Summer 2002: NASA Goddard Educator Academy
Rosa Linda Martin, our NASA Goddard Educator Academy student, Summer 2002:
"My internship at NASA GSFC was a great learning experience that I feel will be helpful in my career as an educator. I created an informal portable exhibit...that helped me learn...about studying Earth from another perspective, above, and what NASA does in studying Earth. I learned about remote sensing, current and future NASA satellite missions, and about the different types of satellite sensors. I also helped catalogue educational resources that are approved or are in the process of being approved, by the NASA education office....I really enjoyed my experience of meeting a variety of people, from fellow interns and their research, to other workers studying an area of the Earth's system, to workers within education and outreach and lastly, NASA HQ people in charge of nasa.gov and earth.nasa.gov. Another awesome aspect of my experience was my sponsoring NASA office paying for all my expenses to visit Kennedy Space Center. I was surprised at how NASA operates...and how helpful everyone was in giving me resources for teaching and images for my project. When I begin my career in teaching Earth & Space science, the information I learned from my internship will be used to motivate student interest in both Earth and space sciences but also, I can teach students not only the sciences of Earth from on the ground, but from above too."
Stargazer Program Opens New Horizons for Alaskan Student
Adam Nanouk travelled a great distance this summer--both physically and
intellectually. His first trip away from his remote Alaskan village on the
Bering Sea, took him all the way to Arizona to participate in Stargazer,
a one-of-a-kind educational program for Native American high schoolers.
Sponsored by the Space Grant Program at Northern Arizona University,
Stargazer teams students with Ph.D. astronomers from Dinč (Tribal)
College, Northern Arizona University, NASA scientists, and others, for an
exciting week-long introduction to astronomy. News of Adam's acceptance to
Stargazer stirred a great deal of excitement in his community--virtually
everyone in the surrounding area attended his send-off party. The first leg
of his journey--riding shuttles from home to the airport in Anchorage--was an
adventure in itself. There, he reported seeing more people in one place than
he could handle and nearly fainted! And that was nothing compared to what he
would experience in Arizona!
Adam and his fellow students had opportunities to observe at state-of-the-art telescopes, construct and launch model rockets, and study star lore of different cultures in a star lab. They learned about astro-photography, spectroscopy, and CCD imaging, basic astronomical and physical principles, Native American astronomy, the scientific method, philosophy and ethics of science, and about telescopes, and how to use them. They took field trips to Lowell Observatory, the Astrogeology Branch of the U.S. Geological Survey, and an ancient archaeoastronomy site. Adam ate his first hamburger while on the NAU campus, saw his first ants while on a field trip, and got to wear his first NASA space suit. He said the trip opened his eyes to more possibilities than he ever imagined possible. His interest in space science was definitely sparked. Adam returned home with many stories for the people in his village--who will also, no doubt, marvel at what he has seen. We, in Arizona, anticipate seeing great things from Adam!
