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Includes over 150 abstract and poster presentations from participants. Programs described are: International Internships (I Squared), International Space University (ISU), Military Programs, NASA Internships, Fellowships and Scholarships (NIFS), Science Teacher and Researcher Program (STAR), Silicon Valley Tech Pathways (SVTP), Space Grant, and Volunteer Internship Program (VIP).
Contamination containment gloveboxes are sealed containers where operators outside the glovebox can safely manipulate hazardous or contamination-sensitive materials inside the glovebox through glove ports on the container. Containment gloveboxes are used in the space industry to study sample materials returned from space such as lunar, asteroid, and comet materials, to manufacture sensitive instruments and space ight hardware, and to perform contamination-sensitive experiments. A hands-on activity has been developed by contamination control engineer and STEM education experts as part of the Virginia Earth System Science Scholars (VESSS) summer academy program to teach high school students about gloveboxes and about problem solving in a collaborative environment. In this activity, student teams are given a list of common household materials (e.g. plastic bags, plastic straws, aluminum foil, tape, disposable gloves, etc.) for building their own glovebox. Students work together to sketch and design their glovebox before being provided a kit of materials, which they must purchase along with any extra materials with a mock team budget. They are given 30 minutes to build their glovebox, however, they do not know what will be placed inside the glovebox or what operations they will need to perform within the glovebox. At the end of the build time, teams are given a small, sealed paper envelope which they place in the glovebox. Each team selects a team member to be designated as the operator, and the operator places their hands in the gloves of the glovebox. The operator uses their gloves to open the envelope in the glovebox, and they discover they have 20 minutes to assemble a jigsaw puzzle. However, the puzzle is \contaminated" with talcum powder. After the 20 minute time period, teams are judged on how well they completed and cleaned the contaminated puzzle. In a post-activity debrief, teams discuss lessons learned such as how the actual built box di ered from the sketched design, the challenge of managing a budget for materials, how the team dealt with surprises, and if their glovebox allowed enough room for the operator to perform the task. This activity has been part of the VESSS summer academy since 2016, and teaches students teamwork, creativity, hands-on experimentation, communication, and reasoning skills. In a demonstration at IAC, a volunteer from the audience will be chosen to assemble a glovebox during the presentation using the same kit of materials and will demonstrate handling puzzle pieces in the completed glovebox.
Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) Employee Health Services (EHS) program believes that good health is essential to getting the most out of life, which is why we offer a variety of worksite wellness programs that put employees in control of their own health. These programs are based on current research and strategies that are proven to minimize risk and decrease the impact of illness through early detection and treatment. Services includes Health Assessments, the Virgin Pulse (VP) online wellness platform, and Health Action Plans (HAP) which include one-on-one education, organizational health initiatives, a video library, an events calendar, onsite fitness facilities, and group fitness classes. Participation in these programs help employees and their spouses earn funding for their Health Reimbursement Accounts (HRAs). The EHS Health Action Plan (HAP) initiative targets the key health risks identified through the 8-15-80 model by engaging employees to change their own healthcare story. EHS identified the most prevalent of the health risks amongst our population through Health Risk Assessment (HRA) and used that data to build Health Action Plans (HAPs). The 2020 Health Action Plans addressed improving upon inadequate sleep, lack of energy, stress, weight, physical inactivity, cardiometabolic issues (hypertension, high cholesterol, diabetes), low back pain, allergies, asthma, digestive health, tobacco use, and living well to maintaining low risk for those individuals who do not have a chronic condition to manage. These plans connect employees with our onsite registered dietitians, fitness professionals, health coaches, physical therapists, and physicians as appropriate. In addition to addressing the physical aspects of health, the plans also emphasized pre/post-assessments to encourage building behavioral and emotional skills that promote health and facilitate lifestyle changes over a minimum of three months. Just one risk reduction or behavior change can make an impact on the health of the participant’s Division as well as Sandia’s overall risk levels and ultimately its healthcare costs. Sandia employees achieved an Overall Wellness Score of 69 based on the WellSource Health Assessment (the same as last year). A score of 70-100 is considered “Doing Well”, and a score of 40-69 is in the “Caution” category. Overall in CY 2019, Sandia saw a 34% participation rate in Health Action Plan (HAP) programs (up from 33% in CY 2019) with an 89% completion rate (4% lower than CY 2019). Overall, 5,039 (347 more than CY 2019) individuals participated in 8,329 HAPs, which is 1,005 more than the last calendar year (7,324).
