This internship is for students interested in research related to the search for life in planetary systems.
LRO Observes LCROSS Impact!
15 years ago
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
GSFC Astrobiology Internship
The application deadline for Summer Undergraduate Internship in Astrobiology is February 1, 2010. Application form can be downloaded from: http://astrobiology.gsfc.nasa.gov/about.html
Monday, December 14, 2009
LPSA 2010 Application Now Open
The application website is at: https://academyapp.com/
Deadline is January 18, 2010, 5 pm (EST)
Description of research projects is at: http://academyapp.com/lpsa/projects.pdf
Deadline is January 18, 2010, 5 pm (EST)
Description of research projects is at: http://academyapp.com/lpsa/projects.pdf
Friday, August 21, 2009
LPSA Graduation
The 2009 Lunar and Planetary Science Academy program came to a successful ending on August 7 with a graduation ceremony attended by mentors, family and friends. The five teams presented their research accomplishments in the morning. After lunch, our Sudbury expert, Dr. Paul Lowman, gave the keynote speech; followed by presentation of the group outreach project and videos of memorable activities. The LPSA graduation pictures can be viewed here.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Hello again,
So it has been a busy few weeks! We had such a fun time visiting the Silver Spring Boys and Girls Club. We made a video about the Impact Experiment we did with them:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5MRMHeHWsU
We're going to send this to the clubs nationwide so everyone can give it a try.
Our webinar was a really wonderful experience for me personally. It was so amazing to get to talk to kids who are so clearly interested and who have such great questions. I'd like to thank all the participants who joined us and stuck with us through all the technical difficulties. I'd also like to thank Andrea, Aaron, Grant, Cynthia, Krystal, Lai, Ian, CJ, Luke and Rob for being so awesome and working so hard to make the webinar a success. You guys rock! I was so impressed with you ability to adapt to the changing circumstances. I'd also like to thank Aaron and Grant for making that * amazing * video about robots. I thought it came out great. I was so disappointed that we didn't get to show them the whole thing at the webinar, but you guys have 148 views on youtube :D
Outreach work is something that I feel is extremely important. I think that it is our duty as scientists to tell the public about what we're doing, but especially so to young people. We have the chance to really get them interested in science for their whole life long. My biggest hope is that we reached some kids in our webinar and that, maybe they'll consider sciences more seriously. So I'm really excited that we got to do some outreach of our own.
I hope to get some follow up from the Boys and Girls Club which I am going to Blog about.
So once again thanks to everyone for making this a success!
Maggie
So it has been a busy few weeks! We had such a fun time visiting the Silver Spring Boys and Girls Club. We made a video about the Impact Experiment we did with them:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5MRMHeHWsU
We're going to send this to the clubs nationwide so everyone can give it a try.
Our webinar was a really wonderful experience for me personally. It was so amazing to get to talk to kids who are so clearly interested and who have such great questions. I'd like to thank all the participants who joined us and stuck with us through all the technical difficulties. I'd also like to thank Andrea, Aaron, Grant, Cynthia, Krystal, Lai, Ian, CJ, Luke and Rob for being so awesome and working so hard to make the webinar a success. You guys rock! I was so impressed with you ability to adapt to the changing circumstances. I'd also like to thank Aaron and Grant for making that * amazing * video about robots. I thought it came out great. I was so disappointed that we didn't get to show them the whole thing at the webinar, but you guys have 148 views on youtube :D
Outreach work is something that I feel is extremely important. I think that it is our duty as scientists to tell the public about what we're doing, but especially so to young people. We have the chance to really get them interested in science for their whole life long. My biggest hope is that we reached some kids in our webinar and that, maybe they'll consider sciences more seriously. So I'm really excited that we got to do some outreach of our own.
I hope to get some follow up from the Boys and Girls Club which I am going to Blog about.
So once again thanks to everyone for making this a success!
Maggie
Outreach Projects!
Hey Everyone!~~
Just last friday, several of the LPSA interns along with Dr. Cythina Cheung held a webinar for many different Boys and Girls Clubs all across the nation! there were over 800 students tuning into the webinar! We had a few minor technical difficulties, but once the webinar really got going, it wase a huge success! Several interns talked about there
experience here at NASA as well as cool geological projects as well as cool robotics projects that are happening all over the world. Andrea Balbas gave a presentation on the field of Geology, and Aaron Silver & Grant 
Moore gave a presentation on the field of Robotics. 
