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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.
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A matrix format developed at JPL places the national education standards in a format that can be navigated intuitively by teachers seeking to integrate NASA materials into the structure of standards based education.
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This educational materials catalog presents NASA CORE (Central Operation of Resources for Educators). The topics include: 1) Videocassettes (Aeronautics, Earth Resources, Weather, Space Exploration/Satellites, Life Sciences, Careers); 2) Slide Programs; 3) Computer Materials; 4) NASA Memorabilia/Miscellaneous; 5) NASA Educator Resource Centers; 6) and NASA Resources.
The Office of Education's fundamental goal is to disseminate information, mostly that which relates to science and technology. In this attempt, as I have observed, the office has many programs bringing both students and teachers to NASA Langley to expose them to the facilities and to teach them some about the scientific theory and about available modern technology. As a way of expanding the audience that can be reached, as the expense of bringing people in is limiting, Marchelle Canright has proposed establishing a center dedicated to researching and producing distant learning videos. Although distant learning through telecommunications is not a new concept, as many universities, colleges, and precollege level schools offer televised courses, the research in this field has been limited. Many of the standing distant learning broadcasts are simply recordings of teachers in classrooms giving lectures to their own students; they are not aimed at the television audience. In some cases the videos are produced without a Live-lecture atmosphere, but are still only classroom lectures. In either case, however, the full range of capabilities of video production are not being fully utilized. Methods for best relaying educational material have not been explored. Possibilities for including computerized images and video clips for the purpose of showing diagrams and processes, as well as examples in fitting cases, may add considerably to the educational value of these videos. Also, through Internet and satellite links, it is possible for remote students to interact with the teachers during televised sessions. These possibilities might, also, add to the effectiveness of distant learning programs. Ms. Canright's proposed center will be dedicated to researching these possibilities and eventually spreading the results to distant learning program managers. This is the project I was involved in over the summer. As implied, the center is still at the foundation stages. Ms. Canright has proposed four or five possible series that could be developed, each one aimed at a specific age group of students, or group of teachers. I was involved in the design of the series aimed at the youngest children, the Picture Book Science series. My involvement included proposing and researching topics, writing a lesson for the first show, writing the latter portion of the picture book story (the part including the scientific lesson), and illustrating the story. I also designed and collected the materials for the Learning Center's television studio set as well as finished the painting of the main backdrop panels.
The NASA Central Operation of Resources for Educators (CORE), established in cooperation with Lorain County Joint Vocational School, serves as the worldwide distribution center for NASA-produced educational materials. For a minimal charge, CORE will provide a valuable service to educators unable to visit one of the NASA Educator Resource Centers by making NASA educational audiovisual materials available through its mail order service. Through CORE's distribution network, the public has access to more than 200 videocassette, slide, and CD-ROM programs, chronicling NASA!s state-of-the-art research and technology. Through the use of these curriculum supplement materials, teachers can provide their students with the latest in aerospace information. NASAs educational materials on aeronautics and space provide a springboard for classroom discussion of life science, physical science, astronomy, energy, Earth resources, environment, mathematics, and career education.
Finding the right material for the job is an important aspect of engineering. Sometimes the choice is as fundamental as selecting between steel and aluminum. Other times, the choice may be between different compositions in an alloy. Discovering and compiling materials data is a demanding task, but it leads to accurate models for analysis and successful materials application. Mat. DB. is a database management system designed for maintaining information on the properties and processing of engineered materials, including metals, plastics, composites, and ceramics. It was developed by the Center for Materials Data of American Society for Metals (ASM) International. The ASM Center for Materials Data collects and reviews material property data for publication in books, reports, and electronic database. Mat. DB was developed to aid the data management and material applications.
Securing and protecting critical infrastructure in an increasingly digital world is vital but it is all too often an afterthought. It is especially important that students become aware of internet safety and security at an early age. However, the availability of interactive and educational cybersecurity material targeted toward students is minimal in the United States. Here we show an example of interactive cyber security educational material that an educator can use in their classroom to encourage students to think about the interaction between real-world physical objects, cyber security, and information security. By putting together a “capture-the-flag” exercise, students can see in real time how hackers and cybercriminals exploit vulnerabilities and gain access information. The students try to “capture” the “flag” (i.e., information) in the wind farm by looking for oddities in the code or by taking advantage of weaknesses in everyday protocols. Students can also see how cybersecurity interacts with the power grid through the wind farm project scenario and how a hacker could cause serious problems to a critical infrastructure sector. Our goal for the project is getting students interested in cybersecurity and help them develop an awareness of how important having robust security systems is. We also hope that this project demonstrates the importance of introducing these concepts early and inspires others to create similar projects geared toward students.
