Mission: education- NASA holds annual education conference in Missoula

Fifth-grader Cody Crawford drove the Mars Rover through campus Tuesday.

The student maneuvered the vehicle, a miniature model of NASA’s rover, through the Education Building as his classmates from Target Range Elementary School cheered him on.

Katherine Sather
Montana Kaimin

He steered the rover with a controller from inside a classroom. A camera attached to the truck transmitted images of the rover’s progress in the halls.

The simulation was part of a lesson on remote sensing, a method of obtaining information about something without touching it.

“This is how NASA is remotely sensing Mars currently,” said Jeff Crews, assistant director of Earth Observing System. The campus group educates local schools on similar technology.

Yesterday’s lesson was one of the many activities for students, faculty and staff sponsored by NASA’s visit to the University of Montana. NASA’s Office of Biological and Physical Research is holding its annual education conference here this week. The office has numerous education specialists who transfer NASA’s technology into curriculum that can be taught in grade school and high school classrooms, said Bonnie McClain; chief of Educational Outreach.

“The conference is when we come together and learn about new techniques and talk about new research and what we need to transfer into new curriculum,” she said.

Local grade school students are also visiting campus this week for workshops and the chance to participate in a flight simulation in NASA’s aeronautics education laboratory.

The exhibit, which also lets participants design an aircraft, will be open to the public Wednesday night and all day Thursday, said Amy Fisher, special projects coordinator at the University. It’s parked next to the UC.

The public can also attend two multimedia presentations at 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. Thursday in the UC Theater. They are titled “Understanding Microgravity” and “Senses and Sleep in Space.”

Thursday afternoon local teachers will get the chance to learn from NASA specialists. They can attend a series of workshops, beginning at 12:45 p.m. that discuss topics like the affects space travel has on the human body.

“Our specialists will give the teachers curriculum on the subjects and teach them how to use it in the classroom,” McClain said.

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