Courtesy NASA EXPRESS email list:

INSPIRE Counselors Needed

The Interdisciplinary National Science Project Incorporating Research and Education Experience, also known as INSPIRE, is seeking educators to supervise high school students during eight-week summer internships. Positions are available at several locations across the U.S. One counselor will be selected for each of the ten NASA Field Centers.

The position requires a professional educator to coordinate NASA INSPIRE activities within the NASA Center region. The INSPIRE Counselor will be the designated point of contact for INSPIRE participants at the assigned NASA Center. Training will be provided prior to the assignment.

The position requires a minimum of a four-year degree in science, mathematics and/or technology education, a valid teaching certificate, and a minimum of three years teaching experience in grades 6-12. A combination of teaching experience and NASA education experience is also acceptable. U.S. citizenship is required.

Counselors who are chosen will receive lodging and meals during the eight-week event, travel to and from the NASA field center, and a stipend of $5,800. Oklahoma State University graduate credit is also available to those who are interested.

Applications are due May 30, 2008.

To learn more about this opportunity and how to apply, visit opportunities.nasa.okstate.edu. If you have any questions about this opportunity, please e-mail them to Richard Adams at richard.adams@okstate.edu.

Courtesy of NASA EXPRESS email list:

Girl Scouts of Northern California - San Francisco Bay Area have a cool opportunity available to them: Girls Go Tech at NASA Ames Research Center. The program runs from 22 June to 28 June 2008.

Registration is open to girls entering grades 9-12. Participants choose to attend the Aeronautics Institute, Robotics Institute or Astrobiology Institute. They then explore their chosen topic with other high school girls and get a taste of how things are done the NASA way. 

I don't know if this is quite as interesting as the mosquitoes and poison ivy and sunburn that I was accustomed to at Boy Scout camp, but on the other hand... it's a one-week resident program at NASA. We'll call it even. In any case, applications are due by 23 May 2008 for participants. 

Additionally, if you're not in grades 9 through 12, it appears that the organization is offering volunteer and paid positions to assist the program. 

Courtesy SpaceRef:

North Grumman and Zero-G are offering a chance for teachers to fly in zero gravity in the third annual Weightless Flights of Discovery. 

For the third consecutive year, Northrop Grumman is partnering with Zero-G Corporation to offer the Weightless Flights of Discovery program, one of several initiatives the Northrop Grumman Foundation sponsors in support of promoting education and student interest in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields. Selected teachers will participate in a full-day orientation program several weeks before their flights. Teachers then will work with their students to develop experiments to be conducted in environments simulating lunar gravity, Martian gravity and weightlessness. Following the two-to-three-hour flight, each teacher will share his or her experiences back in the classroom.

Teachers: if you're interested in applying, go to the application at northropgrumman.com/teachers. Applications will be accepted until 20 June or until all available seats are filled.

On 25 April 2008, the NASA Science Mission Directorate is hosting the following online workshop...

John Ensworth at the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies and the NASA Science Mission Directorate invite you to attend an upcoming online professional development workshop.

Topic: Enrichment Problems in Space Science VI
In the seventh bi-monthly installment of these mission- and inquiry-oriented mathematics problems, Dr. Sten Odenwald will supply background for and lead participants through problems from his "Problems in Space Science" series. The goal of these problems is to teach students about space weather by using mathematics. Each problem begins with real world questions, missions and situations, and applies the necessary mathematics for a solution. Participants may ask questions and work along in this fully interactive Webinar environment. http://spacemath.gsfc.nasa.gov.

The European Science Foundation issued a call for Expressions of Interest on the topic 'Humans in Outer Space'. The main purpose of this interdisciplinary call is to identify key challenging topics from any discipline in this area and investigate the best ways to explore them.

Examples include:

• Psychology of isolation
• Ethical aspects of human spaceflight
• Socio-economic costs and benefits
• Space law
• Religious implications of leaving Earth
• Administrative and social structures in Lunar or Martian settlements
• Finding non-terrestrial life forms: social, psychological, religious implications
• Artistic expression as a means to share the human exploration experience

After selection by a multidisciplinary panel, the most engaging ideas will be pursued in a collaborative way through ESF-managed workshop(s) to be held in 2008 / 2009.

More information and submission at esf.org.

It's a broad topic for discussion--apparently ESA is opening this over all disciplines. What topics do you think should be covered? Post your ideas in the forums.

A selection of events upcoming during the week of 21 April 2008, as posted in the Events section of the Space Info Archive...

• North America: 21 to 23 April, Albequerque, New Mexico, USA: The Lunar and Planetary Institute is hosting a workshop about the science that can be obtained from a Martian sample return mission and how to protect the samples once they are brought to Earth: "Ground Truth from Mars: Science Payoff from a Sample Return Mission."  [link]
• Europe: 23 April, London, UK: The British Interplanetary Society is looking ahead to the post-Shuttle era in its symposium, "Next Steps for Space Infrastructure." [link]
  
• North America: 23 April, Los Altos Hills, California, USA: As part of its regular non-technical Silicon Valley Lecture Series, the Foothill College astronomy department is hosting Dr. Jill Tarter of SETI to present "The Allen Telescope Array: The Newest Pitchfork for Exploring the Cosmic Haystack."  [link]
• Europe: 26 April, London, UK: The Society for Popular Astronomy is holding its quarterly meeting at the University of London. The guest speaker at the meeting is Prof. Ian Morison of the Jodrell Bank Observatory. [link]

Updates to the archive are posted periodically on the SEDSWiki Updates blog . If you're interested to help our group find and list events, please leave a comment on the SEDSWiki Events project page (or you can just edit the wiki yourself, it's open, you don't need our permission).

A selection of events upcoming during the week of 14 April 2008, as posted in the Events section of the Space Info Archive...

• North America: 14 April, Boulder, Colorado, USA: The Space Studies Board is hosting a lecture by former Voyager Program Director and JPL Center Director Ed Stone titled "Voyager's Journey to the Edge of Interstellar Space". I'm a Voyager fan -- let me know how it goes. [link]
• North America: 17 April, Houston, Texas, USA: Planetary scientist Jeff Taylor is giving a lecture, "To the Moon! Its Science, Mysteries, and Future Settlements" at the Lunar and Planetary Institute as part of their Cosmic Explorations speaker series. [link - note: PDF file]
  
• Europe: 13 to 18 April, Vienna, Austria: The European Geophysical Union is hosting its annual General Assembly. The motto of the conference: "Geosciences is responsibility." [link]

Updates to the archive are posted periodically on the SEDSWiki Updates blog . If you're interested to help our group find and list events, please leave a comment here (or you can just edit the wiki yourself, it's open, you don't need our permission).