This is the Final Report for the U.S. Department of Energy Cooperative Agreement DE-FE-0024159, Promoting Domestic and International Consensus on Fossil Energy Technologies: Carbon Capture and Storage and Clean Energy Systems carried out by the United States Energy Association. It is a compendium of each quarterly report submitted over the 7-year period of the agreement accounting for all accomplishments, including major activities, significant results, major findings or conclusions, key outcomes or other achievements. Changes in approach or aims, and reasons for those changes, are included as well as any problems or delays and actions taken and planned to resolve them. It also summarizes budget statuses and any changes in key personnel throughout the life of the agreement. Originally planned for 5 years, the agreement was extended twice through back-to-back no-cost extensions, one to enable full completion of tasks critical to the program’s success and the other due to the Covid-19 Pandemic. The goals of the program were to provide increased knowledge regarding Carbon, Capture, and Storage (CCS) and Clean Energy Systems (CES) to Industry and Government decision makers, technology developers, educators, policymakers, environmental and other stakeholders, and the public by sharing research, technologies, and best practices with domestic and international partners. Increasing such knowledge was key to the other goals of the program of building of a broad consensus among domestic and international decision makers, stakeholders, and the public to take action to support and implement CCS and CES technologies and systems to ensure clean, secure, and affordable energy while enhancing environmental protection. The program accomplished these goals through a series of activities including hosting of conferences and workshops, in-person briefings, virtual webinars, reports and white papers, and keeping stakeholders informed of industry happenings through email distribution lists. It is the belief of the authors of this report, that these activities can be considered to have been successful in their goals.
Among professional occupations in the United States, non-Asian minorities are least represented in science and engineering fields. The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that over the next decade, civilian employment of scientists and engineers has the potential to grow by 40 percent. Furthermore, projections for the year 2000 indicate that 100,000 fewer B.S. and B.A. degrees will be awarded than were awarded in 1984. The latter projection takes into consideration the overall declining proportion of all 18 year old college students. Within this shrinking pool of 18 year old potential college students will be an increasing proportion of Blacks and Hispanics. In order to change the educational patterns for minority youth, an intense look at the factors that affect the science and mathematics performance of minorities. Furthermore, the work of programs that are successful at producing minority scientists and engineers must be examined and documented with the intent of replicating these programs. The fundamental concern at this time appears to be the quality of precollege experience because research has shown that lack of precollege preparation is the single most important cause of underrepresentation of minorities in science and engineering careers. For many years, intervention programs have attempted to improve the quality of the minority precollege experience by latter year intervention in grades eleven and twelve. Later efforts, such as this one, have concentrated on earlier years. The effectiveness of intervention programs is widely accepted but not rigorously documented. The mechanisms these programs have developed need to be identified and their potential for broader use evaluated. The ultimate goal of such studies would be to provide the different educational communities with a set of proven cost-effective state of the art mechanisms designed to increase participation and success of minority students in science and mathematics-related courses. One such intervention program is the Saturday Academy program for high ability minority students in the Washington, D.C. area. A description of the Saturday Academy is provided with the intent of making it available to personnel who are considering the development of similar projects. The effect of participation in the program on high school graduate rates, college enrollment, and choice of quantitative major is examined.
