Alys Thomas, co-sponsored by Soil, Water & Environmental Science

In March 2003, the Governor’s Drought Task Force developed the Arizona Drought Preparedness Plan which addresses drought issues facing Arizona residents. This “force” includes a Monitoring Technical Committee (“MTC”) and Local Drought Impact Groups (“LDIGs”), whose main purpose is to provide important information to the Arizona Department of Water Resources (“ADWR”) regarding drought conditions and actual local impacts to water users. Presently, the MTC includes a national-scale Vegetation Health Index image produced monthly with Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) data, from the NOAA National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service; yet, little is done with this or similar ‘greenness’ products in the monitoring of monthly drought status changes, due to the difficulty in interpreting the imagery over Arizona’s diverse landscape (low desert scrub areas to mixed-conifer forests), and its potential relationship to climate variability. In Arizona, LDIGs are extremely important because individual assessments of drought status can be made on smaller scales; smaller sections of Arizona’s diverse landscape. Access to climate and drought monitoring information and data is critical for these groups to ensure the most informed decision making. Climate, satellite, and drought information is readily accessible, but training on how to use these products is not available outside of a structured academic environment.

My project will develop an educational program for county-level drought assessment groups that will quickly and efficiently allow them to make use of NDVI satellite imagery products as drought monitoring tools in county-level planning agendas. The end result of such an educational program will be that county drought planning groups be able to incorporate satellite data products in their plan development by utilizing vegetation indices in drought monitoring. The Drought Task Force planning process was designed to encourage the use of the latest scientific information, particularly climate data. In addition to its strong science focus, the process is designed to maximize stakeholder input over time.

The focus is solely Arizona LDIGs (county-level groups created voluntarily to coordinate drought public awareness, provide impact assessment information to local and state leaders, and implement and initiate local mitigation). The first phase will focus on NDVI and climate analyses; the second phase will incorporate these analyses into a tool that can be used in drought monitoring and possibly prediction; the third phase will initiate outreach and workshops for LDIGs to work hands on with the NDVI/climate tool and become comfortable with using satellite data products in their drought monitoring efforts. The expected outcome is increased knowledge and usage of NDVI data products as drought monitoring tools and information sharing from local communities to state levels. This will lead to improved reporting on local conditions and variations as well as more effective drought strategies and mitigation for smaller communities.

Chris Pagliarulo, co-sponsored by Molecular & Cellular Biology.

I am working with the Sunnyside High School Science program and FFA teacher DeeDee Amber to design, implement, and test NASA based curriculum that support the Arizona Science Standards for Freshman, Sophomores, and Juniors. We are incorporating several underutilized NASA developed educational materials including several NASA Engineering Design Challenges and a variety of project based curriculums in order to construct a semester long lunar ice prospecting challenge. All 115 of Mrs. Amber’s students are working toward designing, modeling, testing, and presenting various necessary components to support a long term mission to the moon to search for ice. The Freshman, Team Helo, will design and build greenhouse and other food production facilities needed to support 3-7 lunar base crew. The Sophomores, Team Artemis, are responsible for life support and energy, developing facilities that will both house and protect the future astronauts, as well as integrate and support the needs of the other two missions. The Juniors, Team Boomer, are the greydogs (lunar miners) charged with navigation, miner design, and raw material processing. The students will work in smaller teams to develop critical components of each mission. Because each component must work well as a system, all teams will need to work closely with other related groups and projects, creating ample pear collaboration and teaching opportunities both across classes and across grade levels. DeeDee and I feel weaving in the lunar mission storyline into the usual standard science curriculum will both improve student engagement and learning as well as permit integration of biology, math, and engineering in a more realistic way. At the end of the semester, mission teams will present their design proposals and budgets to “Congress” and a NASA Panel in the form of PowerPoint presentations and physical or CAD based models. Team members will be required to justify their design decisions, detailing how their structures or instruments support mission requirements, how their systems faired in basic testing, and how their systems and results compared to their competitors. Over the course of the semester, students will document their efforts, experiments, and activities on video. This will be edited into a variety of video podcasts to be posted on YouTube that will support (and likely entertain, if I know my kids) other students and teachers who are also interested in incorporating NASA based content into their classrooms.