These interns also answered many questions that the kids had, and boy did they have some great questions! We could tell that many students were very curious in science and this webinar may have really inspired them to 
continue learning. Special thanks goes out to Maggie McAdam & Dr. Cheung for organazing this large event, as there were a huge amount of students listening in to what our NASA interns had to say. There were a series of videos made for the students that were to be played at the begining of the webinar, but due to technical difficulties they were not able to be played. However, they were posted to YouTube for the student to view at a later time. Here are the links to the videos:
Maggie's Planetary Science Video
Aaron & Grant's Robotics Video (PT 1)
Aaron & Grant's Robotics Video (PT 2)
Be sure to check these videos out!
-Aaron
So in the past few weeks, we have done a couple outreach prog
rams for the Boys and Girls clubs of America (BGCA)! The first outreach program was a few weeks ago on a friday afternoon. Several interns in the Lunar Planetary Science Academy arranged for a classroom experiment at the Silver Spring, MD BGCA. Using small wooden balls, styrafoam balls, and various rocks as meteors, and a container of sand and baking powder, the kids experimented on how to make impact craters! we 
observed the effect of dropping different size meteors, meteors with different masses, and the effect that the speed of the meteor has in relation to creating craters. The kids had a wonderful time, and asked many intriuiging questions 
of our interns! It was a great experience, not only for the kids but for the interns as well. Special thanks goes out to Dr. Cynthia Cheung, Andrea Balbas, and Maggie McAdam for setting this up!
rams for the Boys and Girls clubs of America (BGCA)! The first outreach program was a few weeks ago on a friday afternoon. Several interns in the Lunar Planetary Science Academy arranged for a classroom experiment at the Silver Spring, MD BGCA. Using small wooden balls, styrafoam balls, and various rocks as meteors, and a container of sand and baking powder, the kids experimented on how to make impact craters! we 
observed the effect of dropping different size meteors, meteors with different masses, and the effect that the speed of the meteor has in relation to creating craters. The kids had a wonderful time, and asked many intriuiging questions 
of our interns! It was a great experience, not only for the kids but for the interns as well. Special thanks goes out to Dr. Cynthia Cheung, Andrea Balbas, and Maggie McAdam for setting this up!Just last friday, several of the LPSA interns along with Dr. Cythina Cheung held a webinar for many different Boys and Girls Clubs all across the nation! there were over 800 students tuning into the webinar! We had a few minor technical difficulties, but once the webinar really got going, it wase a huge success! Several interns talked about there
experience here at NASA as well as cool geological projects as well as cool robotics projects that are happening all over the world. Andrea Balbas gave a presentation on the field of Geology, and Aaron Silver & Grant 
Moore gave a presentation on the field of Robotics. 
These interns also answered many questions that the kids had, and boy did they have some great questions! We could tell that many students were very curious in science and this webinar may have really inspired them to 
continue learning. Special thanks goes out to Maggie McAdam & Dr. Cheung for organazing this large event, as there were a huge amount of students listening in to what our NASA interns had to say. There were a series of videos made for the students that were to be played at the begining of the webinar, but due to technical difficulties they were not able to be played. However, they were posted to YouTube for the student to view at a later time. Here are the links to the videos:Maggie's Planetary Science Video
Aaron & Grant's Robotics Video (PT 1)
Aaron & Grant's Robotics Video (PT 2)
Be sure to check these videos out!
-Aaron
Sudbury Data!
Hey Everyone~~
We have complied together all of the data we took on our trip to sudbury. All 3 days of geological data are in the following PDF format ready for download, just click on the following link:
Click here to download the Data!!
-Aaron
We have complied together all of the data we took on our trip to sudbury. All 3 days of geological data are in the following PDF format ready for download, just click on the following link:
Click here to download the Data!!
-Aaron
Monday, July 6, 2009
Back to work
Hello again everyone,
Our trip is over and we all returned to work at Goddard. It felt strange to be back in the office after spending last week doing field work in Canada. I must say that I do miss it. I feel that it was a great bonding bonding experience for our group since it was nice to have the opportunity to work with different people. During our regular work day at Goddard we spend too much time with our respective teams working on our individualized projects and do not get to spend much time with everyone else. In addition to bonding I feel that we also gained lots of knowledge from it. Dr. Lowman was an excellent guide. Here I've included some pictures and a brief summary of some of the things we did during the last days of our expedition.
In one of my previous posts I mentioned that during the first day of our Sudbury expedition my team and I did radiometry. During the second day our teams switched tasks and we had the opportunity to do some geology. Our job was to collect samples, make observations and take measurements with the use of a Brunton compass. On the left you can see a picture of me and my team making observations of the rocks. Trying to come up with a good description turned out to be pretty hard sometimes. You have to pay very close attention to details.
