School and NASA

Raul Yzaguirre School For Success (RYSS) - NASA International Space Station (ISS) Photographs of Earth II [2012-2013] 

RYSS College Prep Academy students (grades 6 - 8 ) requested photographs of Earth from the NASA International Space Station via the EarthKAM (Earth Knowledge Acquired by Middle school students) mission program. They identified the locations on Earth via various orbital paths for the onboard camera to take their photographs. 

The program is a NASA educational outreach program enabling students, teachers and the public to learn about Earth from the unique perspective of space. During EarthKAM missions (periods the EarthKAM camera is operational), middle school students around the world request photos of specific locations on Earth.


Latitude (shown as a horizontal line) is the angular distance, in degrees, minutes, and seconds of a point north or south of the Equator. Lines of latitude are often referred to as parallels. 

Longitude (shown as a vertical line) is the angular distance, in degrees, minutes, and seconds, of a point east or west of the Prime (Greenwich) Meridian. Lines of longitude are often referred to as meridians. 

Distance between Lines If you divide the circumference of the earth (approximately 25,000 miles) by 360 degrees, the distance on the earth's surface for each one degree of latitude or longitude is just over 69 miles, or 111 km. Note: As you move north or south of the equator, the distance between the lines of longitude gets shorter until they actually meet at the poles. At 45 degrees N or S of the equator, one degree of longitude is about 49 miles. 

Minutes and Seconds For precision purposes, degrees of longitude and latitude have been divided into minutes (') and seconds ("). There are 60 minutes in each degree. Each minute is divided into 60 seconds. Seconds can be further divided into tenths, hundredths, or even thousandths.

Orbit information: 

The ISS orbits the Earth at 51.6° to the Equator, following the direction of the Earth’s rotation from west to east. The Earth itself is tilted at 23.4° to the plane of its orbit around the sun (sun vector), so the ISS is orbiting at 75° to the sun vector. The ISS’s altitude varies between 320 to 410 km, and it takes 92 minutes to circle the Earth. The orbit inclination offers good coverage of most of Earth’s surface.

ISS Camera information: 

In conjunction with NASA and Sally Ride Science, a camera system has been installed on the International Space Station. This camera system is responsible for taking and downloading student image requests. The camera is mounted in a nadir pointing window on the ISS. EarthKAM is using the Nikon D2Xs Digital Camera, controlled by the Lenovo (IBM) T61p Laptop.  







Dublin/RYSS Space Weather/NASA Magnetospheric Multiscale [MMS] 2014 Digital Art Exhibition 

The students at both schools were tasked ... as a part of the ISTE [International Society of Technology for Education] - NASA Space Curriculum Development initiative ... to research the various topics/concepts about Space weather [Sun, Sunspots, solar flares, CMEs (Coronal Mass Ejections), solar winds, Earth, Earth's magnetic fields, Earth's magnetosphere, magnetic reconnection, Auroas] as well as NASA's MMS 2014 Mission, and then translate the information in photo software as Digital Art. 

Student Workshops: The RYSS students traveled to Dublin ISD [Dublin, TX] earlier [April 11/12, 2012] to not only mentor these fifth grade students [exhibitors], but also sixth, seventh and eighth grade students in the use of graphics software to create Digital Art.




Raul Yzaguirre School For Success [RYSS] - NASA Saturn V Tour, Lunar Lab Tour and Opuntia Cactus Research Discussion [August 24, 2011]

The project tests growing Opuntia cacti under elevated levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide and how to produce essential non-food products for space habitats and deserts on Earth. Cacti will play a major role in reducing global warming by taking up the world’s increasing levels of carbon dioxides in dry regions of the world.The specific application of the project is conversion of the Opuntia plant’s mucilage to coagulant to purify turbid water. 

The plant is grown under elevated carbon dioxide levels of the International Space Station (4,000 ppm), and simple processes are developed to convert the plant material to coagulant, which can be used to remove clay from turbid waters. This project is also a unique collaboration between Mexico and the United States. The Houston researchers [Dr. Muirhead] are working with Professor Aldo Tovar Puentes, Chief of the Chemistry Lab and Professor in Academia at the Catedrático del Instituto Tecnológico de Linares. 

Another unique part of this research is the involvement of students from Raul Yzaguirre School For Success in Houston. The students are assisting the researchers by making an impartial, independent documentary of the project which explores the important economic, social and technological issues related to the role that plants play in the exploration of space and the environmental problems facing the world.



NASA STEM Educational Outreach Pilot Program at Raul Yzaguirre School For Success .

Two core groups of students [8th Grade] from Raul Yzaguirre School for Success [RYSS] participated in the NASA STEM Educational Outreach Pilot Program by setting up three Space Science experiments, or activities in the Technology Applications classroom to explore, and learn Engineering, Science, and Mathematics concepts. 

The program is related to the International Space Station (ISS) as a National Laboratory. This new NASA program is about to go through beta testing and review, and Raul Yzaguirre School For Success, and other schools were involved in this PILOT program. The feedback from the students, and teachers will be incorporated into the final Educator Resource Guide that will undergo NASA Education Product Review. 

As a tribute to the schools involved, the final educational products will list them as participants in this NASA development effort. The curriculum will have an "ISS is Cool" campaign which will focus on making ISS and STEM interesting for children.




















 






     


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