Fall 2009 Update

The 2008-2009 Sunny Side NASA Mission produced several successful projects including the construction of three plant growth chambers, a bioreactor water treatment system and numerous student designed and presented science instructional modules. More importantly, all 115 students involved in the project engaged in difficult problem solving and presentation challenges related to biological and engineering science. Significant improvement in understanding and skill was reported by most students.

This year, the focus will be to encourage and support the use of these skills outside of the classroom, through competition in state and national FFA and science and engineering fairs. I will support several student team investigations related to sustainable technologies and natural resources (newly emphasized NASA priorities). Each student team will document the investigation process through both written data and note collection and video documentary production. The hope is to encourage greater participation in science competitions by all schools in the area. Currently in the Sunny Side School District, there are few resources available for students and teachers that directly support participation in science competitions. By documenting several "How-to" case studies illustrating the process and thinking behind successful student led science or engineering investigations, we hope to lower the barrier for the many other schools and teachers interested in getting involved, but that lack the time or resources necessary to start from scratch.

Arin Haverland, Arid Lands Resource Sciences, co-sponsored by the
University of Arizona Master Watershed Steward Program

In 2005 I began serving as a graduate science teaching fellow through the University of Arizona. The experience brought me into the high school classroom and allowed me to venture outside of my graduate research studies and the university setting to share my experience, passion for the environment and my research with teachers and students throughout Tucson. I was instantly hooked! And the students and teachers were hungry for more – they wanted to learn more, and most importantly they wanted to actually DO more! Seeing the need to involve high school students and high school teachers in current community and UA research projects, I began my search for a way to not only help administrators meet the math and science standards for their classrooms, but also a way to engage the students and inspire the teachers to get involved in a new way! Over the next year and a half I worked with teachers and staff members, attended as many faculty meetings as possible and listened to their needs. I asked the students questions about what they thought about science, what they feared about math and why they felt bored at times in class. In 2007, all of the hard work paid off and I was able to create the Building Bridges Through Water Program as a recipient of the UA NASA Space Grant Graduate Fellowship Program. The Building Bridges Through Water Program has grown since then and is now officially known as the University of Arizona Junior Watershed Steward Program.

The Junior Watershed Steward Program is a cooperative high school extension education program focusing on the education and training of students and teachers across the state to serve as volunteers in the protection, restoration, monitoring, and conservation of their water and watersheds. The J.W.S. program emulates the University of Arizona Master Watershed Steward Program http://ag.arizona.edu/watershedsteward/ – a program which is geared towards adults and continuing education and operates through grants from the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality and the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension office.

In addition to educational activities focused on the unique aspects of the Sonoran Desert, the Junior Watershed Steward program uses NASA based activities and educational materials to cultivate the ideas of the importance of water, on earth and in space. The JWS program also promotes environmental leadership and stewardship at the high-school level while simultaneously building a strong and sustainable foundation in water and water related issues for the teachers and students who participate in the program. Junior Watershed Stewards Learn about: Climate & Weather, Geology & Soils, Hydrology, Mapping & RS/GIS Technology, Fire in Watersheds, Ecology in Watersheds and Water Management. Junior Watershed Stewards expand their knowledge through hands-on lab exercises, specialist lectures, field trips and volunteer service projects.

In addition to the individuals who have grown up right here in Arizona, many of our students and teachers are also from countries other than the U.S. which brings this unique multicultural and multifaceted program to life both in and out of the classroom. The Junior Watershed Steward program is riding the water wave of the future in hopes that by fostering environmental stewardship, J.W.S. is not just preserving local watersheds, it is also empowering students and teachers to "make a splash" by taking action in their own communities and beyond! Through my opportunities as a UA NASA Space Grant Graduate Fellow, I have been able to reach beyond the classroom and have found that the greatest rewards are seeing the students renewed interest in science and hearing a teacher say " I had so much fun, I even forgot I was teaching"!

