NASA EXPRESS: Your STEM Connection for Sept. 6, 2018

Check out the latest NASA opportunities for the education community. Sally Ride EarthKAM Mission Audience: All Educators Mission Dates: September Contact: JSC-STEMonStation@mail.nasa.gov Sign up for this unique fall opportunity that allows your students to observe Earth from above via a camera on the International Space Station! The Sally Ride Earth Knowledge Acquired by Middle School Students (EarthKAM) program invites students to request images of specific targets on Earth taken by a camera placed in the window of the space station. EarthKAM can be used in any K-12 classroom setting, and is a great way to show students a new perspective of Earth. Visithttps://www.earthkam.org/ to learn more and register for this free program. Find more ways to bring NASA into your classroom during NASA’s A Year of Education on Station, a celebration of a yearlong educator presence on the station. Explore Earth: GLOBE Atmosphere, Clouds and Contrails Audience: Educators of Grades 5-8 Event Date: Sept. 13 at 6:30 p.m. EDT Contact: deepika.sangam@nasa.gov Join the NASA STEM Educator Professional Development Collaborative at Texas State University for a free 60-minute webinar. Learn about clouds and contrails with the NASA GLOBE Program. GLOBE is an international science and education program that provides students worldwide with the opportunity to participate in data collection and the scientific process, and contribute meaningfully to our understanding of the Earth system and global environment. Online registration is required. Explore Earth: Using Earth Observations to Talk About Snow and Ice—Earth Science Audience: Educators of Grades 5-9 Event Date: Sept. 17 at 6:30 p.m. EDT Contact: john.f.weis@nasa.gov Join the NASA STEM Educator Professional Development Collaborative at Texas State University for a free 60-minute webinar. Participants will get an overview of resources discussing the effects of changing snow and ice coverage on the Earth from the Earth Observatory and NASA Earth Observations (NEO) websites. This webinar addresses the Next Generation Science Standards ESS2 and ESS3. Online registration is required. An Orientation to EPDC Digital Badging Audience: Educators of Grades K-12 Event Date: Sept. 18 at 6:30 p.m. EDT Contact: john.f.weis@nasa.gov Join the NASA STEM Educator Professional Development Collaborative at Texas State University for a free 60-minute webinar. Participants will get an overview of the Digital Badging platform used by NASA Educator Professional Development Collaborative to deliver free, asynchronous, online professional development. Discussions will include how to sign up and a survey of current badge offerings. Online registration is required. Explore Earth: Earth Science from Space Audience: Educators of Grades 5-12 Event Date: Sept. 19 at 6 p.m. EDT Contact: stephen.p.culivan@nasa.gov Join the NASA STEM Educator Professional Development Collaborative at Texas State University for a free 60-minute webinar. Explore Earth science through the eyes of astronauts and satellites. Learn how observations from space enable us to better understand Earth and the processes that shape it. NASA missions, real data, online resources and classroom lessons, will be used to investigate our planet. Online registration is required. NASA Mars Science: MAVEN Outreach Webinar—An Overview of a Solar Storm at Mars Audience: Formal and Informal Educators, Parents and Teens Event Date: Sept. 19 at 7 p.m. EDT Contact: epomail@lasp.colorado.edu Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) Outreach Webinars are virtual gatherings of staff from the MAVEN mission to offer professional development for formal and informal educators, and others interested in MAVEN and Mars science. Join Dr. Christina O. Lee of the UC Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory to hear the latest MAVEN news and learn how strong solar activity in September 2017 impacted the space environment around Mars, including its atmosphere and the radiation environment at the surface. Earth Right Now: Using NASA Data for STEM Problem Solving Audience: Educators of Grades 4-10 Event Date: Sept. 20 at 5 p.m. EDT Contact: susan.m.kohler@nasa.gov Join the NASA STEM Educator Professional Development Collaborative at Texas State University for a free 60-minute webinar. Are you