NASA programs impact on U.S. education
There is a national need for high-quality, upper division courses that address critical topics in materials synthesis, particularly those beyond the present expertise of the typical university department's faculty. A new project has been started to test a novel distance education and faculty development system, called Video Tape Live Audio (VTLA). This, if successful, would at once enlarge the national Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) student cohort studying material synthesis and develop faculty expertise at the receiving sites. The mechanics for the VTLA scheme are as follows: A course is designed in the field selected for emphasis and for which there is likely to be considerable demand, in this example 'Ceramic Materials Synthesis: Theory and Case Studies'. One of the very best researcher/teachers records lectures of TV studio quality with appropriate visuals. Universities and colleges which wish to offer the course agree to offer it at the same hour at least once a week. The videotaped lectures and accompanying text, readings and visuals are shipped to the professor in charge, who has an appropriate background. The professor arranges the classroom TV presentation equipment and supervises the course. Video lectures are played during regular course hours twice a week with time for discussion by the supervising professor. Typically the third weekly classroom period is scheduled by all sites at a common designated hour, during which the course author/presenter answers questions, provides greater depth, etc. on a live audio link to all course sites. Questions are submitted by fax and e-mail prior to the audio tutorial. coordinating professors at various sites have separate audio teleconferences at the beginning and end of the course, dealing with the philosophical and pedagogical approach to the course, content and mechanics. Following service once or twice as an 'apprentice' to the course, the coordinating professors may then offer it without the necessity of the live audio tutorial.
Some of the advantages and disadvantages of the Taguchi Method of experimental design as applied to Materials Science will be discussed. This is a fractional factorial method that employs the minimum number of experimental trials for the information obtained. The analysis is also very simple to use and teach, which is quite advantageous in the classroom. In addition, the Taguchi loss function can be easily incorporated to emphasize that improvements in reproducibility are often at least as important as optimization of the response. The disadvantages of the Taguchi Method include the fact that factor interactions are normally not accounted for, there are zero degrees of freedom if all of the possible factors are used, and randomization is normally not used to prevent environmental biasing. In spite of these disadvantages it is felt that the Taguchi Method is extremely useful for both teaching experimental design and as a research tool, as will be shown with a number of brief examples.
The objective of this project was to introduce a series of plastic recycling experiments to students in materials-related courses such as materials science, material technology and materials testing. With the plastic recycling experiments, students not only can learn the fundamentals of plastic processing and properties as in conventional materials courses, but also can be exposed to the issue of materials life cycle and the impact on society and environment.
This project addresses the problem of transforming technical documents intended for a technical audience into educational materials directed toward segments of the general public. In particular it addresses the conversion of technical material into Internet based educational materials. A major consideration of the project is the conservation of the time of subject matter experts in the organization in recognition of the fact that such experts are likely to be more valuable to the organization for purposes other than the production of educational outreach.
This catalog contains order information for video cassettes with topics such as: aeronautics, earth science, weather, space exploration/satellites, life sciences, energy, living in space, manned spaceflight, social sciences, space art, space sciences, technology education and utilization, and mathematics/physics.
The Focus series has been developed to present basic remote sensing concepts in a simple, concise way. Issues currently available are collected here so that more people may know of their existance.
The FOCUS series is a collection of two-page foldout documents each consisting of a diagram or photograph and an extended option of three to four hundred words. The series was developed to present basic remote sensing concepts in a simple, concise way. Issues currently available are collected in this information note.
Last year, at NEW: Update '91, a panel discussion was held to address the unique difficulties of attracting and retaining minorities and women in technical studies. Unfortunately, retention in technical majors is a problem of varying proportions for the entire student population, and must be improved in order to maintain the strength of the nation's industrial base. To investigate the cause of student attrition in technical majors, in-depth interviews of both current and former (non-graduating) engineering students at four colleges and universities in Colorado were conducted by Hewitt and Seymour. They found that there was no significant difference in the level of high school preparation and undergraduate academic performance in these two groups, despite the prevailing faculty perception that most students who switch from technical to nontechnical majors were underprepared. The majority of engineering students who changed majors reported that they were turned off by science, while one-third complained of poor teaching.
NASA!s Earth Sciences Program supports a wide range of endeavors in basic Earth system scientific research, technology development to support that research, development of materials and training for educators and students based on that research and information, and increasingly practical applications. A brief overview of the scope of this scientific research and the key features of the necessary remote sensing instrumentation will be given. I will also describe available educational materials and training courses for a wide range of grade levels. Information will be provided on how to obtain educational materials or to participate in a training course. Finally, a few examples will be given to illustrate how Earth remote sensing effects our daily life.