Theresa Foley, co-sponsored by the Department of Atmospheric Science

Partners: Sonoran Environmental Research Institute, Inc. (SERI), Pima County Department of Environmental Quality (PDEQ) Air Division, United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and the University of Arizona’s U.S.-Mexico Binational Center for Environmental Sciences and Toxicology (Binational Center)

SERI and the PDEQ Air Division are conducting a study to monitor the levels of airborne metals in the heavily industrial Southside of metropolitan Tucson. The study is being funded by the USEPA, PDEQ and a private company. The monitoring sites are located on the roofs of six Sunnyside Unified School District (SUSD) properties: the SUSD Transportation Facility, Los Ninos Elementary School, Los Amigos Elementary School, Ocotillo Elementary Schools, Sunnyside High School and Chaparral Middle School.

When the laboratory finishes analyzing the sample filters, I will be doing an analysis of the metals data. My goal is to present the results of the study in a format that is culturally sensitive and relevant for south side Tucson residents. My target audience is largely Hispanic, an under-represented group in the sciences. I have created a brochure that explains details of the metals monitoring program, which my advisor Dr. Eric Betterton presented to the USEPA Region 9. I am partnering with Binational Center so that the materials I generate will be translated into Spanish and be available to community members, students and teachers.

SERI has promotoras or lay health workers who go out into the community to educate the public on the safe handling of chemicals and the dangers of lead poisoning. They will be distributing my brochure during their home and business visits. The promotoras are leaders in their community and training them is an important part of my Space Grant project. This fall, I conducted a training workshop on how PDEQ conducts the metals monitoring in the SUSD and the promotoras toured the PDEQ’s air filter weighing laboratory. Spring workshops will include Air Pollution Regulations 101, Solid Waste and Waste Water with tours to the landfill and a wastewater treatment plant.

I participate in weekly team meeting with the promotoras, who gave a lot of input into the design and content of the brochure. They are excited about the air monitoring project and eager to learn more about the project and other environmental science topics. Over the Christmas break, I began accompanying the promotoras on business visits, work that is funded by a P2 grant from the USEPA. SERI is targeting auto body shops and the goal of the business visits is to educate owners and managers on how to use fewer solvents.

I present quarterly updates on my Space Grant project to the Community Assist of Southern Arizona (CASA) advisory board, which has many civic and community leaders. CASA is a SERI program which was initiated by the USEPA Child Health Champion Campaign. The goal of CASA is to empower local citizens and communities to take steps toward protecting their children from environmental health threats.

Mike Borden, co-sponsored by the College Of Optical Sciences

As a student with a background in space science and engineering, I have quickly learned how profound and inspiring practical experience can be. Whether the experience is through a class project, a summer internship, or Senior Design, a direct and hands on relationship with technology is a fantastic way to develop new personal and professional interests. This is my main objective through my involvement with the ASCEND! Student Satellite Program during the 2008/2009 school year. As a sponsor and mentor for a team of undergraduate engineering students at UA, my aim is to provide a balloon technology experience that is both practical as well as inspiring.

The ASCEND! program is ongoing and is both funded and supported by the Arizona Space Grant Consortium. The main objective of this program is for student teams to design, build, and fly their own weather balloon payloads. The resulting experience is one that simulates a full cycle space mission. As part of the program, the student team will be given the opportunity to launch a payload that they design and build. In the fall semester, a proof of concept payload will be launched which will pave the way for the main payload, which will be launched during the spring semester. Through these two launches, the student team will be given valuable feedback and experience that not only promotes balloon technology understanding, but also aids in a student’s ability to effectively handle a major design problem.