working on implementing a new vision for science classrooms based on the Framework for K-12 Science classrooms in which teachers support students in science and engineering practices to build and use science ideas to solve real problems? This webinar will explore NASA resources that will guide you and your students through this process with authentic data. Online registration is required. Museum Day Event at NASA’s Ames Research Center Audience: Public Event Date: Sept. 22 at Noon to 4 p.m. PDT Contact: arc-visitorcenter@mail.nasa.gov Join us at the visitor center at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, for Smithsonian magazine’s Museum Day 2018. Ames is a key facility for NASA’s missions and projects. Come to NASA’s Ames Visitor Center and learn what we’re doing at this amazing NASA facility! Museum Day 2018 will showcase “Women Making History: Trailblazers in arts, sciences, innovation and culture.” Click here for directions. NASA Live Event—Earth Science Week: Earth as Inspiration Audience: Public Event Date: Oct. 4 at 3:30 p.m. EDT Contact: Trena.M.Ferrell@nasa.gov Join NASA scientists and education specialists for an hour-long educational event to explore and share their perspectives on Earth as an inspiration! In coordination with this year’s Earth Science Week theme, this NASA event will feature a sneak peek into the exciting NASA products included in this year’s Earth Science Week Toolkits. This event will be webcast in real time, and educators and students are encouraged to submit questions for NASA scientists to answer during the event. The event will be livestreamed athttp://www.ustream.tv/channel/nasa-gsfc. 2019 RASC-AL Special Edition: Moon to Mars Ice & Prospecting Challenge Audience: Full-time Undergraduate and Graduate Students NOI Deadline: Oct. 12 Project Plan Submission Deadline: Nov. 15 Contact: rascal@nianet.org The 2019 Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts—Academic Linkage (RASC-AL) Special Edition: Moon to Mars Ice & Prospecting Challenge is an engineering design and technology demonstration contest for eligible college students. Teams have the opportunity to design and build prototype hardware that can extract water and assess subsurface density profiles from a simulated off-world test bed. Up to 10 teams will be chosen to receive a stipend to build and demonstrate their systems’ capabilities in June 2019 at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. 2019 RASC-AL Competition Audience: Full-time Undergraduate and Graduate Students Optional NOI Deadline: Oct. 15 Entry Deadline: Jan. 17, 2019 Contact: rascal@nianet.org The 2019 Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts—Academic Linkages (RASC-AL) invites teams of university students to respond to one of four themes with creative ideas to improve our ability to access and explore cis-lunar space via the Gateway: 1. Gateway Logistics as a Science Platform, 2. Gateway-based Cis-lunar Tug, 3. Gateway-based Human Lunar Surface Access, 4. Gateway Uncrewed Utilization and Operations. Up to 14 teams will be chosen to participate in a competitive design review at the RASC-AL Forum in June 2019. See Yourself in Space With New ‘NASA Selfies’ App Audience: Public Contact: outreach@ipac.caltech.edu Create your own selfies from outer space! “NASA Selfies” lets you put your photo in a virtual spacesuit in front of captivating images from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telecope. (Images from other NASA missions will appear in future versions of the app.) Share these space selfies on social media, and learn about the science behind the pictures. Available for iOS and Android devices. Take a Guided Tour of the TRAPPIST-1 Planetary System With the ‘Exoplanet Excursions’ App Audience: Public Contact: outreach@ipac.caltech.edu In NASA's “Exoplanet Excursions” virtual reality (VR) app, VR users are taken on a guided tour of the only known exoplanet system to host seven planets that are roughly Earth-size. Users of the app are navigated around five of the seven planets, surrounded by the blackness of space and the faint lights of distant stars. The VR app is available for Oculus and Vive. A 360-degree video is also available on Youtube that allows viewers to explore the virtual TRAPPIST-1 system on their desktop computers, smartphones or with a smartphone-based 360-viewer.