Category Archives: Education

Education, Science and Technology

ISS Video: Washcloth microgravity physics

In this video Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield on the ISS performs

a simple science experiment designed by grade 10 Lockview High School students Kendra Lemke and Meredith Faulkner. The students from Fall River, Nova Scotia won a national science contest held by the Canadian Space Agency with their experiment on surface tension in space using a wet washcloth.

Education, Space Policy, Space Science

Planetary Science and education in proposed NASA budget

Here are some reports on the planetary science and education parts of the administration’s proposed NASA budget for 2014:

Education, SpaceCasts

Virtual SpaceTV 3D will return…

Our series of Virtual SpaceTV 3D shows with Amanda Bush and James C. Birk has been on an hiatus for what we hope will be a short break. Here is a brief update from Amanda:

Find previous Virtual SpaceTV 3D shows on the HobbySpace Youtube Channel.

Contests and Games, Education, Rocketry

12th Annual NASA Student Launch Initiative competition in Alabama this week

NASA says that “more than 600 students, representing 56 middle schools, high schools, colleges and universities in 26 states, will” participate in the 12th annual Student Launch Initiative, this Saturday in Toney, Alabama:

Here is a list of the teams: NASA Student Launch Projects

The event will be webcast at NASA MSFC on USTREAM: Science.

Astronomy, Education

Silicon Valley Astronomy Lectures available on line

An announcement from Andrew Fraknoi, chairman of the Astronomy program at Foothill College:

Popular Astronomy Lectures Can Now Be Seen on YouTube

We are happy to announce that the Silicon Valley Astronomy Lectures, featuring noted scientists giving nontechnical illustrated lectures on recent developments in astronomy, are now available on their own YouTube Channel, at:  http://www.youtube.com/SVAstronomyLectures/

The talks include:

  • Frank Drake discussing his modern view of the Drake Equation,
  • Michael Brown explaining how his discovery of Eris led to the demotion of Pluto,
  • Alex Filippenko talking about the latest ideas and observations of black holes,
  • Natalie Batalha sharing the latest planet discoveries from the Kepler mission,
  •   nthony Aguirre discussing how it is possible to have multiple universes, and
  • Chris McKay updating the Cassini discoveries about Saturn’s moon Titan.

The lectures are taped at Foothill College near San Francisco, and co-sponsored by NASA’s Ames Research Center, the SETI Institute, and the Astronomical Society of the Pacific.

Note that the top page of the channel shows the lectures in the order they happened to be uploaded to YouTube.  If you want to see them in chronological order, select the Playlist option.

Both new and older talks in the series will be added to the channel as time goes by.  Many noted astronomers have given talks in this series since its founding in 1999; recent lectures are being recorded so that people around the world can “tune in.”

We appreciate your sharing this information with colleagues, students, and interested astronomy enthusiasts.