Significant progress has been made throughout the first semester of the ASCEND! program. A team of 6 undergraduate students has been assembled through the UA Engineering Department’s Senior Capstone Course. The team is composed of students from various engineering disciplines including mechanical, electrical, and optical science. Throughout the first semester, the team decided upon a payload objective, designed and built a payload that would meet that objective, and launched it in mid-November. The objective of this payload was to acquire a panoramic image of the Earth from an altitude of 100,000 ft. This objective was realized using 4 digital cameras appropriately spaced within the payload. The resulting images have been processed and a panoramic image is currently being assembled.

The science payload for the coming semester is the next major challenge to be addressed. The payload objective that has been determined is to design and build a balloon payload capable of solar spectroscopy. With the experience of a balloon launch under our belt, the team has high expectations for success in the coming semester.

Fall 2009 Update

With a full year of ASCEND! program experience under my belt, there have been a few significant changes to the project model here at UA. The most significant change is that the course is now being offered as a Directed Research project through the Optical Science Department. This has changed from last year's model, which offered the project through the UA Engineering Senior Capstone Course. This year's team, which consists of 3 Optical Science students and 1 Astronomy student, will be pursuing similar payload objectives for this year's project.

Stacey Fleenor, co-sponsored by the Department of Arid Lands Sciences

The physical sciences have typically been underrepresented in 4-H programs. Since 4-H focuses on hands-on activities outside of the classroom, it offers a great opportunity for science experiences for youth. In Pima County, very few youth enroll in physical science projects. Therefore, my outreach project aims to increase knowledge about and participation in atmospheric science activities among 4-H youth and leaders in order that they develop a clearer understanding of how weather relates to their everyday lives and/or career possibilities.

I am putting together presentations and activities for individual club meetings and also a meteorology field day for the Davis Monthan Air Force Base after-school program. These presentations will demonstrate weather phenomena through simple projects and also give leader's ideas of future project ideas they can do with their club. The information and activities that were developed for these activities will then be made into a 4-H leader's guide that will be accessible at the University of Arizona extension office for leaders to reference in the future.

Another important aspect of my project is to hold a weather photography workshop. Through this workshop youth will be able to improve their photography skills by understanding the effects weather can have on photos and also develop a greater awareness of clouds and other atmospheric conditions. The workshop will teach youth techniques for photographing lightning and other weather phenomena and will address how atmospheric conditions affect picture and image quality.

Stephen Delgado, co-sponsored by Geography & Regional Development

My science-for-society outreach project, Facilitating Community Health Initiatives Using Public Participation GIS, has two basic aims: first, to facilitate the realization of community-based health and well-being initiatives in two underserved communities in Tucson, Arizona; and second, to promote public understanding and use of space-related information and technology in these same communities. To accomplish these interrelated goals, this project aspires to promote learning and understanding of spatial information and technologies, such as geographic information systems (GIS), global positioning systems (GPS), and remote sensing (RS), by incorporating the hands-on use of these technologies into community-driven health and wellbeing initiatives. In sum, this project aims to promote public health - one of NASA's twelve applications of national priority - while advancing public understanding of space-related information and technology through participatory processes.

In particular, this project will involve the Sunnyside and Elvira neighborhoods of Tucson, Arizona. Here, my primary partner organization, the community-based Sunnyside Elvira Advocates for Health (SEAH), is collaborating with the University of Arizona Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health (MEZCoPH), the Sunnyside Unified School District (SUSD), and the Pima County Department of Transportation (Pima DoT) to actively promote the health and well-being of the residents of these neighborhoods. Through initiatives such as the nascent Bike Map and Walking Map projects, local citizens of all ages are working to identify and map safe and accessible bicycling and walking routes within these communities. Initiatives such as these will provide an excellent opportunity for local citizens - especially local youths - to gain hands-on experience with spatial technologies such as GPS and GIS. For example, the Bike Map and Walking Map projects will involve group bicycling and walking outings through the Sunnyside and Elvira communities, in which participants will learn to use maps and GPS units to identify and map safe, accessible bicycling and walking routes in the Sunnyside and Elvira neighborhoods. For both these projects, information gained from bicycling and walking outings will then be used to collaboratively construct community maps using desktop GIS.

