRS1995

Project SUN (Students Understanding Nature)

Project SUN is part of NASA's 'Mission to Planet Earth' education outreach effort. It is based on development of low cost, scientifi- cally accurate instrumentation and computer interfacing, coupled with Apple II computers as dedicated data loggers. The project is com- prised of: instruments, interfacing, software, curriculum, a detailed operating manual, and a system of training at the school sites.

students understanding nature SUN education outrea↗
DOE OSTI2020

Introducing the Journal of Chemical Education’s Special Issue on Chemical Security

Chemical security can be described as the practice of protecting chemicals from people. This editorial introduces the Special Issue on Chemical Security. In this article, we present a concise history of the use of chemicals as weapons and briefly describe consolidated global approaches needed to decrease the security risks from chemicals. We briefly introduce the contributions to this Special Issue from scientists and educators around the world on the topic of chemical security. Given recent high-profile global events that involved chemicals as weapons, improving chemical security awareness and competency is a critical need. We hope this Special Issue continues to generate conversation and collaboration on this important topic and enables educators to teach chemical security principles in their classrooms and laboratories.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2020

Chemical Safety and Security Education in ACS-Approved Chemistry Programs

To date, chemical security education practices in postsecondary institutions are poorly understood. The purpose of this study is to provide an initial understanding of the practices, attitudes, and barriers toward chemical security education for undergraduate and graduate programs in the United States (US) by surveying representatives of American Chemical Society (ACS)-approved programs. All programs with ACS-approved undergraduate chemistry programs (n = 691) were contacted for participation: 21% (n = 148) fully completed and 6% (n = 41) partially completed the survey for a combined total of 27% complete and/or partially complete surveys (n = 189). We observed that most programs currently teach chemical safety (undergraduate >99%, graduate 73%); however, only about one-third of programs teach chemical security at any education level (undergraduate 32%, graduate 34%). We also observed that safety education is provided more frequently than security education. Further, ACS-approved programs reported that their chemical safety culture was stronger than chemical security culture and felt that safety should be taught differently than security. The overwhelming majority of respondents (96%) indicated that chemical safety should be mandatory at some level, while only about half of respondents (57%) indicated that chemical security should be mandatory at some level. More efforts are needed by the chemistry community to raise awareness of the importance of chemical security education so that more institutions commit to training their faculty and students on the topic. The authors suggest that adoption of chemical security education could be increased if ACS were to advocate for chemical security by including it in its guidelines for educational program approval.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
NASA NTRS1993

The Center of Excellence for Hypersonics Training and Research at the University of Texas at Austin

Over the period of this grant (1986-92), 23 graduate students were supported by the Center and received education and training in hypersonics through MS and Ph.D. programs. An additional 8 Ph.D. candidates and 2 MS candidates, with their own fellowship support, were attracted to The University of Texas and were recruited into the hypersonics program because of the Center. Their research, supervised by the 10 faculty involved in the Center, resulted in approximately 50 publications and presentations in journals and at national and international technical conferences. To provide broad-based training, a new hypersonics curriculum was created, enabling students to take 8 core classes in theoretical, computational, and experimental hypersonics, and other option classes over a two to four semester period. The Center also developed an active continuing education program. The Hypersonics Short Course was taught 3 times, twice in the USA and once in Europe. Approximately 300 persons were attracted to hear lectures by more than 25 of the leading experts in the field. In addition, a hypersonic aerodynamics short course was offered through AIAA, as well as short courses on computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and advanced CFD. The existence of the Center also enabled faculty to leverage a substantial volume of additional funds from other agencies, for research and graduate student training. Overall, this was a highly successful and highly visible program.

Dolling, David S.↗
NASA NTRS1998

SEMS: System for Environmental Monitoring and Sustainability

The goal of this project was to establish a computational and data management system, SEMS, building on our existing system and MTPE-related research. We proposed that the new system would help support Washington University's efforts in environmental sustainability through use in: (a) Problem-based environmental curriculum for freshmen and sophomores funded by the Hewlett Foundation that integrates scientific, cultural, and policy perspectives to understand the dynamics of wetland degradation, deforestation, and desertification and that will develop policies for sustainable environments and economies; (b) Higher-level undergraduate and graduate courses focused on monitoring the environment and developing policies that will lead to sustainable environmental and economic conditions; and (c) Interdisciplinary research focused on the dynamics of the Missouri River system and development of policies that lead to sustainable environmental and economic floodplain conditions.

Arvidson, Raymond E.↗
NASA NTRS1996

The Chemistry of Early Self-Replicating Systems

The NASA Specialized Center of Research and Training (NSCORT) in Exobiology is a consortium of scientists at the University of California at San Diego (UCSD), The Salk Institute for Biological Studies (Salk) and The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI). All three institutions are located in close geographical proximity in La Jolla, California. The NSCORT/Exobiology is administered through the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Since its inception in January 1992, the NSCORT in Exobiology has made major contributions with respect to the question of how life began on Earth. The Principal Investigators (PIs) and their associated Fellows have published numerous articles in peer reviewed journals on topics relevant to Exobiology. They have presented papers and sponsored symposia at several meetings of national and international scientific societies. A total of 30 undergraduate, 12 graduate and 15 postdoctoral Fellows have been supported by the NSCORT. The Fellows have met on their own at least once a month to discuss Exobiology topics and research progress. The NSCORT has arranged seminars and evening discussion meetings, and offered an undergraduate class on "Biochemical Evolution" as well as graduate courses dealing with topics in Exobiology. A visiting scientist program has allowed 11 scientists from the U.S. and 4 foreign countries to conduct cooperative research with the various PIs. An active outreach program has been initiated, which includes an Exobiology high school level teaching module and curriculum guide, and an elementary school level booklet about basic atomic structure and formation of the universe, Sun and Earth. A World Wide Web Homepage (http://www-chem.ucsd.edu/-nscort/ NSCORT.html) has been developed, which describes the NSCORT activities, research programs and Fellowship opportunities. The various activities of the NSCORT in Exobiology have received wide-spread coverage in both the scientific and public media. The major function of the NSCORT is the training of young scientists in the field of Exo- biology. Thus, the bulk of the $1,000,000 annual budget is used to support the research and training of undergraduate, graduate and post-doctoral Fellows who are selected on a competitive basis. About five Fellows at each level are supported each year. Our goal is to train scientists whose major research interest is Exobiology, but whose mastery in the classical fields of chemistry, biology and earth science is so strong that they outstanding candidates for either graduate school or academic tenure-track positions in departments at leading national and international Universities. Applicants for these Fellowships are solicited by advertisements in journals such as Science and Nature and in organizational newsletters such as the one published by the International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life (ISSOL), by contacting academic and NASA colleagues working in Exobiology or related fields and by recruiting students who have already been admitted into the various academic programs with which the PIs are affiliated.

