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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1999

NASA Educational Product Development and Post-Secondary Program Assessment Planning

Producing "value-added students" involves proactively addressing how successfully students develop their skills, knowledge, and personal, social, and ethical growth due to their association with a program. NASA programs for higher education can certainly be responsive in aiding the academic community strive for quality in terms of "valueadded" students. By identifying essential characteristics of exemplary assessment practices, the standards developed by accrediting agencies serve as guides for developing quality practices and policies. Such a process is an effective tool for communicating the expectations of the educational components of a program to all concerned with the program and its expected results. When standards are connected to student performance, they provide a very compelling argument for refocusing the definition of quality in higher education. By linking standards and performance, student learning and development becomes the starting point for examining program quality. If the multiple stakeholders - faculty, peers, the professional community, addressed assessment issues, then accreditation can be a link among various constituencies, the parties can better understand the needs of each other and develop the necessary trust needed for understanding and support.

Salmons, Phyllis A.↗
NASA NTRS1997

Recruitment and Retention of Indians in Science and Engineering (RISE)

Fifteen students from Turtle Mountain Community College were selected to participate in activities of the RISE project last summer. Eight students successfully completed project activities and received stipends for their participation. These eight students are (1) Jamie Gable, (2) John Morin, (3) Patrick Belgarde, (4) Jason Laducer, (5) Alex Johnson, (6) Eric Houle, (7) Gary Renault, and (8) Kenny DeCoteau. In the fall of 1998, Jamie Gable and Gary Renault went to North Dakota State University to pursue their undergraduate degrees in mechanical engineering, and John Morin and Alex Johnson joined the University of North Dakota's electrical engineering and industrial technology programs, respectively. Remaining four students will continue to participate in the RISE activities this year and transfer to the universities next year. Seven students who failed to complete the RISE project activities during the current award period are encouraged to participate again this fall. The RISE students were enrolled in a special course called "Introduction to Engineering Materials." The project director, Dr. Kamawat, taught the course on Saturdays and Sundays. Theoretical and mathematical background on engineering materials and careers in various engineering professions were discussed in this course. The students attended guest lectures given by engineers and professors and visited local industries. In addition, the students went to North Dakota State University (NDSU) at Fargo, ND, and the University of Minnesota (UMN) at Minneapolis, MN, to tour their engineering departments. At NDSU, they conducted laboratory tests on various engineering materials, such as concrete, steel, wood, plastics, and carbon composites. The students investigated the mechanical behavior of these materials under various loading conditions, collected data, interpreted data, identified possible errors, determined the mechanical properties, and wrote reports on their findings. The students created posters describing their results on the behavior of engineering material. The posters were displayed in the TMCC's student lounge.

Karnawat, Sunil↗
NASA NTRS2007

Navigating the Obstacles in Science Education for School Outreach

This paper gives an overview of the education outreach initiatives that the authors have personally been involved with, their successes and shortcomings are discussed with ways to overcome the difficulties encountered. Recommendations are given on how to navigate the obstacles. Industry professionals, college professors and even church groups participate in education outreach initiatives. For a successful experience, one has to navigate through various phases of the process. The strategy is to convince stakeholders that there is value in doing the outreach activity, form a partnership with the school, circumnavigate the security and administrative procedures, and finally deliver the material to the students. Successful education outreach programs have well-defined objectives, roles and expectations. Success depends on the level of commitment of all parties involved. Taking a look at individual programs, focusing on their shortcomings and best practices, this paper serves as a compilation of useful ideas for effective science and math education outreach. Navigation techniques mentioned in this paper systematically address each obstacle encountered, making solid recommendations for the future. One of the biggest challenges is showing the direct benefits of the outreach activity to stakeholders, so they can see how they profit from sacrificing their workers as outreach mentors.

Rincon, Diana↗
NASA NTRS2021

Modernizing Mechatronics Course With Quantum Engineering

Mechatronics is the synergistic application of mechanics, electronics, control engineering, and computer science in the development of electromechanical products and systems, through integrated design. This paper proposes to extend the mechatronics course beyond traditional engineering topics, and to modernize the mechatronics instructions with complementary quantum engineering topics. With the recent rapid advances in quantum technologies such as quantum communications, sensing, computers, and algorithms, it is imperative to train the next generation of engineers and prepare them for their future careers in the ever-changing industry in such areas. Furthermore, due to such progress and advances in the fields associated with quantum mechanics, the integration of quantum technologies with classical mechanical systems will be inevitable both in terms of educational and technological standpoints in future. To address the educational needs of the future engineers in such areas of significant importance, quantum entanglement and quantum cryptography experiments, as two fundamental topics in quantum mechanics, are brought into the mechatronics course in an initiative that is reported in this paper. The integrated quantum and mechatronics topics also provides opportunities for open discussions on exploring the interface of quantum technologies and classical engineering systems, which can potentially push the engineering boundaries beyond classical possibilities by accessing the quantum advantages. An innovative online remote demonstration of such quantum experiments are developed and presented to the students. This course has been offered to undergraduate students once with successful results. The students were able to remotely access the experiments, perform the experiments and collect data. The successful result of such quantum experiments is also reflected in a course survey, presented in this paper, even though the quantum mechanics topics offered in this course are unfamiliar to engineering students and hence more challenging. The paper reports, and aims to promote, the integration of selected quantum technology topics with the mechatronics course for training engineering students in this rapidly growing area.