Currently, this outreach project is in its planning and preparation stage. I have been attending SEAH general meetings, as well as Bike Map and Walking Map subcommittee meetings, getting to know the local residents who are actively involved in these projects and discussing how community members would like to begin learning and incorporating spatial information and technology into their local health initiatives. I look forward to working together with residents of the Sunnyside and Elvira neighborhoods to benefit community health while helping to develop hands-on learning of spatial information and technology.

Nick Rattray, co-sponsored by the Disability Resource Center (DRC) and the Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology (BARA), and the UA Department of Anthropology

In the last few decades, many university campuses have embarked on planning efforts to improve access and services for people with disabilities. More recently, a framework called “Universal Design” has been promoted as a way to move beyond a strategy of accommodating individuals into a focus on structural change that benefits the population as a whole. However, we understand less about the experience of people with disabilities in actually navigating through multiple campus environments – built, social, information – on the university campuses. This project seeks to involve students with disabilities in research using qualitative and geospatial techniques in order to evaluate the accessibility of the campus environment. Through direct participation in the research process, the project aims to encourage students with disabilities to engage in math, science, and geography, fields in which they are traditionally underrepresented

The main partner in the project is the Disability Resource Center (DRC). Staff at the DRC will help recruit participating students and contribute to the project design. In addition, the Center for Applied Spatial Analysis (CASA) will provide Global Positioning Systems (GPS) equipment and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software for data collection, as well as a laboratory space for data analysis and evaluation. The research results will be addressed to the DRC, the campus planning units, and the participating academic departments.

Working as a team, students affiliated with the Disability Resource Center will collect information about campus accessibility, with the goal of understanding how universal design affects the use of space and educational outcomes. The project participants will utilize geospatial, qualitative and participatory research methods. During fifteen weeks, teams of 3-4 students will evaluate the accessibility of different areas of the UA campus, collecting information about how people with disabilities experience the social and built environment. This will include the paths that people travel, their interactions with labs and classrooms, and perceptions and attitudes students encounter. In the first phase, students will gather qualitative data about the meaning of accessibility by using “map” interviews and focus groups. Next, the students will learn how to collect and analyze geospatial data using GPS technological and GIS software. The data collected will be then uploaded into a web-based, publicly accessible interface, with portions of the qualitative data integrated with the geospatial data. Finally, the students will take a participatory research approach to understand, analyze, and evaluate strategies proposed by the campus planners.

Fall 2007 Update

Jackie Cimino and Kyle Mutz joined the project during the Fall 2007 semester as Space Grant interns, supported by the Foundation Carinoso. Jackie is a psychology major in her third year at Arizona, and plays on the UA wheelchair tennis team. Kyle is working on his Masters in Rehabilitation Counseling, and recently returned from competing on the track in the Para-Pan American Games in Brazil. Kyle and Jackie worked on creating a final report for the project that was shared with the wider UA community, and built a web-accessible GIS interface for displaying the results of the map interviews.

Sarah McDonald, co-sponsored by the Agricultural Resource Economics

My outreach project, entitled “Building Bridges: Creating the Awareness to Forge a Sustainable New West,” addresses the information gap between producers and consumers of data regarding the changing demographics and landscapes of Arizona. Rapid in-migration into the West has spurred extensive conversion of rangelands and other agricultural lands into development, causing significant ecological and social impacts. Arizona remains the second fastest growing state in the nation. Additionally, exurban growth in the West has exceeded suburban growth, which has increased the biophysical and demographic impacts on both human and biological communities. These changes continue to provide difficult challenges for the institutions developed to serve the needs of Arizona’s communities, especially as they attempt to incorporate the needs of a growing and poorly-understood exurban community. Addressing these concerns in order to create a more sustainable new West which is driven by community cooperation and scientific knowledge is imperative.

