NASCAR Drivers and an Astronaut

Last Friday a group of NASCAR drivers came to the area to tour NASA Langley and the Air and Space Museum.  I briefly met them when they visited the Digital Learning Network.

NASCAR Drivers and the great people I work with at the DLN!

For the past couple days I have been so busy and consumed with my work that time has seemed to pass very quickly.  On Monday I thought it was 1pm when it was actually 4... time to go!

Karen and I have been going through the national standards for math and science and placing specific standards on activities in order to organize the activities and make it easier for teachers to pick a relevant lesson to what they are teaching.  We have also been creating a PowerPoint template for Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) involved with Virtual Visits, which is a program where the SMEs explain to secondary school students how their careers relate to nationwide STEM standards and what classes and degrees the students should pursue if they are interested in a similar career for themselves.  I have also been working on a PowerPoint presentation and a rundown for my module, which I have decided to call Pulsar Algebra. 


Today Roger Crouch, an astronaut from Tennessee, came to Langley to speak.  His lecture was incredibly interesting. When he was ten years old, before any human had been to space, he watched a movie about the moon and became determined to go to space.  Once he was old enough, he began applying to be a pilot in the military but was rejected from every position because he is colorblind.  He then continuously applied to be an astronaut and never received a response.  Crouch eventually got a job researching at NASA Langley. One day he asked about being an astronaut and NASA told him he was too colorblind to be a pilot, but that they do occasionally send payload specialists to space to conduct science experiments.  Because he was determined, he began applying to be a payload specialist astronaut.  In 1996 his persistence paid off because he finally went to space... twice! He had a three month period between each mission, which is the shortest time an astronaut has ever been before going back to space.   His stories about the training and living conditions were hilarious.  He talked about his anxieties when the launch date approached, how his body redistributed its mass towards his face when he experienced microgravity, and how he chose to sleep by just floating around even though most people strap themselves down.  It was one of the most entertaining lectures I have ever heard. The NASA staff had to make the interns leave after an hour because no one wanted to go.  


I am still learning every day and I cannot wait to use all of my new knowledge in the classroom!  


Fun fact: Because of its composition, if Jupiter's mass were 80 times greater, it would be a star! 

Roger Crouch

The Sun, Planets, and Fro Yo

A couple days ago Caryn put a link to my blog on Facebook and Twitter and my dad emailed the link out, so the jump in page views I have received makes me feel like a superstar, haha. Yesterday and today I continued learning the Our Magnificent Sun module, and I began reading through another one called Planet Hopping. I sent in my completed template for the pulsar algebra module I am making, so I will probably have more work to do with that sometime in the next couple days.  Yesterday, Karen and I worked on a center-of-gravity activity she is planning for late July and we discussed ways to effectively incorporate math into it.  It was great to refresh my memory of the science I learned in grades 4-6 and I enjoyed thinking about the connections to math we could make that fulfilled the Common Core State Standards for Math in the country.  I cannot forget to mention the emergency frozen yogurt run Caryn, Karen, and I made today... what a wonderful idea that was!  Tomorrow I am looking forward to NASCAR drivers touring the DLN as part of the Rockets to Race Cars program, which teaches students the contributions NASA has made to race car technology.  

Today I got presents! Caryn gave me a flash drive and a NASA DLN notepad! THANKS CARYN! 

Fun fact: Energy from the Sun's core takes 170,000 years to get to the Sun's convective zone, but once it leaves the surface it only takes eight minutes to reach Earth! 

Beginning of Week 3

I have had two more great days here at the Digital Learning Network.  I am still working on becoming a master of space knowledge in my free time.  Yesterday was the first day since I have been here that a module was presented from Langley, and there wasn't just one.... there were two! So, the presenter, Karen, let me sit in on both of them.  It was awesome! As I stated before, I have gotten the privilege of observing many of the modules from the other nine NASA centers, but it was a different perspective to see the behind the scenes stuff that I usually do not see. One of the modules was presented to teachers, which I found interesting.  I learned that the DLN likes to present to teachers because the teachers can use the information and teach it to their students, thus reaching to more students than just presenting to a single class of students.

After sending my two proposals for modules to Brandy, another DLN member in Texas, she suggested sticking with my Algebra module because it will reach more students.  So, I have been working on researching more about neutron stars, pulsars, and the Crab Nebula in order to make an exciting and interesting module for math students.

I am having such a learning experience and I love everyone and everything I have been working with!

Another fun fact: A sugar-cube sized chunk of a neutron star weighs over one billion tons!!!

