MESSENGER Science Team Meeting

I'm at the MESSENGER science team meeting in Washington, DC. Tomorrow is my Education and Outreach update presentation...and today I'm catching up on the results of the MESSENGER Venus 2 Flyby. I decided to use my Twitter account (twitter.com/geosteph) to mini-blog on the meeting...posting some information about the instruments, with links embedded in the tweets.

Is this education and outreach?

Girls Scouts USA

I'm at the Edith Macy Conference Center in Briarcliff Manor, NY, participating in a STEM training for Girl Scout Council Staff. I'll be discussing Global Warming and NASA's role in monitoring climate change. Part of my challenge is to encourage the "what can I do" types of discussion and the other part is to bring science data into the mix.

Lunar Librarians and after school program providers too!

Through our work on education and outreach on LRO, we partnered with the Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI) and their Explore: Fun with Science project. From the website: Explore! Fun with Science is designed to engage youth in space and planetary science in the library and other informal learning environments. Through video explorations, related hands-on activities, and supporting resources, children of all ages are immersed in the wonders of rockets, space colonies, our solar system, how our planets were shaped, and more!

The LRO Spacecraft as envisioned by one of the participants of our Colorado workshop held at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science May 8-9.

LPI worked with our team to create the Explore: To the Moon and Beyond with LRO module. They have the expertise in developing materials and activities for library and after-school programs, and we have the content and cool images and visualizations. Together we have conducted two-day workshops for librarians in Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Maryland and Pennsylvania. During the workshops we include hands-on activities designed for children and have LRO scientists and engineers talk to the participants about the upcoming LRO mission.

Lava Layers activity includes creating maps and simulating drill coring.

Aura

Well, Stephanie seems to be very successful in sucking me and Heather (aka "The Kids" or "Steph's minions") into the blogosphere, so here I am. Today I am ramping up my efforts towards Aura, preparing for the AccessData workshop next week. Keep checking back to see how our progress in writing a chapter for the Earth Exploration Toolbook is going!