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Help NASA Train Astronauts Underwater

October 21, 2011 | 8:00 AM | By

NASA

In the spirit of boosting citizen science projects, we’re pointing to the increasing number of opportunities for volunteers — those with no formal scientific training — to encourage participation in real scientific research. These projects happen both on- and offline and volunteers are asked to assist with making observations and calculations alongside scientists.

(Remember last month’s story about how gamers helped AIDS researchers identify important an protein with the online game Foldit?)

In the same vein, Zooniverse, a website where you can find a number of online science projects, has kicked off a new project this week and is asking for your help.

Zooniverse has partnered with NASA‘s NEEMO project for a mission it’s conducting over the next two weeks. Due in part to the short duration of the project, NEEMO is hoping that by opening the research up to volunteers, it will have “more eyes on the problem.”

NEEMO stands for NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations. It’s part of NASA’s training regime for astronauts, scientists, and engineers for the off-planetary exploration. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Learning Methods, NASA, NEEMO, Zooniverse

YouTube SpaceLab Launches Student Experiments Into Space

October 10, 2011 | 10:03 AM | By

SpaceLab

YouTube and NASA are challenging students to design a science experiment that can be performed in space. Students from 14 to 18 years old can upload videos of their experiments onto YouTube’s Space Lab website.

A panel of scientists, astronauts, and educators, including Stephen Hawking, will judge the entries, and the two winning experiments will be conducted on the International Space Station 250 miles above Earth and live streamed on YouTube.

“The idea of seeing something you conceive and build in your ordinary classroom being actually flown on a rocket, being actually sent to the International Space Station, being actually carried out by a national, is the stuff of fiction. We think that is going to be the thing that gets kids excited,” said YouTube’s Zahaan Bharmal, who conceived of the challenge.

“The idea of seeing something you conceive and build in your ordinary classroom sent to the International Space Station is the stuff of fiction.”

NASA’s counterparts in Europe and Japan are also participating in the worldwide initiative, as are Lenovo and Space Adventures.

More details: Students in two age categories, 14-16 years old and 17-18 years old, either alone or in groups of up to three, may submit a YouTube video describing their experiment to SpaceLab. From the entries, six regional finalists will be brought to Washington, D.C. in March 2012 to experience a ZERO-G flight and receive other prizes. And from that group, two global winners, one from each age group, will be announced and later have their experiments performed on the ISS.

The two global winners will get to choose either a trip to Tanegashima Island, Japan, to watch their experiment blast off in a rocket bound for the ISS, or once they’re 18, a one-of-a-kind astronaut Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Learning Methods, NASA, SpaceLab, STEM, YouTube, YouTube.com/Education

Space Exploration is Not Just for Astronauts

September 28, 2011 | 10:19 AM | By

Teddy bears in space, via Mirror UK

With the end of the U.S. Space Shuttle program this summer, there’s been a lot of talk about the future of manned space exploration. As the name “shuttle” would suggest, the Space Shuttle program was supposed to mark the beginning of space missions that were more regular and less expensive, an opportunity for both scientific and commercial space travel. But now that the program has ended, we’ve lost what has been, arguably, one of the more glamorous occupations that could entice students into thinking about a future career in space exploration: the job of space shuttle astronaut.

But as Spacehack‘s Ariel Waldman is quick to point out, we might be placing too much emphasis on the “astronaut” when we think about the possibilities of exploring space. After all, after 50 some-odd years of space missions, humans have only sent 500 people into space. When we think about the impact of the Internet, a technology that’s just about as old as the space mission, we can see that the latter has had a far greater and far more democratizing impact.

We’re about to see a renaissance of citizen science, where people are able to participate more and take an active role in dictating the direction of scientific exploration.

How then can we take the lessons and the opportunities of the Internet — all its democratizing potential — and use that to re-think space exploration? Are there ways in which we can continue to explore space even though the opportunities to send humans there seem, for the near future at Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Learning Methods, Teaching With Tech, NASA, SETI, Spacehack, STEM

Scientists Recruit Students for Research

March 4, 2011 | 8:00 AM | By

Project Feederwatch

Student's rendering of birds.

By Sara Bernard

Scientists have figured out a way to leverage student enthusiasm in the sciences: conduct research that can be used for data collection.

So when ornithologists at Cornell University study breeding and nesting behavior, when NASA researchers need an extra few thousand pairs of eyes on a telescope, and when biologists and gardeners investigate changes in ladybug populations, they ask K-12 students to participate in the research — often as part of their regular class curriculum.

This isn’t, of course, about getting kids to do a PhD’s grunt work. It serves both parties well. Scientists acquire necessary data (sometimes even the miraculous kind, like rare nine-spotted ladybugs) while students get to work on real-world research projects.

Often, the scientific community also provides detailed lesson plans, online tools, and other resources to the students and teachers involved.

Here are 5 examples of citizen scientists programs across the country.

1) Cornell Lab of Ornithology Citizen Science program

This is a set of kid-friendly research projects on all things bird-related, from pigeons to feeder-watching to a middle school curriculum called BirdSleuth. Students can count birds and upload data using eBird and the Great Backyard Bird Count, promote urban conservation through Celebrate Urban Birds, and use photo-tagging tools to help scientists sort 8 million NestCam images. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology has also created SciencePipes, a free site that allows users to access biodiversity data, create visual representations of that data, and embed them into their own Web pages.

2) Encyclopedia of Life

The project encourages students, teachers, and scientists around the world to document as many of the earth’s roughly 1.9 million species as possible. Entry points for students include the Bioblitz — or local species inventory, which allows students to upload their findings and try classroom activities — and the Field Guide tool, a way to organize species information based on location. The site (free and Creative-Commons licensed) also provides educational podcasts and examples of model projects.

3) DiscoverLife

The Bee Hunt and the Lost Ladybug Project are two limbs of the nonprofit that helps lead step-by-step ecological research projects via simple Web tools. In order to figure out why some ladybug populations are booming while others are nearing extinction, kids and teachers can spot and upload photos of ladybugs in their local communities and check out map tools and educational materials. The Bee Hunt uses similar methods to determine the effect of climate change on various pollinators. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Learning Methods, citizen science, NASA, STEM