Informal Educator

The moon, Mars, and beyond—for decades humans have been fascinated by the potential of space travel. After nearly 50 years of space exploration, humanity is looking for the next great leap in the future of human spaceflight. Until recently, space programs were run by the government and focused on low-Earth orbits. Humans landed on the […]

It’s National Hispanic Heritage Month, a great time to celebrate culture and emphasize to students that NASA is for them! NASA has some amazing astronauts, engineers, scientists and technicians that serve as inspiration to all. Just a few examples include NASA’s first Hispanic Astronaut, Dr. Franklin Chang Díaz, former NASA astronaut José Hernández, son of a migrant […]

31,536,000 seconds. 525,600 minutes. 8,670 hours. 365 Days. No matter how you break it down, one year is a long time. Then, put yourself in a 3-4 bedroom house (about 425 cubic meters of habitable space) with five other adults, no showers, no washing machines, and only two toilets for that amount of time.  Feeling […]

Did you know that NASA wasn’t always called NASA? That’s right! NASA used to be NACA, or the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. NACA was formed in 1915, followed by the establishment of what is now NASA Langley Research Center in 1917-or what I like to call the mothership of NASA, since it was the first […]

Welcome Future Martians! You can now send your name to Mars on a microchip aboard InSight for its March 2016 mission. The deadline to submit your name is September 8, so don’t forget to sign up! There are three essential questions that have been driving Mars exploration. Is there water on Mars? Is or was Mars ever capable […]

Many young students look up at the sky and dream about exploring distant planets. But sometimes it can be challenging to channel these interests into relevant classroom concepts. It’s important to find ways to show students how they can stretch the limits of possibility with math and science, which teachers can encourage by exploring students’ […]

NASA Careers When you think of NASA careers, the first career that might come to mind is an astronaut.  However you don’t go to college and choose ‘astronaut’ as a major.  As a matter of fact, out of an approximate 60,000 civil servants and contractors that work at NASA, only 43 are active astronauts (eligible […]

I am a very visual learner and find these apps very helpful in experience the realities of space. I would love to hear what you think of them especially as tools for students. 1- Spacecraft 3D NASA’s Spacecraft 3D is an augmented reality (AR) application that lets you learn about an d interact with a […]

Robotics is a way of life today. Robots are everywhere. They’re in your home (even in your bathroom), your doctor’s office, your bank, your favorite place to shop, and your school. Of course, they are a major and critical component of NASA’s exploration of our Earth and the universe in which we live. Life would […]

Did you know that by the year 2025, nearly one out of every four public school students will be an English Language Learner? This presents a unique challenge for all educators out there today. Are teachers prepared with the most effective instructional strategies for English Language Learners?  One of the misconceptions out there is that […]

NASA’s Robotics Mining Competitions will take place May 20-22 at NASA Kennedy Space Center. According to the Nasa website, “NASA’s Robotic Mining Competition is for university-level students to design and build a mining robot that can traverse the simulated Martian chaotic terrain. The ‘bot must then excavate the basaltic regolith simulant (called Black Point-1 or […]

Did you know that NASA has an Airborne Science Mission Tools Suite (MTS) that allows for the planning, operating and managing of the Airborne Science Mission Operations from a web-based site by scientist and engineers? MTS enables remote monitoring of real-time aircraft location, viewing of current and archived flight tracks, team communication, and collaboration including […]

I was curious, so I went to my app store and typed NASA in the search box. I could not believe the number of apps that came up. Looking at them, I realized that there are a lot that belong to NASA, a lot that pretend to be from NASA and a lot that have […]

The beginning of 2015 has been a flurry of activity as the Texas State University NASA STEM Educator Professional Development Collaborative becomes fully operational with the hiring of the 10 EPDC specialists that are located at each of the 10 NASA Centers across the U.S. The specialists were at Texas State Jan. 13-16 for planning […]

