Since over $20k was raised for space camp scholarships, students can APPLY NOW for a full ride to space camp! This was a result of The Martian novel themed Potato Challenge fundraiser on Minnesota Give to the Max day: http://themarsgeneration.org/scholarships/
Will for sure include this into my elementary school hour of code lesson!
Today Code.org and Disney revealed a new Hour of Code tutorial featuring characters from the upcoming Disney animated film Moana. We are thrilled to be able to offer this activity to teachers across the globe as they prepare to do an Hour of Code with their classrooms between December 5-11 to celebrate Computer Science Education Week—and no experience with code is required to teach it.
We’ve partnered with Disney and Lucasfilm in the past on Hour of Code activities featuring Frozen and Star Wars™ characters—some of our most popular ever. We were particularly excited that both of these beloved tutorials featured strong female characters, which helped the Hour of Code introduce female students around the world to computer science.
The Hour of Code has now reached over 50 million girls, a milestone in female participation for computer science. We look forward to continuing that momentum with “Moana: Wayfinding with Code,” which features a strong female character and a male companion.
We also recently announced that we’re teaming up with Walt Disney Animation Studios and Lucasfilm to create Frozen and Star Wars-themed puzzles for our Computer Science Fundamentals curriculum on Code Studio. The puzzles will be developed and integrated into our curriculum over the next year.
We’ve found that kids are much more likely to try computer science if it contains topics they are interested in, like their favorite Disney stories and characters. Our work with Disney over the past two years has helped Hour of Code reach record numbers, inspiring millions of children of all ages to try coding and pursue an education in computer science.
The story of the “Moana: Wayfinding with Code” tutorial centers around Moana and Maui as they sail through unknown territory across the ocean. As students follow Moana and Maui’s travels, they learn basic coding commands that help steer the boat. Along the way, students are introduced to conditionals, sequences and loops while they master the art of navigation. When Moana and Maui are suddenly attacked by the Kakamora – coconut-clad warriors—they must use their coding skills to dodge their pirate projectiles and penetrate their defenses.
The “Moana: Wayfinding with Code” tutorial is available in more than 180 countries and 23 languages, including Samoan Polynesian. Educators can also find Hour of Code toolkits in English and Spanish on the tutorial’s website!
Thank you to Disney for helping us give children all over the world the opportunity to learn the basics of coding.
Computer Science Education Week (December 5-11, 2016) is almost here! Sign up your Hour of Code event here and check out all the new activities that you can filter on our site based on grade level, experience level, subject area, and more. Find the perfect activity for your class at https://code.org/learn.
Hadi Partovi, Code.org
It is possible to have a meaningful internship before college and completing core classes! I share early career tips in the U of MN Duluth Career Center blog: https://umdcareers.wordpress.com/2016/03/30/its-never-too-early-to-intern/ Side note: NASA interns toured the Historic Mission Control where Moon missions were guided from. I wasn't actually the Flight Director of Apollo Missions. However I did sit console in current Mission Control logging tasks during a space walk.
Saturn V - the rocket built to fly is now a grounded beast. #techisbeautiful #NASAIntern #jsc
This is the first internship I have completed without a definite finished product to hand over and it truly bothers me. Trials were performed with the small business made humidity sensor with three levels of humidity in order to gather different data points. From these trials a >10% difference between the humidity sensor and NASA known sensors was found. This was primarily because the sensors available to me were not calibrated so errors in the thermodynamic equations could propagate. In conclusion the trials were inconclusive. However, I left a trial rig that can be used with calibrated sensors and known humidity levels, explanation of equations used to gather data and ample documentation on how to run trials with my fluid system and data collection program. My exit presentation pictured above went really well, I was so glad the Director of Engineering Propulsion could attend my presentation!
Before my departure International Space Station astronauts gave a debrief on missions 46 and 47. British astronaut Tim Kopra and American astronaut Tim Peake narrated a video showing images from the missions and scientific experiments they performed. Kopra explained astronauts are experiments themselves and they draw blood, perform ultrasound and exercises to help advance medical science and understand how humans are affected by space travel.