I have limited the focus of this outreach project to two target audiences: county administrative planning boards throughout the state, and residents and special interest groups in Cochise County. I have partnered with the Office of Arid Lands Open Spaces project, the office of the Pima County Administrator for Land, Water, and Environmental Policy, and the Cooperative Extension Service for this outreach project. In developing the Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan, the Pima County Administrator’s Office conducted research assessing the impact of different development types on the fiscal resource base of the county (the first study of its kind in the nation). Not only the insightful results, but the process itself of undertaking such a research project, would be extremely valuable to other counties in the southwest which are facing similar growth patterns and planning challenges. Additionally, the results of this study, which visually illustrate the shifting land use patterns and portray the dilemma of counties in providing basic services to a changing population, are useful for the residents of these counties, which wish to play a role in the future of the landscape. In working with the Pima County Administrator’s Office, I will create two products tailored to each target audience. I am in the process of creating a digital presentation which will focus on the need for and process of gathering economically meaningful data which links land use and development footprints to fiscal resource availability. I will then create additional, visually-focused materials for interest groups highlighting the important results of the study.

Additionally, I am working with the Office of Arid Lands Open Spaces project and the Cooperative Extension Service on an educational symposium titled “Learning to Grow: Options for a Changing Landscape” for the residents of Cochise County, which will take place in April. This symposium is the culmination of a Cochise County Advisory Board meeting devoted to the topic of growth and land use change, at which then sparked a follow up meeting to discuss what interested groups in the county might do to be proactive about future growth. The symposium is intended to educate the public about the demographic and land use trends in Cochise and Pima counties, to highlight both the natural resource and human impacts of such growth changes, and to provide options for planned future growth.

I have found the timing of my project to be optimal for achieving long-term impacts, because the organizations I have partnered with have devoted significant resources to this issue and will maintain the momentum of this project. As a consequence of the meetings in Cochise County, Cooperative Extension is partnering with utilities cooperatives and others to produce a semi-annual publication targeted at exurban audiences. Additionally, Cochise County administrators have planned “visioning” exercises with communities this summer in order to help communities decide what type of growth they support. The symposium this spring will provide an excellent catalyst for community residents to begin discussing options for growth and will provide them with the tools to make educated decisions. My materials will help their elected representatives to be better informed about the economic impacts associated with the various choices, and will be able to ensure the county’s fiscal viability. It is my hope that Cochise County will be the springboard for such focused dialogue and will motivate other counties to follow suit. My outreach materials will facilitate the first steps for these county administrators in exploring their options for growth and creating awareness within their constituencies.

Maki Hattori, co-sponsored by the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory

Many students in middle and high school lose interest in science and math because they do not feel that the subject matter is relevant to their lives and studies. Due to this failure to connect science and math to topics of relevance and/or high interest, such as the space sciences, the natural pedagogical progression toward the learning of content and understanding of scientific methods of observation and analysis is disrupted. This problem is perpetuated as these children grow up and become parents and teachers. Their continued disinterest and fear of science and math discourages the next generation from pursuing scientific interests.

As part of my project I have developed the science content for the Juno website, attempting to phrase the important issues that the mission will try to answer in a series of basic questions, covering information about what we know, and why we would like to know more. I am also developing curriculum materials specifically targeting Jupiter and the Juno mission, which is expected to launch in 2011. The curriculum material is intended for use for middle school students distributed from the Juno website.

Fall 2007 Update

In 2006-2007 I helped develop science content for the Juno Mission, expected to launch in 2011, http://juno.wisc.edu/. We have also started development of educational material, affiliated with the Juno mission, both to help increase general interest and as part of the mission itself. One of the cameras equipped on the spacecraft is intended to be used as part of the outreach program by having most of the resulting images analyzed by students. So the goal of the educational material is to interest current students and to serve as preparation material for those students who will be doing some of these analyses starting in 2016 after the spacecraft arrives at Jupiter. We are currently producing the material for middle school level students with some of the easier materials being approachable by lower grades, and some of the more difficult materials having additional components addressing the high school level.