Invest in Yourself How can you as an educator invest in yourself professionally with NASA? There are many opportunities to invest in your own professional development with NASA education and one of the best sources for learning about those opportunities is found here. You will find that there are summer workshops and webinars onsite at […]

When I left my High School Physics classroom for a position as a NASA education specialist, I was both impressed and annoyed by the resources available from NASA for teaching physics concepts. I was impressed that there was such a wide range of resources for all aspects of physics at so many different levels. I […]

Most have seen the pictures and videos, but few have felt the apparent weightlessness one feels while experiencing microgravity in space.  What is microgravity? Why are we as humans so fascinated by it?  One could answer those questions with two F’s…Free-fall and Fun! Many of us have experienced brief periods of microgravity while sky-diving, bungee-jumping, […]

Letting Students Stumble I came to teaching with a passion for learning.  From the minute of my first day with my own class I knew my responsibility for my students was to help them love science and discovery. So inquiry was not something that was optional for me or my students, it was the journey […]

Survival! What would it take to survive on the Moon? As shown in the video below, NASA astronauts are dependent on their available resources, as well as their ability to survive and adapt to new environments. NASA’s BEST –Living on the Moon In 1610, the Jamestown settlers who traveled to the United States, were also […]

In this video, I describe “physics identity” and what I do to support positive physics identity development for my students. A quick way to describe physics identity is that it’s how much someone feels like a “physics person.” The same idea applies for math identity and science identity. Researchers have found that physics identity is […]

This semester I was fortunate enough to work with a local school, the San Fernando Institute of Applied Media (SFIAM).  The teaching staff reached out to the EPDC team with a vision of a project beyond ‘one-off’ professional development. Research has shown that effective PD for teachers needs to be both hands-on and recurring.  However, […]

MgUE kicked off the first week of the Institute on April 2, 2017 at NASA JSC and six teams of teachers from schools in North Carolina, Oklahoma, Puerto Rico, Illinois, Iowa, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and California were in attendance to test student-designed devices to simulate satellite insertion into planetary orbits.  The experiences included […]

Is there anybody out there? - a question humans have been asking since the beginning of our existence. It would most likely be the greatest discovery of human-kind if/when we discover the definitive answer to that question. NASA has been a leader in exploring that question and searching for the answer. On February 22, 2017, […]

How often is Earth hit by meteors from space? For technicality’s sake, a meteor is just a piece of an asteroid or comet that has entered Earth’s atmosphere. Before arriving at the atmosphere, these pieces are called meteoroids. Thousands of small rock fragments enter the atmosphere every year, and most of the debris is burned […]

One of our greatest challenges as educators is helping our students prepare for lifelong learning and success.   NASA has developed a set of lesson plans to introduce and practice working as team to solve problems.  https://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/stem-on-station/expeditionary-skills-for-life.html The lessons are divided into four modules (Self Care/Team Care; Cultural Competency; Leadership/Followship; and Teamwork Communication) designed to guide […]

STEM in the classroom can be enhanced by adding the “A” from “Arts” to make STEAM. STEAM creates full, cross-curricular learning. Galileo said, “Mathematics is the language of the universe.” To expand on this, we can also add: Science is the translation Engineering puts it all together Technology makes it real Arts bring it to […]

Through engineering, human ideas can become a reality. The continued education and experimentation will lead humanity forward with ever-evolving technology capable of making life easier, safer, faster, reusable, cleaner -you name it! Multi-material fluidic actuators glove. Image by Harvard Biodesign Lab. One example of this is the increase in research of soft robotics. Depending on […]

Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun. Its closeness greatly influences Mercury’s atmosphere, temperature, and surface. Fastest Orbit Mercury is about 1/3 the size of the Earth. It’s is only slightly larger than our moon and Mercury itself possesses no moons. Mercury is 3,032.3 miles (4,880 kilometers) wide. To put it in perspective, if […]

