Throughout the year JSC participates in several community and education outreach efforts. JSC is interested in sharing knowledge that benefits other industries and in encouraging students to pursue careers in engineering, science, math or technology. JSC is firmly committed to serving as a vital, effective partner and citizen of the Houston area and surrounding communities.

Education Outreach

Education Outreach - programs, employees support a wide range of educational initiatives in the local area school districts. Engineers, computer experts, scientists, and business specialists give classroom presentations on space program topics, judge science fairs, tutor individual students, and mentor students preparing for science and technology fairs.

EarthKAM - Local students also actively participated in spaceflight operations in January 1998 by remotely operating an electronic still camera onboard the space shuttle and taking digital photos of the Earth. This program, called EarthKAM, lets middle school students make decisions about which pictures to shoot and use for gathering information about Earth from space.

Longhorn Project -A unique learning environment is provided for students through JSC's Longhorn Project -- named for the breed of bovine synonymous with the Lone Star State. On 60 acres of JSC land near a rocket park, cattle graze in an area which will also soon contain fruit orchards, vegetable gardens and aquaculture ponds. A coalition of local community groups, schools, and JSC employees have provided a wonderful resource for young people planning to enter the agribusiness field.

SAREX -Through the Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment (SAREX), space shuttle crews talk to students in their classrooms from orbit using amateur radio equipment that is from time to time flown on the shuttle.

ER - FIRST (Robotics) Competition - JSC engineers and technicians teamed up with students from local high schools to create robots to participate in a national technology competition at Epcot Center in Florida. This exciting event, much like an athletic competition, has teams of students from across the country operate their robots to perform a task in competition with other entrants. A regional competition, leading to the national finals, was held in March 1998 at Space Center Houston (JSC's Visitor Center).

SK - Adopt a Classroom Project - Initiated by NASA's Nutritional Biochemistry Laboratory at JSC, this project involves an elementary school in PA, and potentially others. The project is designed to highlight nutrition in space (and on Earth), with specific emphasis on bone and the STS-107 Calcium Kinetics experiment. E-mail exchange, a newsletter, and a website are all components of this evolving project.

SL - Scientist & Engineering Involvement with Education -JSC Bioastronautics and National Space Biomedical Research Institute scientists, engineers, post doctoral fellows, and graduate students are utilized as content experts for presentations at schools and for the development of bioastronautics, biomedical and other life sciences curriculum. Classroom curriculum and content is continually provided on a number of websites on the Internet. Undergraduate lecture series for 115 undergraduate minority students participating in the Honors Premedical Academy is in development. This series will communicate advances in space biomedical research. Students are recruited nationally and attend a six-week residential program at Baylor College of Medicine and Rice University (funded by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation).

SL - Lunar Growth Chamber Team - This is a joint activity with Space Center Houston, Clear Creek Independent School District and the JSC Advanced Life Support Project in which High School students participate on a voluntary basis. The students from the three local High Schools of CCISD utilize Advanced Life Support laboratories to design plant growth experiments that have relevance to life support and serve as public display in the Starship Gallery located in Space Center Houston. Students work with scientists and engineers from JSC in the planning and implementation of experiments and work with the education program at Space Center Houston in the display of experiments and reporting of results.

SR - Astromaterials-Astrobiology Teacher Workshops-ARES scientists collaborate with K-12 teachers and other NASA Space Science educators to develop and present teacher workshops on planetary science that enhance the content knowledge and model the inquiry process for other educators. The workshops (40 in FY01) range in length from 1 hour to 1 week and are presented at JSC, universities, museums, national science conferences, national and regional math and science education conferences. Some are part of larger NASA workshops, but many are stand-alone topics. We also train the NASA education trainers from ERC and AESP. While the workshops highlight the activities developed in ARES, they include many others developed by our partners. Support is from Office of Space Science. General themes for teacher workshops are • Exploring the Solar System • Rocks from Space • Mars Exploration • Astrobiology - Extreme Life Duration: Ongoing since 1993