I really enjoyed the multi-disipline challenges I faced this summer running trials on the humidity sensor. Right before I left my Dad and I caught Kate Rubins and Jeff Williams installing the Commercial Crew Docking Adapter outside of Space Station live! This fall I am back at the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD) continuing my studies in electrical engineering and computer science. While at UMD I work in the career center editing resumes, giving presentations and writing career tip posts like this: https://umdcareers.wordpress.com/2016/08/17/internships-beyond-your-project/
In the spring I will return to Johnson to Co-Op in Mission Control's ISO (Inventory and Stowage Officer) group.
WAYS TO GET INVOLVED
See what NASA was up to this week.
Read about the astronauts on space station right now!
Apply for a NASA Co-Op
Apply for a NASA Internship
Six weeks into my spring at NASA I can finally summarize my role. I am basically a project manager. I am working with a wonderful team of developers and flight controllers to green light an app astronauts may use on the International Space Station to facilitate stowage operations. The app runs on a device that would make stowage operations more hands free and enable monitoring from Earth. Stowage operations include unloading visiting vehicles such as the SpaceX Dragon and reloading Japanese HTV vehicles to burn up in the atmosphere. To get app approval I need to set up user tests in space station node mock-ups with participants familiar with space station procedures such as mission control flight controllers and astronauts. I observe user testing for other stowage tools and instruct team members to integrate those lessons learned into the app. I make sure the right talents are involved in the development including folks who work in human factors and those who train astronauts. So far this has been my favorite work tour responsibility wise. Even as a Co-Op my efforts directly correlate with the success of the app’s progress.
Picture above is from NASA’s exhibits in downtown Houston during Super Bowl week. I am wearing a VR headset that gave a 360 degree view of how rocket engines are constructed. A rocket booster of the same module of those on the Space Launch System was perched in the middle of Houston’s Discovery Green. Standing in the middle of the exhibits you could spin around in the circle and see sky scrapers draped in Super Bowl LI banners.
WAYS TO GET INVOLVED
SpaceX Dragon, a cargo resupply ship is scheduled to launch Sat Feb 18 9:01amCT, watch here!
Science experiments arriving to Space Station on Dragon to be conducted bu astronauts!
Behind the scenes of the SpaceX Dragon launch and Space Food!
List of launches scheduled at Kennedy Space Center in Florida's Cape Canaveral.
Five minute video of this week's NASA accomplishments.
Real time updates on NASA's missions.
Apply to be a NASA Intern!
You would think pursuing a double major in electrical engineering and computer science would provide enough breadth to remain confident at a Co-Op... wrong. As I start my second Co-Op tour at NASA Johnson's Propulsion & Energy Conversion team I am finding that the more you learn the less you know. This summer I will be LabVIEW programming for In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) a system that turns Mars dust into fuel. ISRU is a rover payload that takes in mars atmosphere and soil and turns it into liquid methane and oxygen (fuel options). Other capabilities is getting O2 to breathe and excavating drinkable water. One of my projects is to control with a National Instruments compact cRIO an oxygen liquefier and a new water concentration sensor. The sensor I am testing uses spectroscopy to eliminate sensor erosion from corrosive Mars materials. These tasks are very chemical engineering heavy which require understanding a system and how to control it safely. I am excited to tackle this learning curve, understand more about Mars mission energy systems, and become more comfortable with chemical engineering concepts. WAYS TO GET INVOLVED Watch what NASA is up to: https://youtu.be/p_snvjghMJg Learn how to program with LabVIEW: https://youtu.be/IOkoyuikj5Q?list=PLdNp0fxltzmPvvK_yjX-XyYgfVW8WK4tu Read about our journey to Mars: http://www.nasa.gov/topics/journeytomars/index.html ISRU in more depth: https://youtu.be/M3HbD1S_H5U
Links to career posts by me to help you transform a passion into a profession
Introduction to USAJobs | Score a Career with the US Government Part 1
USAJobs Resume Builder | Score a Career with the US Government Part 2
Pathways Internships | Score a Career with the US Government Part 3
It’s Never Too Early to Intern
Internships – Beyond Your Project
What Can You do with a Computer Science Major?
Make the Most Out of Your Summer Career Experience
What’s a Co-Op & How Do I Get One?
Not a Typical Internship - Alternatives to a Summer Internship
Interstellar. Dir. Christopher Nolan. Perf. Matthew McConaughey Anne Hathaway Jessica Chastain Michael Caine. Paramount Pictures, 2014. Film.