Since their start aboard the International Space Station (ISS), Expedition 54 has given us many amazing pictures, performed successful spacewalks and completed much research and studies in bacteria, manufactured fiber optics in microgravity, measured the total amount of sunlight Earth receives, gathered data on space debris in low-Earth orbit, and studied self-replicating materials. Let’s take […]

If you are anything like I was when I was still in the classroom, right about now, you are looking for some professional development (PD) hours to finish out your required number or start to get ahead on the next count. Finding PD offerings isn’t usually that difficult. Finding them to fit around your schedule […]

It is well known that Professional Development (PD) for educators is effective if it is long-term and not just a one-off event. Office of Education at NASA Goddard partners with institutions to meet their long-term needs for educator PD. This February, I had the opportunity to further this partnership with pre-service teachers at Marymount University […]

Imagine being a teacher in the classroom one day, and then find yourself being a teacher astronaut in space the next. Pretty exciting! Well, that’s what happened to teachers, Joe Acaba and Ricky Arnold. This school year, NASA is celebrating a Year of Education on the Station (YES) as astronauts and former teachers, Joe Acaba […]

FYears of careful experimentation and research has helped scientists and astronauts reach great milestones in the field of space gardening. Early experiments have led to the germination of this field aboard the International Space Station (ISS), and will eventually bloom to be able to safely growing plants that astronauts can eat in space, Mars and […]

Content and Context The curriculum maps, standards, and always beloved standardized tests provide a roadmap to guide educators toward which content to share with students over a given school year. What the teacher is left with is to provide context and relevance to that content. That’s where story’s power becomes evident. According to Harrison Monarth […]

Fresh water is our most precious resource.  While Earth is the water Planet, most of the water (97%) is salt water. Only 3% of the planets water is fresh water and only 1% is potable. Precipitation is the main source of the freshwater required by living things on the planet. (What’s up with Precipitation? https://pmm.nasa.gov/education/articles/understanding-earth-whats-precipitation […]

Far away, 261 million kilometers away from Earth, sits our other next-door neighbor besides Mars, Venus. From its many volcanoes, hot temperatures, and its peculiar backward spin, Venus is one planet we don’t hear much about recently but that doesn’t mean we don’t know about it. Strap on and put on some sunscreen because we […]

Get ready! NASA is Launching six missions, six launching sites, in six different months and five different rockets all happening in 2018. The missions could not be any more different form one another. It’s been 15 years since LSP has had such a robust launch schedule for a single year. From Earth base missions to […]

Oceanic currents are the movement of water from one location to another. Currents are generally measured in meters per second or knots, where 1 knot equals 1.85 kilometers per hour (or 1.15 miles per hour). Oceanic currents are important to life on Earth because they redistribute water, heat, nutrients, and oxygen around the globe. “When […]

Apollo 50th Anniversary Logo “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.” These are the iconic words spoken from the surface of the moon on July 20, 1969 by Neil Armstrong, almost 50 years ago. From October 2018 through December 2022, NASA will mark the 50th anniversary of the Apollo Program […]

There are so many mysteries in space. However, the Earth itself is host to so many unanswered questions as well. One mystery lies just shy of the Earth, in the tumultuous area where our atmosphere ends and space begins. The ionosphere is part of the Earth’s upper atmosphere. It’s critical to study for space exploration […]

Research has identified a number of best practices (Darling-Hammond et al., 2009; Guskey & Yoon, 2009; Rhoton & Wohnowski, 2005; NCCTQ, 2011) in providing professional development to teachers and educators. BEST Educators professional development should be based on the following six practices: BE OF SUFFICIENT DURATION The duration of professional development should be significant and […]

After four years of debate, NASA announces Mars 2020 rover landing site. Although today we know Mars as a desolate red planet, it wasn’t always this way. Mars had a molten core that generated a magnetic field for a billion years. The planet once was warm and covered in liquid seas. There’s a chance that […]