SR- Astromaterials-Astrobiology Curriculum Development - ARES scientists collaborate with K-12 educators to develop planetary science classroom activities, background information, and visual aids that meet the national education standards for process skills and content in earth/space science, biology, chemistry, physics, and mathematics. Emphasis is placed on rocks from space and the possibility of life in the solar system. JSC scientists mentored educators in their labs before working together to translate ARES science for the classroom. Funding comes from the NASA Office of Space Science. • Exploring Meteorite Mysteries teacher guide (EG-1997-08-104-HQ) and slide set • Destination Mars Activity Packet and video (1997, 2002) • Modeling the Solar System activities and slideshow (1999, 2002) • Fingerprints of Life? CD and website (2001) • Space Rocks Tell Their Secrets activities and slideshow (2002)

Urban Community Enrichment Program - The UCEP program provides urban youth with greater exposure to space topics in an interdisciplinary manner; motivates students to improve their reading, writing, and mathematical skills; and increases teacher and community awareness of NASA resources and technical assistance programs. The UCEP program is planned, coordinated and implemented in participating schools by a NASA team. Major activities include lectures, demonstrations, and hands-on classroom activities highlighting the various sciences that supplement the ongoing curriculum. In addition, workshops and other activities are offered to school personnel. ii) Community Outreach

Community Outreach

Johnson Space Center Volunteers
Looking to share insight about NASA and capture the interest and excitement of the public? Want to help enrich the education and career development efforts of schools and educational organizations?

Participate in JSC's employee volunteer programs!

Speaker's Bureau The Speakers Bureau works with professional and civic organizations around the world as well as schools and educational organizations outside of the 50-mile radius of JSC. Volunteer members of this program can address a variety of topics, including engineering, life sciences, space sciences, medical applications, spacesuits, life-support systems, ISS, Constellation, lunar exploration and spin-off technology.   Become a volunteer: (JSC employees and contractors only) http://speakers.grc.nasa.gov/speaker/

Community Support Volunteer Program This program allows JSC employees to share their passion for the space program with the community. You don't have to be an astronaut to inspire others about space: employees from all areas of JSC are encouraged to volunteer. Throughout the year, Public Affairs features exhibits at various engagements such as Wings Over Houston, the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, and the Houston International Festival. With these exhibits, NASA reaches out to the public with the most current space exploration information and publicizes its programs. The exhibits feature print materials and hand-out items for distribution and volunteer employees to interact with the public, as well as occasionally include astronaut autograph sessions. For some events, JSC's mascot Cosmo is present.   Become a volunteer: (JSC employees and contractors only) jsc-pao-events@mail.nasa.gov

Driven To Explore Trailer Exhibit - The Driven To Explore Trailer Exhibit is operated by the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston as part of the Agency's community outreach program, bringing the excitement of human space flight to communities around the United States. This multi-media experience showcases the Shuttle Program, the progress of the International Space Station and benefits of space exploration leading into NASA’s next major program, Constellation. The exhibit features a walking tour including breathtaking imagery and state-of-the-art models of the Constellation Program’s next-generation launch vehicles and human spacecraft destined for use to explore the moon and beyond. As part of this unique exploration experience, visitors learn why NASA is going back to the moon and how and what astronauts plan to do while there. Visitors also have the unique opportunity to touch a 3 billion-year-old moon rock brought back aboard Apollo 17, the last manned mission to the moon in 1972. The moon rock is the centerpiece of the exhibit and is one of only seven lunar samples in the world made available for the public to touch and feel. Other displays, some interactive, may accompany the exhibit.

JSC Amateur Radio Club - The JSCARC, one of a number of Center clubs, is involved in several community projects. This year the club provided the on-site station for the Boy Scouts Jamboree on the Air. In addition to contacting a number of states and Canada, the scouts contacted Dave Wolf on the Mir.

Boy Scouts at JSC- The Center continues to provide access to scouting groups to camp onsite for events such as the Challenger District's "Camp-o-Ree" featuring team competitions for scouts from the local communities.