Mission X: Train Like an Astronaut is an international educational challenge focusing on fitness and nutrition as we encourage students to "train like an astronaut." Teams of students (aged 8-12) learn principles of healthy eating and exercise, compete for points by finishing training modules, and get excited about their future as "fit explorers." The 18 core exercises (targeting strength, endurance, coordination, balance, spatial awareness, and more) involve the same types of skills that astronauts learn in their training and use in spaceflight. This first-of-its-kind cooperative outreach program has allowed 14 space agencies and various partner institutions to work together to address quality health/fitness education, challenge students to be more physically active, increase awareness of the importance of lifelong health and fitness, teach students how fitness plays a vital role in human performance for exploration, and inspire and motivate students to pursue careers in STEM fields. The project was initiated in 2009 in response to a request by the International Space Life Sciences Working Group. USA, Netherlands, Italy, France, Germany, Austria, Colombia, Spain, and United Kingdom hosted teams for the pilot this past spring, and Japan held a modified version of the challenge. Several more agencies provided input into the preparations. Competing on 131 teams, more than 3700 students from 40 cities worldwide participated in the first round of Mission X. OUTCOMES AND BEST PRACTICES Members of the Mission X core team will highlight the outcomes of this international educational outreach pilot project, show video highlights of the challenge, provide the working group s initial assessment of the project and discuss the future potential of the effort. The team will also discuss ideas and best practices for international partnership in education outreach efforts from various agency perspectives and experiences
Science education in this country is in its greatest period of ferment since the post-Sputnik frenzy a generation ago. In that earlier time, however, educators' emphasis was on producing more scientists and engineers. Today we recognize that all Americans need a good science background. The ability to observe, measure, think quantitatively, and reach logical conclusions based on available evidence is a set of skills that everyone entering the workforce needs to acquire if our country is to be competitive in a global economy. Moreover, as public policy increasingly crystallizes around scientific issues, it is critical that citizens be educated in science so that they may provide informed debate and on these issues. In order to develop this idea more fully, I proposed to teach a historically based course about space physics as an honors course at the University of Maryland-College Park (UMCP). The honors program at UMCP was established to foster broad-based undergraduate courses that utilize innovative teaching techniques to provide exemplary education to a select group of students. I designed an introductory course that would have four basic goals: to acquaint students with geomagnetic and auroral phenomena and their relationship to the space environment; to examine issues related to the history of science using the evolution of the field as an example; to develop familiarity with basic skills such as describing and interpreting observations, analyzing scientific papers, and communicating the results of their own research; and to provide some understanding of basic physics, especially those aspect that play a role in the near-earth space environment.
Dog-mediated rabies kills tens of thousands of people each year in India, representing one third of the estimated global rabies burden. Whilst the World Health Organization (WHO), World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) have set a target for global dog-mediated human rabies elimination by 2030, examples of large-scale dog vaccination programs demonstrating elimination remain limited in Africa and Asia. We describe the development of a data-driven rabies elimination program from 2013 to 2019 in Goa State, India, culminating in human rabies elimination and a 92% reduction in monthly canine rabies cases. Smartphone technology enabled systematic spatial direction of remote teams to vaccinate over 95,000 dogs at 70% vaccination coverage, and rabies education teams to reach 150,000 children annually. An estimated 2249 disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) were averted over the program period at 526 USD per DALY, making the intervention ‘very cost-effective’ by WHO definitions. This One Health program demonstrates that human rabies elimination is achievable at the state level in India.
Availability of skilled workforce in sufficient number is one of the most often cited barriers to improving cybersecurity. INL's research has determined that this is not a cybersecurity problem but rather a strategic business imperative; in response INL created the Cyber Competency Health and Maturity Progression Model (Cyber-CHAMP) to help organizations learn the realities of their cyber workforce and their development needs. The presentation starts with an overview of Cyber-CHAMP as a unifying theme for workforce development and then provides brief introductions to selected DHS (ICS cybersecurity hands-on training), DOE (CyberStrike, OT Defender Fellowship, Liberty Eclipse), and INL (Cybercore Summer Camp, University Collaboration Laboratory) programs. Cyber-Informed Engineering discussion concludes the presentation, with an update on activities conducted by the CIE Education Working Group to further the second pillar of the National CIE Strategy, Education.
NASA is concerned about the health of aerospace engineering departments at U.S. universities. The number of advanced degrees in aerospace engineering has declined. There is concern that universities' facilities, research equipment, and instrumentation may be aging or outmoded and therefore affect the quality of research and education. NASA requested that the National Research Council's Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board (ASEB) review NASA's support of universities and make recommendations to improve the program's effectiveness.