The Moon is the closest celestial body to Earth, and yet we have so little information about it. NASA plans to change this with an ambitious new plan. In addition to studying the Moon itself, the space agency plans to set up the Moon to be an eventual outpost for deep space exploration. Although deep […]

In July of 1958, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act into law, which transformed the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics (NACA) into today’s National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The nation had been galvanized into action by the surprise launch of Sputnik I on October 4, 1957. With Cold War […]

As countless educators from around the country plan and organize vacation plans, a group of committed educators from San Marcos C.I.S.D. prepare to engage in a unique summer camp that aims to develop, inspire, and nurture the next generation of aerospace-engineers and mathematicians. Earlier this month, NASA STEM EPDC facilitated an intensive day and a […]

Nearly 50 years ago, humanity achieved what seemed impossible. Human presence graced the surface of Earth’s moon. At the height of tremendous social, political, and cultural change, the Apollo 11 lunar landing became the first manned mission to land on the moon and a marked a monumental milestone in human history by displaying the possibilities […]

Continuous Engagement in NASA STEM EPDC PD can change the culture of the STEM classroom Contributed by Dr. Lester Morales, EPDC Specialist, Kennedy Space Center In the Summer of 2016, 41 Pre-Service Educators attended National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Kennedy Space Center Minority University Research and Education Projects (MUREP) Educator Institute (MEI). The opportunity […]

Many objects and bodies travel through our solar system. Planets, comets, the Kuiper Belt—our solar system is full of bodies for study. However, of these bodies, scientists on the OSIRIS-REx mission are particularly interested in asteroids. These floating mounds of rock and minerals have the potential to impact deep space exploration for decades to come. […]

Mars is the next frontier of space exploration. But before we can send a human crew to Mars, we need to learn more about our neighboring Red Planet. NASA scientists intend to do just that with the Mars 2020 rover. The currently-unnamed rover will pave the way for future study and exploration on Mars to […]

Did you know that life exists in space? According to a recent study by NASA, there are plenty of micro-organisms aboard the International Space Station, or ISS. NASA asked astronauts to collect samples on the ISS to catalog the bacteria and fungi growing in the microgravity environment. Although the ISS has been in operation for […]

Mars is 33.9 million miles away from Earth. It takes months to journey between the two planets, which means all mission components have to last. While NASA is using robotic landers and instruments to study Mars before human exploration, robots come with their fair share of problems. On Earth, you can take your broken computer […]

The Cassini spacecraft explored our solar system for 20 years. During this time, the spacecraft took nearly half a million photos. Its mission? To further humanity’s understanding of the Saturn system. Cassini was a mission of firsts. It was the first landing humanity ever accomplished on a moon other than our own. It was the […]

“ How might educators sustain and extend their NASA EPDC professional development experience?”  This is a question that Deepika Sangam, Goddard EPDC specialist, has begun to explore through the use of the Professional Learning Educator Assessment Survey (PLEAS – 2).  Although this work is in the initial stages, preliminary findings suggest that one possibility of […]

 It’s been over 45 years since Americans set foot on the Moon. While we learned a lot in the early days of space exploration, NASA has plans to expand humanity’s reach in the solar system in the coming years. Thanks to international and commercial partnerships, NASA plans to put Americans on the Moon’s surface […]

Black holes are one of the most powerful and mysterious forces in the universe. They have a significant impact on how galaxies and stars form and evolve over time. But as important as black holes are, we know very little about them. Recent discoveries have proven black hole theories, shedding light on how black holes […]

The Sun is the center of our solar system. We orbit around the Sun and rely on this massive star to provide life-giving energy to Earth. But as much as the Sun is a part of our lives, we know very little about it. That’s why NASA created the Parker Solar Probe, a specialized craft […]

At their closest point, the Earth and Saturn are 746 million miles away from each other. Despite the distance, researchers are interested in the possibility of life in the Saturn system.  Thanks to the European Space Administration and the Italian Space Agency, the Cassini probe was able to collect swaths of data on Saturn over […]