Ghazinejad, Maziar↗
NASA NTRS2011

Longitudinal Study: Efficacy of Online Technology Tools for Instructional Use

Studies show that the student population (secondary and post secondary) is becoming increasingly more technologically savvy. Use of the internet, computers, MP3 players, and other technologies along with online gaming has increased tremendously amongst this population such that it is creating an apparent paradigm shift in the learning modalities of these students. Instructors and facilitators of learning can no longer rely solely on traditional lecture-based lesson formals. In order to achieve student academic success and satisfaction and to increase student retention, instructors must embrace various technology tools that are available and employ them in their lessons. A longitudinal study (January 2009-June 2010) has been performed that encompasses the use of several technology tools in an instructional setting. The study provides further evidence that students not only like the tools that are being used, but prefer that these tools be used to help supplement and enhance instruction.

Uenking, Michael D.↗
NASA NTRS1996

Science, Engineering, Mathematics and Aerospace Academy

The Science, Engineering, Mathematics and Aerospace Academy (SEMAA) was established in September, 1993, by Cuyahoga Community College and the NASA Lewis Research Center. Funding for SEMAA was provided by NASA Headquarters' Office of Equal Employment Opportunities. SEMAA brought together five preexisting youth programs at Cuyahoga Community College. All the programs shared the common goals of 1) Increasing the participation of underrepresented/underserved groups in science, mathematics and engineering and technology careers. 2) Increasing "success" rates of all students interested in science and mathematics. 3) Developing partnerships to recognize and support students interested in these fields. 4) Supporting continued success of highly successful students. The framework for each preexisting program allowed SEMAA to have a student population ranging from kindergarten through the twelfth-grade. This connectivness was the foundation for the many decisions which would make SEMAA a truly innovative program.

Source record↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Crowd Sourcing Medical Data Collection Using Medical Students

OBJECTIVE We undertook an upgrade of the Evidence Library database of NASA HRP’s Integrated Medical Model, assessing 120 medical conditions which integrate with a novel probabilistic risk assessment (IMPACT) tool of medical risk and resource utilization for long duration exploration human spaceflight. This data collection process included a selection of these conditions crowd sourced over one year via three 4-week medical student electives at the University of Colorado School of Medicine (IDPT 8059 Space Medicine: Human Spaceflight Factors & Medical Risk Assessment). Students undertook a rapid systematic review of each medical condition, under close preceptors with backgrounds in clinical medicine, library science, epidemiology, biostatistics, and evidence-based medicine. As part of the elective, students also received instruction in core space medicine concepts, evidence based medicine and problem based learning sessions as a flight surgeon supporting a simulated Mars mission. METHODS The list of 120 medical conditions includes both common, terrestrial illness/injury (epistaxis, diverticulitis) as well as spaceflight-specific ones (space adaptation conditions, EVA-related injuries). A rapid systematic review process was developed that would allow students to find the data for determining disease incidence/prevalence, return to definitive care (often a surrogate such as hospitalization rates), loss of crew life, and treatment duration. Each data point required a tailored, specialized search process using different databases and corresponding specialized search filters. Databases were selected on their ability to provide high quality literature in an efficient manner and prioritized by their ability to provide graded evidence via a set rubrics specific to human spaceflight. Students were responsible for performing all literature searches and identifying the highest quality available evidence for each data point. Completed student data sheets underwent initial review by faculty preceptors followed by a secondary editing review by the ExMC Clinical Science Team. RESULTS Over the course of three electives, approximately 105 medical conditions were researched by students using spreadsheets with pre-crafted search strategies. Overall, this process was successful in allowing students to perform the preponderance of work to update incidence, treatment duration, return to definitive care, and loss of crew life data points. Students were successful in running searches, identifying the necessary data points within the literature, and determining the types of terrestrial data that most aligns with the astronaut population for successful completion of their tasks. Limitations included variable student experience with search methodologies [PubMed], differing values of evidence grading [best practice evidence based medicine vs. relevant to spaceflight], and students’ unfamiliarity with spaceflight specific conditions. CONCLUSION Finding the relevant literature for medical conditions in spaceflight within terrestrial databases in a systematic method is time consuming and not intuitive. However, the stepwise process that balanced sensitivity with specificity allowed for students to be highly successful in a short amount of time. Additionally, as the process was refined over the course of three electives, preceptors were better able to anticipate where students were likely to encounter barriers, which allowed the course to be adjusted to account for certain data points needing more time for completion. This replicable process may be an efficient way to accomplish rapid systematic reviews for a large volume of data in a short amount of time.