The Center for Lunar Science and Exploration (CLSE), a collaboration between the Lunar and Planetary Institute and NASA s Johnson Space Center, is one of seven member teams of the NASA Lunar Science Institute (NLSI). In addition to research and exploration activities, the CLSE team is deeply invested in education and outreach. In support of NASA s and NLSI s objective to train the next generation of scientists, CLSE s High School Lunar Research Projects program is a conduit through which high school students can actively participate in lunar science and learn about pathways into scientific careers. The objectives of the program are to enhance 1) student views of the nature of science; 2) student attitudes toward science and science careers; and 3) student knowledge of lunar science. In its first three years, approximately 168 students and 28 teachers from across the United States have participated in the program. Before beginning their research, students undertake Moon 101, a guided-inquiry activity designed to familiarize them with lunar science and exploration. Following Moon 101, and guided by a lunar scientist mentor, teams choose a research topic, ask their own research question, and design their own research approach to direct their investigation. At the conclusion of their research, teams present their results to a panel of lunar scientists. This panel selects four posters to be presented at the annual Lunar Science Forum held at NASA Ames. The top scoring team travels to the forum to present their research in person.
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.
The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Wind Energy Technologies Office (WETO) Distributed Wind Research Program seeks to enable wind technology as an affordable, accessible, and compatible distributed energy resource (DER) option for individuals, businesses, and communities. WETO’s Distributed Wind Research Program includes national laboratory projects and partnerships with industry and academia. WETO organized the Distributed Wind Research Program Workshop to bring together laboratory and industry project stakeholders to achieve the following objectives: Educate - Create a shared high-level understanding for the breadth of WETO’s distributed wind research Collaborate - Facilitate coordination and collaboration between funding recipients to leverage resources Innovate - Understand future research challenges and opportunities. This workshop convened over 80 participants from various organizations. Workshop participants were asked for their individual feedback based on their own expertise and experience.
The University of Dayton Industrial Assessment Center (UD-IAC) was established in 1981. Since then, the UD-IAC has completed 1,050 industrial energy assessments for the Department of Energy. The UD-IAC is committed to an ethic of continuous improvement, building upon the enormous knowledge and commitment it has developed over the past four decades and developing strong links to educational, research, and DOE initiatives. We feel lucky to be part of this great IAC program and pledge our best and most sustained efforts toward its continued success.
NASA educational booklet on space science, spacecraft, and planetary exploration
A description and listings of computer programs for plotting geographical and political features of the world or a specified portion of it, for plotting spot-beam coverages from an earth-synchronous satellite over the computer generated mass, and for plotting polar perspective views of the earth and earth-station antenna elevation contours for a given satellite location are presented. The programs have been prepared in connection with a project on Application of Communication Satellites to Educational Development.
The Universities Space Research Association (USRA) was incorporated 25 years ago in the District of Columbia as a private nonprofit corporation under the auspices of the National Academy of Sciences. Institutional membership in the association has grown from 49 colleges and universities, when it was founded, to 76 in 1993. USRA provides a mechanism through which universities can cooperate effectively with one another, with the government, and with other organizations to further space science and technology and to promote education in these areas. Its mission is carried out through the institutes, centers, divisions, and programs that are described in detail in this booklet. These include the Lunar and Planetary Institute, the Institute for Computer Applications in Science and Engineering (ICASE), the Research Institute for Advanced Computer Science (RIACS), and the Center of Excellence in Space Data and Information Sciences (CESDIS).
The mission of the Explorer Program is to provide frequent flight opportunities for world-class scientific investigations from space within the following space science themes: 1) Astronomical Search for Origins and Planetary Systems; 2) Structure and Evolution of the Universe; and 3) The Sun-Earth Connection. America's space exploration started with Explorer 1 which was launched February 1, 1958 and discovered the Van Allen Radiation Belts. Over 75 Explorer missions have flown. The program seeks to enhance public awareness of, and appreciation for, space science and to incorporate. educational and public outreach activities as integral parts of space science investigations.