Overview of Space Science
BC3 AcademyJune 22 – July 2
2004Jean Willits
Melissa Teply
-NASA-Marshall Space Flight Center at Redstone
Joel Farbman, Education Resource Director, enlightened us on the ins and outs of NASA’s activities at Redstone.
Marsha Bill Evans, NASA Engineer, in the
Shuttle Engineering Support Center discussing the roles of the technicians during practice runs and launches of the Space Shuttle.
From this control room the design technicians read incoming data from the shuttle rocket boosters, fuel tank and main engines.
In case of emergency, the engineers have a direct line to Cape Canaveral to shut down the mission. They only have a six second window.
The Payload Operation Center is responsible for collecting and
transmitting data from the Space Station experiments to the design
scientists around the world.
The POC is also responsible for communicating directly with the
astronauts giving them daily directions for operations of the
shuttle experiments.
The POC controls the power, utilities, and video feed from the space station.
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-NASA-National Center for Advanced
Manufacturing
Ron RoRon Daniels explains the vacuum plasma spray, a machine used to
make complicated pieces of equipment that combine two or more
metals.
Curtis Manning discusses NASA’s use of rapid prototyping for their design engineers.
Testing Sites at Redstone Arsenal
Tom Nolan, Professor at MTSU, uses raster maps that make use of the remote sensing
technology from satellites. This can be used in any field of research.
Dr. Klumpf, Astronomy Professor, at MTSU, received a $100,000 grant from NASA to build a Naked Eye Observatory on the campus. Students will be able to determine relative distances in space, calculate time, predict an eclipse, determine season changes, etc.
Naked Eye Observatory
Dr. Andrew Ertl, Professor of Space Physiology at Vanderbilt, developed the Neurological research, Neurolab,
that was used on the 1998 space shuttle mission.
Drew Gilmore, Education Director at Adventure Science Center, gave us a private viewing of the night skies, mission to mars, and moon travels.
Talk about hands on activities!
Dyer Observatory
Takao Doi, a Japanese astronaut, enlightened us to the grueling training
an astronaut must go through by showing a training video. He also
explained his space walk and the effects of space on your body.
Challenger Center
Dedicated to the memory of the education crew
Challenger Center
Lesson One
Content Standard: 7.0 Earth and Its Place in the Universe
Learning Expectations:6.7.2 Investigate the relative
distances of objects in space. Construct a scale model of the
solar system.
Relative Distances in Space
The great amount of distance that exists between planets, stars, and galaxies is a difficult concept to understand.
Application
TSW take part in several activities that illustrate the relative distance between the sun and the planets.
TSW construct a 3-D scale model of our solar system.
Scale Model Activities
Utilize the Naked Eye Observatory on the MTSU Campus.
The Naked Eye Observatory
Students can measure the relative sizes of the sun, moon and planets and determine relative distances through several investigations.
http://www.mtsu.edu/~physics/newobservator.htm
Solar System Hike
The scale for this activity is 611 feet of space. The solar system has been shrunk by 1 billion.
Cards with the names of,and correct size of the planets are placed at relative distances from each other. Students “walk” the solar system and discover the distance between the planets.
www.adventuresci.com
ResultsStudents should be able to calculate distances in astronomical units (AU) between the sun and each planet.Students determine what scale to use to represent each distance in a scale drawing.
ie: 1 inch equals 1 AUStudents draw the sun and each planet relative to their actual size.
Evaluation
The Students will construct a 3-D scale model of our solar system.
Web Sites
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/astronomy/solarsystemmodelhttp://members.aol.com/ARIELSTIN/page4.htmlhttp://www.sciencetlinks.com/lessons.cfm?DOCID=33http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo/sepu/education/nau/scale.html
Lesson TwoContent Standard: 2.0
InteractionsLearning Expectations:
2.2B –Make inferences about how environmental factors would affect population growth, given a scenario.
6.1B –Predict how environmental changes will encourage and discourage the formation of a new species or extinction of an existing species, given a written scenario.
Changes in Environmental Factors
By using a satellite mapping system, students can track the changes of vegetation, population, toxic levels in the soil, waste management programs and storage.
Application
TSW show an understanding of satellite based computer programs.
TSW graph environmental factors that affect population growth.
TSW research the environmental factors affecting the area he or she has chosen.
Downloading ArcExplorer for free!
In order to begin the computer project each computer needs a copy of Arc Explorer. This can be downloaded from– http://www.esri.com/software/arcexplorer/
-Once downloaded, go back to the website above.
-Go to ‘Customize your Arcexplorer’ - Within this page students can begin to create
the graph of the area they are focusing on. -This can be printed out, put into a Power Point,
etc. - Further info can be found athttp://www.geographynetwork.com/http://www.gap.uidaho.edu/projects/data.asp
Research
Each group is to research the environmental factors represented on the graph.
Explain the importance of the infoThe past environmental trendsPredict the future environmental trendsWhat is being done to control any damage to the environment
Results
Students should be able to construct a graph from the GIS systemStudents should determine what environmental factors will affect the area of interest.Students will relate the info gained by presenting in an oral form.
Evaluation
The teacher will use a rubric to grade the projects.