J Lemery↗
NASA NTRS1995

NASA/DOD Aerospace Knowledge Diffusion Research Project. Paper 46: Technical communications in aerospace: A comparison across four countries

In this paper we describe the preliminary analysis of four groups of aerospace engineering and science students -- student members of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and students from universities in Japan, Russia, and Great Britain. We compare: (1) the demographic characteristics of the students; (2) factors that affected their career decision; (3) their career goals and aspirations; (4) their training in technical communication; and (5) their training in techniques for finding and using aerospace scientific and technical information (STI). Many employers in the US aerospace industry think there is a need for increased training of engineering students in technical communication. Engineers in the US and other countries believe that technical communication skills are critical for engineers' professional success. All students in our study agree about the importance of technical communication training for professional success, yet relatively few are happy with the instruction they receive. Overall, we conclude that additional instruction in technical communication and accessing STI would make it easier for students to achieve their career goals.

Kennedy, John M.↗
NASA NTRS1999

Superwinds in Seyfert Galaxies SFGs and AGN

This project was successfully completed; three refereed publications have been published on the work and the graduate student involved successfully defended his thesis. The work done in conjunction with this project demonstrated for the first time the importance of large scale winds in most if not all Seyfert galaxies and explored the physical parameters of those winds and their effect on both the interstellar medium of the host galaxy and the activity in the active nucleus as well.

Baum, Stefi↗
NASA NTRS1997

Project Synopsis for High School/High Tech

To help increase the diversity of workers at NASA centers it is necessary to provide students with disabilities the opportunities to explore careers in high technology. HIGH SCHOOL/HIGH TECH, an enrichment program, pioneered at Goddard Space Flight Center, successfully introduces students with disabilities to high tech careers. This community-based partnership serves as a model for three additional NASA sites-Ames Research Center, Johnson Space Flight Center, and Lewis Research Center. For a three year period beginning August 15, 1995, provide financial and technical support to a local agency in each NASA center area which serves persons with disabilities to enable a High School/High Tech program to develop and stand alone. Each project will develop a basis of cooperation with Ames, Johnson, and Lewis as well as a variety of community groups including the public schools, high tech employers, post-secondary education and training programs, rehabilitation agencies, and community economic development organizations. Throughout the startup period and thereafter, local youths with disabilities will have early exposure to professions in mathematics, science, and technology-related fields. This exposure will be multifaceted to insure adequate opportunity for realistic career exploration so these youths have an opportunity to test their interests and abilities. The exposure will be presented in the most supportive environment that is feasible.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1979

University-government relationships in the training of technical writers-editors

Traditional and nontraditional methods of training technical writers-editors are reviewed. Combining work experience with classroom instruction in the form of cooperative education provides a method of strengthening the Federal career service in professional occupations. The NASA Langley experience that successfully introduced students to the special demands of technical writing and editing is described.

Stohrer, Freda F.↗
NASA NTRS1997

In Memoriam - Jurgen H. Rahe

A remarkable man left us on June 18, 1997, when Jurgen Rahe was killed in a freak accident, a tree falling on his car in a severe windstomrm. He became in succession a student, a scientist, an educator, and an administrator, and he remined all of these to the day he died.

Memoriam↗
NASA NTRS2023

Closed Environment Air Revitalization System Based on Metal Organic Framework Adsorbents

This project utilized a systems engineering methodology to develop a vacuum swing adsorption system with full Labview automated control. The project was successful and provided students with an introduction to systems engineering and air revitalization. Specifically, two stainless steel adsorption beds were custom designed and manufactured and a sequence of computer controlled valves were used to deliver CO 2 laden, humid air, to the adsorbent where the CO 2 was removed from the air stream. Runs were completed using 13X zeolite and bed timing and switching was controlled by the computer based on the data output of a CO 2 detector. Adsorption runs using the MOF have not been completed upon the writing of this report; however, the MOF material is currently being synthesized and the runs will be completed upon receipt of the material. A follow up meeting with NASA has been tentatively planned to discuss the output of these experiments. Consistent with systems engineering practice, an end of project assessment of the class was conducted with the students and several items were realized. Specifically, the short period of performance of this grant makes it necessary to maintain a narrowly focused scope on the project such that multiple experiments after systems development (T&E) need to be limited to ensure timely completion of the proposed tasks. Also, procurement of parts may need to be moved forward in time to allow for delivery delays, and it may be necessary to request SDR, PDR, and CDR dates from NASA that are ahead of the NASA anticipated schedule. These types of lessons provided valuable to both the PI and the students and ultimately illustrate the necessity of proper systems engineering schedule risk assessment. The class met the objectives of the project and provided an introduction to systems engineering to undergraduate students. As a metric of that success, the lead engineer of the undergraduate design team acquired a job with an aerospace defense contractor, which he attributed to his knowledge of systems engineering concepts that were acquired via the X-Hab class.

