1. New Horizons Student Dust Counter (SDC) Video Archive Project
Keynote speaker Dr. Jim Green, Director of NASA Planetary Science, presented
"50 Years of Solar System Exploration: New Worlds, New Discoveries"
On March 4, 2013, four students from Center High School in rural Colorado joined their teacher (New Horizons Teacher Fellow Daniel Newmyer) on a visit to the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado Boulder.
The purpose of the project is to document the ongoing involvement of former LASP students in the SDC project and to continue involving new generations of young people in the SDC experience.
During their visit, the high school students:
Were given a tour of LASP, which included spacecraft models & instruments, engineering facilities, an on-site instrument shop, and our mission operations center
Learned about the science of SDC from instrument PI Dr. Mihaly Horanyi
Learned about the role students played and continue to play on the SDC team from LASP engineer and SDC alumnus David James
Conducted interviews with SDC team members David James, Tiffaney Finley, Beth Cervelli, Chelsey Bryant, and Jamey Szalay
Project videos will be processed and uploaded to the LASP SDC site as part of an SDC “before and after” series:
We have parental permission to use the images of the students contained in this slide
Evaluations were completed pre- and post-workshop; notable results were found for responses to the following items (on a 5-point scale):
I understand why it is important to study dust throughout the Solar System—(pre/post difference:+2.25)
I understand the processes involved in producing dust grains—(+1.75)
I understand how dust can yield clues about the origin and evolution of our Solar System—(+1.0)
I understand why it is important to have student-built instruments aboard NASA missions—(+1.0)
I understand the paths I could take to become a scientist or engineer—(+1.0)
April 24, 2013