Middle School Students Discover Cave in Mars

10:03 pm | Evergreen Middle School, Science | No comment

Seventh graders from Evergreen Middle School in Cottonwood, California discovered a cave from Mars while participating in the Mars Student Imaging Program (MSIP), a part of Arizona State University’s Mars Education Program. The 16 students found lava tubes on their two targeted images while they were studying about lava tubes for their class project as part of Mars Education Program at Arizona State University. The program allowed the 16 students to actually command a Mars-orbiting camera to take an image, allowing them to look for lava tubes around volcanoes. They picked an area on Pavonis Mons volcano that had yet to be photographed by THEMIS at its highest resolution of 18 meters.

The students are hoping to get a better look at the pit which is estimated to be approximately 190 by 160 meters wide and at least 115 meters deep. They have submitted their site as a candidate for imaging by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

The Mars Student Imaging Project (MSIP) offers students nationwide the opportunity to be involved in authentic Mars research.

BSU Students to Partner with U.S. Navy

6:08 pm | Ball State University, Engineering, Science | No comment

The Ball State entrepreneurship students will assist in developing commercial applications for U.S. military projects through a technology transfer initiative.

Michael Goldsby, the Entrepreneurship Center’s executive director and Stoops distinguished professor of entrepreneurship, explained that students will be granted that right to use of government patents and intellectual property and that challenged to look for commercial opportunities for the technologies.

The joint venture will give students the chance to work with some of the best scientists and engineers in the world and students will create business concepts around existing applications that are presently being patented. Linking military skill with entrepreneurship education will create an exceptional learning experience for the students.

Junior entrepreneurship students will write commercialization studies for potential businesses based on the military applications they study at the first step in the process that will take place next spring. The students will be expected to incorporate the technologies into business plans for presentations at national competitions and during E-Day (Evaluation Day) as part of the New Venture Creation course during their senior year.

Days before their graduation, seniors are required to put their degrees on the line when their business plans are examined by a group of top business leaders for the key feature of E-Day, the pass-or-fail review. The participating student will receive training from Navy technology transfer officers, laboratory scientists and entrepreneurship faculty.

John Dement hopes that their affiliation with the Ball State Entrepreneurship Center will give the students real-world educational opportunities as well as see any potential business partners to make, use or trade the technology for economic growth. Students had the chance to see presentations of published patents and engage with the scientists who started the technology.

The entrepreneurship students conducted a study in 2005 for the city of Washington that will verify the possibility to attract spin-off businesses developed by NSWC Crane researches as well as create a better economic climate for entrepreneurial development.

Students Send Experiment on Space Shuttle

2:20 am | Science, TSU | No comment

A group of college students created a study which is heading on to orbit aboard space shuttle Atlantis on how microbes grow in microgravity.

The students of Texas Southern University in Houston developed the experiment as part of the STS-129 mission. It was scheduled to launch at 2:28 p.m. EST on Nov. 16 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

NASA Deputy Administrator Lori B. Garver is delighted to give the students the opportunity to design and research an experiment to fly in space.  It is one of the materials that NASA has that will engage them in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Part of NASA’s major mission is to give these young people of the future an opportunity to motivate them.

The Texas Southern University was chosen by the NASA’s Office of Education as a 2008 University Research Center. To examine the morphological and molecular changes in E. coli and B. subtilis bacteria, the students at the center developed the Microbial -1 experiment.

NASA’s University Research Center project manager, Katrina Emery, said that the University Research Center Project was intended to improve the research infrastructure and capacity at minority institutions and students can see themselves as researchers, at present and in the future by engaging in participatory learning opportunities like this experiment.

This space shuttle flight experiment, a proof-of-concept model for the URC project will give students a hands-on experience. It will provide the students the chance to design, observe and execute the study in laboratories, as well as near real-time on the space shuttle.

To give the students a valuable knowledge, each part of the experiment is designed for easy reproduction in the classroom.

John M. Rudley, president of Texas Southern University said that it is a remarkable opportunity for their students because it reflects the growing quality of their research programs. Mr. Rudley is excited for the students to have the chance to take part in such significant research and he is also delighted for their partnerships with area school districts that they can take these projects outside the university to the school classrooms to motivate more students to study science, math, and technology.

The outstanding experimental data will be used to develop grade-appropriate microbiology modules for students in kindergarten through.

Texas Southern University is one of 13 universities to obtain grant funding from NASA’s University Research Center project which is designed to widen the research capabilities of minority-serving institutions and increase the production of underrepresented and underserved students majoring in science, technology, engineering and mathematics discipline.