T. Grant Glover↗
NASA NTRS1989

A successful intervention program for high ability minority students

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.

Coleman, Winson R.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Growing Beyond Earth: Student Citizen Science Contributing to Space Crop Production

Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden and NASA have been partnering since 2015 to conduct a citizen science education program for middle and high school students called Growing Beyond Earth (GBE). Growing Beyond Earth is a multi-classroom science project designed to advance NASA’s research on growing plants in space. GBE was implemented locally and scaled nationally under two NASA Grants. Now serving more than 250 schools and over 10,000 middle and high school students nationwide, GBE successfully improved STEM education. It also contributed student-generated data to NASA, improving NASA research on the ground and on ISS, with two student-selected crops grown in space. GBE is unique in its focus on real scientific research, enabling student “citizen scientists” to contribute data toward NASA mission planning. Each classroom receives a Fairchild-designed plant habitat analogous to the plant growing equipment aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Fairchild and NASA scientists train teachers to conduct in-classroom GBE experiments, and students then share experimental data online with NASA. As NASA looks toward a long-term human presence beyond Earth’s orbit, there are specific science, technology, engineering, and math challenges related to food production in space. During this presentation, learn how GBE is addressing those challenges by expanding the diversity and quality of edible plants that can be grown aboard spacecraft. We will share the significant scientific and educational results that have come out of this partnership and explain how we quickly pivoted to allow students to continue to contribute during the COVID-era. Finally, we will explain how on Earth, GBE is also advancing technologies for growing plants in urban, indoor, and other resource-limited settings through the GBE Maker challenge for High School, University, and Professional communities of Makers across the country to develop the next generation of space crop production technologies. These programs are supported by NASA.

Growing Beyond Earth↗
NASA NTRS2007

Motivating Reluctant Learners with a Big Bang

We present results of a collaboration between a media specialist, a science teacher, and an astronomer to bring a modern astronomy topic to at-risk, emotionally disabled students who have experienced little success. These normally unengaged students became highly motivated because they were given an authentic task of presenting research on an intriguing science topic, and because they witnessed a collaboration brought together on their behalf This experience demonstrates that sophisticated astronomy topics can be used to motivate at-risk students.

Lochner, James C.↗
NASA NTRS2002

Pittsburgh Public School District / Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Team Participation in the US First Competition

FIRST, For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, is an international program designed to encourage junior and senior high school students to participate in science and technology related activities. FIRST attempts to increase enthusiasm for technology by providing a competitive environment in which to demonstrate robotics technology designed for a particular set of tasks. Carnegie Mellon University provided student members of the project the opportunity to complete the design, construction, testing, and operation of a robot. Electrical, mechanical, and programming skills were stressed, with both adult and senior students acting as mentors for more junior members. Teamwork and integration was also stressed in order to provide students with a realistic feel for project-based work. Finally, an emphasis was placed on recruiting students with greater difficulty in entering technological fields: girls and ethnic minorities and students leaning toward humanities (especially art). Carnegie Mellon built a relationship with Taylor Allderdice High School that lasted four years. For four years, the success of the project increased each year. Each term, the students successfully designed and built a working robot that could fully participate in the competition. The enthusiasm of the students has been the cornerstone of the recruit of new students, keeping the project growing and vital. Carnegie Mellon's participation with Allderdice has been an overall great success.

Stroupe, Ashley↗
NASA NTRS1995

NASA/DOD Aerospace Knowledge Diffusion Research Project. Paper 51: Workplace communications skills and the value of communications and information-use skills instruction: Engineering students' perspectives

Studies indicate that communications and information-related activities take up a substantial portion of an engineer's work week; therefore, effective communications and information use skills are one of the key engineering competencies that recent graduates of engineering programs are expected to possess. Feedback from industry rates communications and information use skills of entry-level engineers low. Missing from current discussions of communications and information use skills and competencies for engineering students is a clear explanation from the professional engineering community about what constitutes 'acceptable and desirable communications and information norms' within that community. To gather adequate and generalizable data about communications and information skills instruction and to provide a student perspective on the communications skills of engineers, we undertook a national study of aerospace engineering students in March 1993. The study included questions about the importance of certain communications and information skills to professional success, the instruction students had received in these skills, and perceived helpfulness of the instruction. Selected results from the study study are reported in this paper.

Pinelli, Thomas E.↗