Bada, Jeffrey L.↗
DOE OSTI2023

Engineering Computational Practices (Rev. 1)

This manual will attempt to motivate the use of an automated build system for the purposes of computational science and engineering. As part of this motivation, the surrounding computational practices of version control, documen tation, compute environment management, and regression testing will also be addressed as applied to the practice of computational engineering. Specifically, this manual intends to motivate the adoption of these traditional software engineering practices for use in research and production engineering simulation projects. This manual is not the first such effort in the greater scientific computing community. In fact, the authors relied heavily on the lesson plans of the Software Carpentry, established to teach computing skills to researchers in 1998. As the intention for this manual is to lay out fundamental practices of engineering computing, it will not attempt to fully teach the underlying concepts and will instead reference the well designed lesson plans of the Software Carpentry. Where possible, this manual will explain to general computing practices and concepts and limit discussion of specific software implementations to examples or vehicles for practice in concrete application. The specific software taught by the Software Carpentry curriculum is an excellent starting point to learn the core concepts of computational engi neering. However, the authors have found that applications to engineering simulation and analysis require translation of these software development concepts into the language and workflows of computational engineers. Adopting these computational tools may require engineers to re-imagine their workflows in some combination of traditional engineer ing and software concepts. It has also been necessary to extend existing software build systems for engineering practices beyond the simple wrap ping of engineering software execution. Where necessary, examples of specific software and their method of extension to engineering simulations will be given, with reference to the User Manual for recommended practical use. Where this manual relies on specific implementation examples, it should be understood that the practicing engineer may find that different software is more amenable to their specific work. It is always the overall collection of computational practices is more important than any specific software implementation. The ability to recognize which concepts are implemented by a software package will make a practicing engineer agile to changing project needs, computing resources, numeric solvers, programming languages, and even available funding.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2026

An Educational Program on Concentrated Solar Power and Heliostats for Power Generation and Industrial Processes

The objective of this project was to design and implement a comprehensive educational and applied research program in Concentrated Solar Thermal Power (CSTP) and heliostat technologies at Northeastern University. In alignment with the U.S. Department of Energy's Heliostat Consortium (HelioCon) goals, the project aimed to expand student and public understanding of CSTP systems while simultaneously contributing to workforce development and the broader decarbonization strategy. A particular emphasis was placed on integrating hands-on student design projects and publicly disseminating educational content relevant to CSTP systems. The project addressed a critical gap in renewable energy education: CSTP and heliostats, despite their importance in utility-scale solar energy, are rarely included in standard mechanical engineering programs. This project established new pathways for students to engage with the topic through the creation of a 4-credit graduate/senior elective course, development of five industry-facing short courses, and the inclusion of CSTP-based capstone design projects. Over two academic years, 36 students across six senior design teams developed and tested technologies such as deformable heliostats, beacon-based tracking systems, and solar-powered pyrolizers for biomass-to-biochar conversion. Concurrently, 30 undergraduate and graduate students were enrolled in the new academic course centered around CSTP principles. To ensure the relevance and accessibility of the short course content, the project team engaged with industry professionals, technical policy stakeholders, and potential course participants through structured surveys and informal consultations. Feedback from 28 respondents guided the structure, length, and delivery format of the courses - resulting in a modular design broken into five workshops. The feedback emphasized the need for flexible, asynchronous delivery and practical case studies, particularly in areas such as heliostat control, thermal storage, and solar fuel production. This engagement helped align the courses with the evolving knowledge demands of the renewable energy workforce and ensured that participants from both technical and policy backgrounds could meaningfully benefit from the material. The research and educational activities advanced the understanding of heliostat control systems, optical performance under misalignment, and thermal system integration in solar-driven pyrolysis applications. Methods and designs explored in this project proved to be both technically effective and economically feasible at the lab scale. Prototypes were constructed using commercially available components and custom-fabricated elements, demonstrating that meaningful performance improvements can be achieved with modest material and fabrication costs, supporting the feasibility of student-led research in this field. The public benefit of this project is twofold. First, it cultivates a pipeline of engineers trained to be familiar with CSTP principles, an essential workforce need identified by the Department of Energy for achieving its 2030 cost and deployment targets. Second, it contributes openly accessible educational materials, course content, and experimental frameworks to the broader community, enabling other institutions to adopt or adapt similar programming. Through outreach activities, curriculum integration, and technical exposure, this project contributes to a more informed and capable renewable energy workforce while supporting innovation in heliostat and CSTP system design. A new technical report is being prepared to document the development of the course and its outcomes, with plans to publish it in the ASME Open Access Journal of Engineering to ensure global accessibility, free of cost.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