February 1: The Alabama School of Cyber Technology and Engineering (ASCTE) in Huntsville, AL hosted an ARISS contact with Jasmin Moghbeli. 20 students asked questions while a crowd of 435 people, mostly students, watched. Before the connection was made, Nicole Pelfrey, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) Payload & Mission Operations Department Manager spoke to the students about career paths—the school has a partnership with MSFC. Media on hand included WAFF-TV and WZDX-TV. Over 150 people viewed the livestream; 8 days later, that total increased to 454. ASCTE enjoys tremendous support for STEM from area industry.
February 7: Students at Lilburn (GA) Elementary School engaged in an ARISS radio contact with Jasmin Moghbeli; she answered 14 student questions. 342 students and 26 educators in the gymnasium watched the youth talking, as did reps from WANF-TV. 151 others watched the livestream, and total views in 2 days’ time climbed to 800. A second livestream captured 70 views from a Mississippi middle school where a teacher is working toward garnering her school’s future ARISS contact. At the beginning of the Lilburn’s event, the principal stated: “You two [teachers] took a dream and a hope and made it happen.” Immediately after the ARISS contact, Lilburn hosted STEM Day for K-5 classes. Activities included experimenting with a model of a Mars Rover, a speaker from a NASA HR office who spoke on NASA career paths, a demo of a drone and Sphero™ robots, a tour of the ARISS radio set-up and radio modes, and a presentation on bugs in space.
February 1: ARISS Director of Operations Will Marchant guided a Civil Air Patrol (CAP) group in Winchester, VA in how to aim a hand-held antenna and to control a portable radio so they could listen to an ARISS contact taking place in Huntsville, AL. The CAP youth met at STARBASE Winchester, a facility leading Department of Defense educational programs that aim “to engage our nation’s at-risk youth in inquiry-based hands-on STEM.” Will described the ARISS program to 30 high school students, 29 elementary school students, and 6 teachers. Students from the area’s Shenandoah University had traveled to the event to take part, as well.
ARISS Upcoming Events
Feb 15: B. Russell High School, Rome Italy-ARISS contact, ARISS-Europe Team
Feb 16: Baltic Federal University-I. Kant, Kaliningrad Russia-ARISS contact, ARISS-Russia Team
Feb 22-24: Human Spaceflight Amateur Radio: 40th Anniversary Celebration, KSC Center for Space Education, Titusville FL—ARISS conference/gala, ARISS-I Team