welcome.

NEBRASKA STUDENTS COMPLETE NASA’S EXPLORATION SYSTEMS SUMMER INTERNSHIPS

The NASA Nebraska Space Grant placed four University of Nebraska – Lincoln Mechanical Engineering students in exciting aerospace research internships across the country this summer. The program is part of NASA’s workforce development initiatives to encourage students to consider careers in science fields that will contribute to the exploration of space.

Andrew Kelley spent the summer at Lockheed Martin in Littleton, CO working on an autonomous robot control project. He will be continuing his research experience this fall at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX where he will participate in the NASA Undergraduate Student Researchers Program.

Jonathan Soneson conducted research at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, CA, testing Mars Science Lab equipment to help engineers design flight hardware. Nathan Wood, last year’s JPL intern, completed a summer internship this year at Honeybee Robotics, a NASA contractor, in New York City. Wood assisted on two mechanical sample handling projects for surface exploration in the extreme environments of space.

Amy Lehman completed an internship at Nebraska Surgical Solutions where she developed and tested robotic prototype devices for minimally invasive surgery. She gained an appreciation for the importance of remote surgery to space exploration where astronauts with medical emergencies will be far removed from a hospital environment.

The program will continue for the next several summers, offering Nebraska college and university students opportunities to intern at NASA and with various aerospace companies. For more information on the program, contact the NASA Nebraska Space Grant at (402) 554-3772.

The NASA Nebraska Space Grant Consortium is housed at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. The program administers NASA scholarships and fellowships to college and university students throughout the state.

The NASA Nebraska Space Grant Consortia is featured in the Omaha World-Herald for 'Reaching Native Americans.'

Published July 17, 2006

Reaching Native Americans

Exposing communities to knowledge they might not otherwise encounter can be a powerful tool.

Two outreach efforts by the NASA Nebraska Space Grant and EPSCoR (Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research) illustrate the point. The program provides encouraging help to Native American communities in Nebraska.

The program, housed at the University of Nebraska at Omaha's Aviation Institute, is intended to get Native American youths involved in science, technology and math and later to pursue advanced degrees.

Karisa Vlasek, a geospatial extension and research specialist at the institute, said the focus on Native American communities comes from NASA's mission to reach underserved populations. The efforts, under way since 1997, also reach out to leaders in the community.

Work is primarily done with the Winnebago, Omaha and Santee Sioux tribes.

The two main outreach efforts are the Family Science Night and the Native IMAGE (Institute for Managing Applications in Geospatial Extension).

For Family Science Night, fifth- and sixth-graders in the Winnebago Public Schools system on the Winnebago Reservation participate twice a semester in science projects with their family members. Thirty-five to 40 people typically attend.

Terri Greenleaf, co-coordinator of Family Science Night and a high school science teacher, said students and their parents or guardians do activities such as assembling model airplanes and building rockets and calculating their acceleration and velocity.

A recent project involved designing a recovery vehicle to protect an astronaut - represented by an egg - upon landing. Students also are shown how to track items with global positioning technology.

Greenleaf said the science night has been very popular - so much so that a night for third- and fourth-graders is in the works. Students typically are interested in science until they hit fourth through sixth grade, she said, and the program is a way to keep that interest alive.

Such efforts also help to get parents behind education and to improve interaction between students and teachers, Greenleaf said.

A night designated for parents to show them what their students are doing in science class is under consideration.

The Native IMAGE program, for older students and community leaders, encourages an interest in geoscience and technology areas, said Jan Bingen, the program's director.

A center of excellence was established in 2003 at Little Priest Tribal College to help implement that goal by offering training in areas such as geographic information systems and remote sensing. These are impressive levels of high-tech study.

Bingen, who also chairs the computer science department at Little Priest Tribal College, is currently working with three Nebraska college students at the NASA Goddard Center in Maryland. The students are working on several projects that have a direct effect on the community.

One project involves discovering where indigenous plants grow on the Winnebago Reservation with global positioning system technology and developing a database detailing that information.

Another focuses on water flow in the area and why water is unfit for drinking. And a third project has a student doing research to consolidate resources into a satellite inventory database focusing mostly on NASA satellites.

Bingen has noticed improved math and science test scores and an increase in male and younger students since she started teaching at Little Priest Tribal College six years ago. She said she sees the program as a way to join technology and Native American culture.

"What I hope to convey," she said, "is that the Native American community can work and thrive in this and take benefit from it and maintain their cultural heritage background at the same time."

Native IMAGE also puts together yearly geospatial boot camps for people in the community. The trainees include tribal leaders, business people and health care providers.

Additionally, the UNO Aviation Institute does smaller outreach efforts, such as tours of the Air National Guard, to expose kids to aeronautics.

Hats off to the various people involved in the NASA Nebraska Space Grant and EPSCoR program. Through such farsighted outreach efforts, children are encouraged to reach for their full potential. This is an inspiring effort that all Nebraskans should salute.

Contact the Omaha World-Herald newsroom Copyright 2006 Omaha World-Herald; All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, displayed or distributed for any purpose without permission from the Omaha World-Herald.

Copyright 2006 Omaha World-Herald. All rights reserved.