The third day of our expedition was probably the best since it was also Canada Day! During most of the day we worked in the field as usual. I got a little tired of being the designated note taking person so I finally had the opportunity to have a little fun with instrumentation and do magnetics. People often assume that a mathematicians favorite instrument is a pencil and paper, but that's not true at all. As a mathematician myself I can say that I had a blast doing magnetics. Here's a picture of me using a magnetic susceptibility meter. It was fun!
After our final day of field work was over we went out for a nice dinner and then went out to celebrate Canada Day with some fireworks. As we were passing by the crowd of Canadian people, they told us that we were from America. We stared at each other for a bit wondering: "how they could possibly know we're from America?". We then noticed that most of us were wearing shirts with the names of our respective universities....we were so obvious! It didn't take a genius to figure out that we were from the US. After that we all got to sit down and relax while watching fireworks. Here you can see a picture of us waiting for the fireworks. (and take a look at our college shirts too :))
The next morning it was time to head back home to Maryland. It was a great adventure and learning experience that I will never forget. I would like to thank everyone that made this trip possible, especially our program manager, Cynthia Cheung. I'm sure that it's an experience that we will all cherish forever. Not everyone gets to say that they went to Canada to do field geology with the respected Dr. Lowman as well as work with a bunch of amazing interns from all over the US that have a passion for space. Even though I have been through quite a few NASA internship programs (including NASA Academy), I feel that I will never forget the LPS Academy group. I feel that the NASA Lunar and Planetary Sciences Academy is an extraordinary program that has the potential to become one of the best NASA internship programs. I appreciate the efforts of everyone that made this program possible and hope that others have the opportunity to be part of this amazing journey during the years to come.
Sincerely,
-Lisha
Our trip is over and we all returned to work at Goddard. It felt strange to be back in the office after spending last week doing field work in Canada. I must say that I do miss it. I feel that it was a great bonding bonding experience for our group since it was nice to have the opportunity to work with different people. During our regular work day at Goddard we spend too much time with our respective teams working on our individualized projects and do not get to spend much time with everyone else. In addition to bonding I feel that we also gained lots of knowledge from it. Dr. Lowman was an excellent guide. Here I've included some pictures and a brief summary of some of the things we did during the last days of our expedition.
In one of my previous posts I mentioned that during the first day of our Sudbury expedition my team and I did radiometry. During the second day our teams switched tasks and we had the opportunity to do some geology. Our job was to collect samples, make observations and take measurements with the use of a Brunton compass. On the left you can see a picture of me and my team making observations of the rocks. Trying to come up with a good description turned out to be pretty hard sometimes. You have to pay very close attention to details.
The third day of our expedition was probably the best since it was also Canada Day! During most of the day we worked in the field as usual. I got a little tired of being the designated note taking person so I finally had the opportunity to have a little fun with instrumentation and do magnetics. People often assume that a mathematicians favorite instrument is a pencil and paper, but that's not true at all. As a mathematician myself I can say that I had a blast doing magnetics. Here's a picture of me using a magnetic susceptibility meter. It was fun!
After our final day of field work was over we went out for a nice dinner and then went out to celebrate Canada Day with some fireworks. As we were passing by the crowd of Canadian people, they told us that we were from America. We stared at each other for a bit wondering: "how they could possibly know we're from America?". We then noticed that most of us were wearing shirts with the names of our respective universities....we were so obvious! It didn't take a genius to figure out that we were from the US. After that we all got to sit down and relax while watching fireworks. Here you can see a picture of us waiting for the fireworks. (and take a look at our college shirts too :))
The next morning it was time to head back home to Maryland. It was a great adventure and learning experience that I will never forget. I would like to thank everyone that made this trip possible, especially our program manager, Cynthia Cheung. I'm sure that it's an experience that we will all cherish forever. Not everyone gets to say that they went to Canada to do field geology with the respected Dr. Lowman as well as work with a bunch of amazing interns from all over the US that have a passion for space. Even though I have been through quite a few NASA internship programs (including NASA Academy), I feel that I will never forget the LPS Academy group. I feel that the NASA Lunar and Planetary Sciences Academy is an extraordinary program that has the potential to become one of the best NASA internship programs. I appreciate the efforts of everyone that made this program possible and hope that others have the opportunity to be part of this amazing journey during the years to come.
Sincerely,
-Lisha
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