Registration is open for the seventh-annual Indiana STEM Education Conference on THURSDAY, JANUARY 13, 2022 at Purdue University! The 2022 conference will include IN-PERSON and VIRTUAL participation. Registration can be completed athttp://www.purdue.edu/conferences/STEM2022. 

• The conference will start at 9:00am and end at 3:15pm (EST).
• The cost for registration is $100 for in-person and $50 for virtual.
• A box lunch and refreshments are included with the in-person registration fee.
• Participants will learn about effective lessons, partnerships, assessments, and education strategies in STEM.

In-person participants will need to follow the Protect Purdue guidelines (https://protect.purdue.edu/). At the present time, participants are required to wear a facemask while indoors. The guidelines are subject to change. Email announcements will be sent to communicate changes.

The theme for the 2022 conference is “STEM Education: Making Giant Leaps.” Presentations will include strategies to engage students in solving significant problems through STEM education. 

The 2022 conference includes special keynote speaker Dr. Briony Horgan, a scientist on NASA’s newest Mars rover Perseverance! Dr. Horgan is an Associate Professor of Planetary Science at Purdue University. Her research program uses data from NASA satellites and rovers to understand the surface processes that have shaped Mars and the Moon. Dr. Horgan will discuss her experience becoming an interdisciplinary STEM researcher, her experience with research with the Mars rover mission, and her thoughts about encouraging future STEM researchers through the K-12 schools.

The conference will also include:

• Over 50 presentations on STEM curriculum, STEM instruction, STEM careers, and STEM research.
• A resource webpage with presentation slides and handouts, vendor handouts, and research posters.
• Networking with STEM education vendors.
• Access to recorded presentations following the conference.
• Professional Growth Points for teachers.

Interested in presenting at the conference? Have a classroom activity, a STEM resource, or STEM research to share? We are accepting proposals for in-person and virtual presentations, in-person only presentations, and prerecorded virtual-only presentations. Presentation and research proposals can be submitted at https://forms.gle/4WadHzUNKbMg6zAe8. Research posters and briefs will be published as proceedings through Purdue e-Pubs. Proposals are due on November 5, 2021.

Three animated videos on the STARDUST MYSTERY YouTube Channel and the videos and short stories online at TheStardustMystery.com/the-coronavirus/present a wonderful opportunity for children to learn about genetics, DNA, RNA, messenger RNA, viruses, mRNA vaccines, cell biology, and, considering the virus variants, evolution and “survival of the fittest.” These resources were created in the Stardust Mystery Project funded in part by the National Science Foundation. 

The Cosmic Kids use their time, space, and size change travel ship to follow the COVID-19 Coronavirus and an mRNA vaccine in a human body to see how they capture our cell’s ability to produce proteins from RNA and messenger RNA (mRNA). 

The three YouTube videos are:

• A Coronavirus story for Kids 1: How Grandpa Got COVID-19. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOa9UM54UJ8
• Explaining COVID-19 mRNA vaccines: An Animated Story for Kids. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BMtxetKAt4
• Explaining our Bodies’ Factories: An Animated Story for Kids. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkSziKkiCoo

 

These three videos and 14 other science videos are companions to The Race to the Big Bang award-winning illustrated science adventure book. The story takes place during the pandemic and its young characters cope with the disruption to their lives. The book includes nonfiction science stories about planet Earth, the Solar System, the Universe, the Big Bang, the Covid-19 coronavirus, and the mRNA vaccines. 

 

The Race to the Big Bang book is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Its prequel, The Stardust Mystery, is also available on Amazonand Barnes & Noble.

 

The COVID-19 Coronavirus JIGSAW LEARNING PAGE with 8 short stories, videos, and a lesson plan with student questions is available along with three other pages on our website at https://thestardustmystery.com on the Educators tab. 

 

These are the four JIGSAW LEARNING PAGES:

·       Stardust (atoms): https://thestardustmystery.com/all-about-stardust-atoms/

·       The History of Earth: https://thestardustmystery.com/history-of-earth/

·       Our Place in The Universe: https://thestardustmystery.com/our-place-in-the-universe/

·       The COVID-19 Coronavirus: https://thestardustmystery.com/the-coronavirus/

Sponsored  - National Science Foundation Project
Http://TheStardustMystery.com

 

Join us for the upcoming 3-D Thursdays for Rural Educators on Thursday, Nov 4^th at 7pm CT to learn about the variety of available NASA citizen science projects spanning all three scientific domains (Life, Physical, and Earth & Space). Projects can be conducted regardless of educators’ unique geographic locations and can meet the content and age-level needs of your classrooms.

This webinar is suitable for all grades K-12.

Access registration HERE!