 

NASA HELPS LOCAL STUDENT ROCKET SCIENTISTS REACH FOR THE STARS

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. - Some of the best student scientists from across the

country are hard at work on their model rockets, set to launch this

spring as part of NASA's Student Launch Initiative. Student teams

will display and launch their vehicles at a rocket launch event April

25-28 hosted by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville,

Ala. Each vehicle must be designed to carry a tracking device and a

recoverable science payload. The rocket itself is required to be

reusable and reach an altitude of one mile during flight.

 

Middle and high school students from Colorado, Connecticut, Florida,

Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Carolina,

Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin are taking part in the program

that provides students a unique opportunity to gain practical

experience in aerospace and engineering activities.

 

The initiative encourages student teams to put their science,

technology, engineering and math knowledge to use in a real-world

situation by designing and building their own rockets with a science

payload. They spend the school year fine-tuning and building their

rockets.

 

This program helps NASA to continue its tradition of investing in the

nation's education projects. The agency seeks to foster learning

environments that will inspire young people to set their sights on

venturing to the moon, Mars and destinations beyond.

 

After the flight, the teams will collect data from the payload,

analyze it and report the results to NASA engineers and scientists,

who will evaluate each rocket design, including propulsion systems,

materials used for construction, payload and safety features.

Participating in the project this year are twelve new teams and four

returning teams from the 2005-2006 event. The new teams receive a

$2,500 grant for their projects. Returning teams receive $1,250.

The new teams are:

- Benson High School, Omaha, Neb.

- Boy Scout Troop 39, Marlborough, Conn.

- Byron High School, Byron, Ill.

- Covenant Christian High School, Indianapolis, Ind.

- Lloyd C. Bird High School, Chesterfield, Va.

- St. Andrews Lutheran Church and School, Park Ridge, Ill.

- Statesville Christian High School, Statesville, N.C.

- Warner Robins High School, Warner Robins, Ga.

- Weare Middle School/John Stark Regional High School, Weare, N.H.

- West Point-Beemer High School, West Point, Neb.

- Yough High School, Herminie, Pa.

 

The returning teams are:

- Lakewood High School, Lakewood, Colo.

- Madison West High School, Madison, Wis.

- Plantation High School, Plantation, Fla.

- Southfield High School, Southfield, Mich.

 

Marshall manages the Student Launch Initiative in partnership with

Alabama A&M University in Huntsville, which will host this year's

launch day activities, and the Huntsville Area Rocketry Association.

 

The Student Launch Initiative is not a competition. NASA will

recognize teams with plaques for excellence.

For more information, visit Marshall's academic affairs Web site at:

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall/education/index.html

For more information on the Student Launch Initiative, visit:

http://education.msfc.nasa.gov/docs/127.htm

 

Students Gear Up for Robot Competition

BY KRISTIN ZAGURSKI

OMAHA WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

Tools lay scattered among metal and wood shavings on the floor of Scott Kneifl's classroom Monday at Papillion-La Vista High School.

School wasn't in session, but a handful of students hurriedly drilled and filed the robot they've been building for six weeks in preparation for its journey today to Kansas City.

The 17 members of Big Red Robotics - as the combined robotics team from Papillion-La Vista and Papillion-La Vista South High Schools is called - will join the robot there next month for a regional FIRST Robotics Competition.

This year is the first that a team from Nebraska has competed, Kneifl said.

He and two other teachers solicited applications for the robotics team last fall. About 32 students from the two schools applied and were interviewed. Seventeen boys were selected for the team.

The students, who receive class credit for their work, met weekly from October to December to learn about problem-solving and engineering.

The program officially kicked off last month, and the team has been working since to design, build and program its robot.

There are dozens of robotics programs for students in the United States, Kneifl said. But only the FIRST program requires students to work with professional mentors.

Papillion-La Vista junior Matt Wahonick said the mentors brought up ideas the students never would have thought of.

"We could've built a robot (without them)," he said. "But it wouldn't have been nearly as good."

Each team starts with a standard "kit of parts" and a common set of rules. Groups can spend up to $1,000 on additional materials to complete their robots, which must perform certain functions to earn points in competition.

Matt's main job was to read the 1.5-inch-thick rule manual several times to make sure the team's robot was in compliance.

For example, the robots may be no taller than 6 feet and weigh no more than 100 pounds.

The latter proved a problem for the team, whose robot last week weighed in at 102 pounds.

The boys drilled holes in the ramp, cut 6 inches off the platform and cut excess length from bolts to get the robot down to 98 pounds by Monday.

"The last week's been pretty crazy," Papillion-La Vista South sophomore Erik Hagerup said.

Erik's main duty was working on the robot's design, but he pitched in in other areas.

He said he would stick with the team through high school if it remains active.

Being part of the team requires a big time commitment. The boys spent about 10 hours a week on the robot during the first three weeks and 14 to 15 hours a week in the last three weeks, Kneifl said.

Matt said working on the robot was fun. But he said there occasionally were other things he would rather have been doing.

As the team crossed the final items off its checklist Monday, Matt worried about who would control the robot at the competition.

"I don't know who's the best driver," he said. "Nobody does."

Whoever it is won't get much practice. The robot must be shipped tonight for the team to compete.

"It'll come down to the wire," Matt said.