A pulsar

A Busy Second Week

I have had a very busy week! I cannot believe it is already Friday! On Wednesday, I finished the online Constructivism Workshop I have been working on.  Yesterday I got my picture taken in a flight suit! It was super windy outside so my hair is probably either covering my face or sticking straight up in the picture, but it was a fun experience anyway.  Yesterday I also went to a lunch with some of the other interns and I got to hear about the types of things they have been doing for the past two weeks.  It was really interesting because everyone is doing something unique and different.  I had an appointment at the badge office, where I got my official badge for the summer.  The woman collecting my information and fingerprints bonded with me about country music.  She then told me that there are six different people working for NASA with my last name... kind of strange since my last name is not common.  Lastly, yesterday I watched another module being presented from Glenn Research Center in Ohio about asteroids! I definitely learned a lot.

After emailing one of the fabulous math teachers at my high school, Catherine (I am told I am supposed to call her by her first name now... feels weird!), she gave me more ideas for possible math modules.  I really enjoyed her ideas because she knows first-hand which particular topics students find least interesting in math classes she has taught.  One of her ideas is to relate different functions to real situations because students have a hard time applying math content.  So, I have been researching for a module concerning different functions and how those specific types of functions relate to NASA.  Soon, I will pick one of the modules I have been working on to develop further.

One of my favorite things about this internship is that as I research, I am not only learning about better ways to present information and connect math concepts to aerospace topics, but I am also gaining massive amounts of information about the universe and NASA missions.  It is incredibly interesting! At this rate I will be a walking encyclopedia of space knowledge by the end of the summer.

I am currently learning how to present one of the modules, Our Magnificent Sun.  Damon, an educator at Kennedy Space Center, kindly sent me a recording of himself presenting the same module, and he is generously giving me the opportunity join him in presenting it in July.  I am very excited for this experience! I have decided I will become a master of the Sun before I present in July, so last night I watched documentaries about the Sun on Netflix (nerd alert).

Fun fact I learned this week: The total weight of humans on Earth is the same as the total weight of ants on Earth!!!

The Sun!

Intel!

Today I attended a lecture by Brian David Johnson, the futurist for Intel.  This was an informative and entertaining lecture regarding Johnson's job and how he works to develop ideas of what technology may be like in the future.  I thought it was very interesting how he is already creating chips for technologies in 2020.

Possible Module Topic?

The past couple days have been pretty busy with research and reading.  I finished an Inquiry-based Learning Workshop I have been working on online.  I also think I have finally decided on a topic for my module.  After contemplating which math concepts I can apply to NASA in an interactive way, I have decided to relate basic algebra to the Crab Nebula's pulsar.  I am planning on beginning this module by reviewing pre-algebra topics, such as the definition of a function.  Then, I will display different graphs and ask the students to determine if they are functions or not.  Next I will describe pulsars and the Crab Nebula, giving a linear equation relating to the spinning of its pulsar.  I will ask the student to evaluate this equation in different ways and discuss how changing the slope would alter the graph's characteristics.

The Crab Nebula

First Few Days

This summer I have an internship working with the Digital Learning Network (DLN) at NASA Langley in Hampton, Virginia.  When I found out I would be spending my summer here about a month and a half ago, I was thrilled!  I have always been a HUGE fan of NASA and math, of course, so this internship is a dream come true.  The DLN provides free interactive math or science lessons, called modules, in real time to students all over the country from one of NASA's ten research centers. I am working with my mentor, Caryn, to learn how to present two of the "modules," and by the end of the summer I will have created a new module connecting math concepts to NASA.

Today is my third day at NASA and I could not be happier.  Caryn has given me many reading materials and mini-assignments to familiarize me with terms and concepts necessary to further my research and progress with the module I am creating.  I will also be able to use this information to help me with teaching math in the future.  

In the past three days, I have been able to sit in on many modules as they were presented from other research centers.  It is really interesting to watch the reactions of the classes when they learn about the distance between Earth and the Moon, for example, when they are being taught in a fun and interesting way.  On Monday I watched Toys in Space from Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.  Yesterday I watched Directive: Mapping the Moon with WALL-E from Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas and Moon Math from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.  Today, I watched Our Magnificent Sun from Kennedy Space Center in Florida and The Scientific Method: An Investigation of Impact Craters from Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.  All of the presenters have been engaging, clear, clever, and interesting in their deliveries of the modules.  I am hoping to gain some of these skills this summer so I can use them in teaching math.