Also, we are pleased to share our past episodes with you from our updated NASA Community Page. Feel free to watch former episodes and reach out to the guests for further resource information!

In three days the Nutrients for Life Foundation wants to take you on a virtual journey. On October 22, 2021, Nutrients for Life Foundation (NFLF) will be hosting a virtual farm field trip at 10 am CDT and 1 pm CDT for elementary classrooms across the nation! For more information and to sign up for this free opportunity visit https://nutrientsforlife.org/fallfunonthefarm/. Sign up to be part of Fall Fun on the Farm, ask questions and travel to three states in one day!

REGISTER NOW!

NASA seeks young engineers to help design a new robot for an excavation mission on the Moon. The Lunabotics Junior Contest, open to K-12 students in U.S. public, private, and homeschools, starts accepting entries on Wednesday, Oct. 20, and runs through Jan. 25, 2022. The competition, which is a collaboration between NASA and Future Engineers, asks students to design a robot that digs and moves lunar soil called regolith from an area of the lunar south pole to a holding container near a future Artemis Moon base.

 

“Developing mining capabilities on the Moon will require innovation and creativity, and students are some of the most creative thinkers,” said Mike Kincaid, NASA’s associate administrator for the Office of STEM Engagement. “The next generation always brings new perspectives, inventive ideas, and a sense of optimism to the challenges NASA puts in front of them. I’m really looking forward to seeing the designs they submit to Lunabotics Junior.”

 

NASA’s Artemis missions are returning to the Moon with the first woman and first person of color, and will create a long-term human presence that will serve as a springboard for future Martian exploration. Lunar regolith is instrumental in this development, and could be used to create lunar concrete, reducing the amount and cost of materials that need to be transported from Earth. Artemis Student Challenges such as the Lunabotics Junior Contest create unique opportunities for a diverse group of students to contribute to NASA's work in exploration and discovery while celebrating their creativity and innovation.

 

To enter the contest, students must submit by Jan. 25, 2022, an image of the robot design and a written summary that explains how the design is intended to operate on the Moon. While students are not tasked to actually build a robot, they are asked to envision a robot design that is no larger than 3.5 feet by 2 feet by 2 feet and addresses three main design features: how the physical design of the robot will enable it to scoop/dig and move the lunar regolith, whether the robot will operate by moving large amounts of dirt per trip or transporting less dirt in more trips, and how the design and operation of the robot will meet the big challenge of lunar dust that is stirred up and can “stick” to surfaces when lunar regolith is moved.

 

Students can sign up individually or teachers can register their entire class. Entries will be split into two categories – grades K-5 and grades 6-12. Ten semifinalists will receive a Lunabotics Junior prize pack and four national finalists from each category will win a virtual session with a NASA subject matter expert. The national winner from each category will be announced on March 29, 2022, and will be awarded a virtual chat for their class with Kennedy Space Center Director Janet Petro. For all contest and prize details, including education resources, visit: https://www.futureengineers.org/lunaboticsjunior

 

NASA and Future Engineers are seeking volunteers to help judge the entries anticipated to be submitted from around the country. U.S. residents interested in offering approximately five hours of their time completed over a 10-day period should register to be a judge at: https://www.futureengineers.org/registration/judge/lunaboticsjunior

“If you have questions prior to the event, please contact Iesha Sturgis-Jackson, Online Admissions Coordinator, atissturgi@indiana.edu or 812-856-8288.” 

 

OXFORD, Ohio (Sept. 1, 2021) – Miami University’s Project Dragonfly is accepting applications now through early 2022 for graduate courses and master's degrees that offer extraordinary experiences through zoos and botanical gardens in the United States and in 15 countries throughout the world. http://ProjectDragonfly.MiamiOH.edu

Earth Expeditions are study abroad courses that take place online and in Africa, Australia, Asia and the Americas. Earth Expeditions courses can be taken as stand-alone graduate credit, or they can build toward the Global Field Program (GFP) master's degree. The GFP combines summer field courses worldwide with web learning communities, and students can complete the GFP master's part-time from anywhere in the United States or abroad. http://EarthExpeditions.MiamiOH.edu; http://GFP.MiamiOH.edu

Project Dragonfly also offers the Advanced Inquiry Program (AIP) master's degree that combines web instruction from Miami University with experiential learning and field study through AIP Master Institutions in the U.S. Applications for Miami's 2022 cohorts are being accepted now with place-based experiences provided through Master Institutions in Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Denver, Jacksonville, New York, San Diego, Seattle and St. Louis. http://AIP.MiamiOH.edu

Graduate tuition for all programs is greatly reduced because of support from Miami University.

COVID-19 Info and Curricular Innovation