Hi Mike,

For the ground portions, PD will include introduction to the GLOBE Program, offer GLOBE Teacher Certification, and more specifically introduce teachers to the GLOBE Observer app. The project is designed to offer teachers a wide range of opportunities. For instance one option would be to receive the A3Sat assembled. The next option can be to build the Cube following an instruction manual (that is currently being written). Yet another option, a more advance application, is to change sensors, write new coding for a specific sensor operation. We made these decisions so that the broadest audience, any grade level can meet their needs. Beyond the actual Cube, we will probably need to do some work with flying a drone, or the NASA Kite, or tethered balloon. Again, we planned/designed options that can be decided by the teacher based on availability and costs. One of our main goals was to design and provide the most technically accurate model for the lowest price point as to not exclude anyone, thus the options for PD address level of background knowledge/experience, and costs. We are planning on offering  perhaps webinars where both Max and Sriram can host and walk folks through some of these areas. In addition to their other skills, they both happen to be great instructors! 

Highest launch? Our drone is capable of reaching higher altitudes, but we flew it to up to about 350 ft. investigating how high we would have to fly to get an areas shot of 30mx30m (a Landsat Pixel) which turns out to be approximately 225 ft. to in order to do pixel image analysis. Working on other ideas too that may require higher flights.

Hi, John,

 Thanks for the view of how you are working with the drones with sensors. I totally agree with your view,

These types of authentic experiences can no longer wait to be explored only at the college or university level, they must begin in the pre-college community.

Also would like to connect the current NASA/AREN project experiences in some way....ideally discussing online.  

I have had high school level students involved with the analysis of the sensor data and documenting low level winds and building stresses as we work with the NASA/AREN Aeropod. (see the video) In the past we have collaborated with colleges launching weather balloons, however in our location retrieving data is problematic. 

Your approach to teachers' levels are similar to ours.  How are their students  encouraged to  use the data as personal project extensions?  Do they receive aid to ground proof/truth with sites that  the cubes covered on Earth?....Do teachers  evolve their project for future year extensions from local data?  Do they construct other projects in further years’ courses? 

Thanks for your perspective...

Betsy Stefany

Speaking as someone who is still in school, I can tell you that generalized classes tend to not do enough to help students find their specific passions, especially within STEM.  All encompassing projects such as this, which bring together aspects of coding, engineering, data science, environmental sciences, and electronics help to reach out to more students and help them to find areas of STEM that they enjoy, or maybe just rule out the ones that they don't.  Like you said, it will also help students with collaboration skills, as they work to fulfill these jobs withing the project.  We hope that teachers will take our kit and model their teams with jobs based on these areas of learning, so that students can learn more about that subject and how to cooperate with other areas of study.  Ultimately these groups would work together to use the data they collect to form their own conclusions.  Short-term, we want to measure our success in this objective with surveys and feedback from our partner schools that receive the first edition prototype kit.  This feedback would hopefully continue as we grow and we can use it to adjust and improve our kit and lessons as best as we can.

Thank you, Maxwell! Perhaps more specifically, from your perspective, what have you learned? I'd love to hear your self-assessment!

From a young age I have been teaching myself about coding, 3D modeling, 3D printing, and electronics.  Because of that, there wasn't a lot that I had to learn from the ground up.  That being said, there are many components that I have never worked with before and tasks that I had never before done successfully.  The best example of this is the WIFI communication that we are integrating into the kit.  While this is something I have tried in the past, I have usually given up after repeated failures.  However, this project gave me a chance to work on it with a greater sense of purpose and motivation until I got it right.  I am proud to say that we are almost done coding that system and I am more successful than I have ever been with it.  Other tasks actually correlated with lessons I was learning in school at the exact same time.  Because the kit has two cameras and the Raspberry Pi only has a single port, you need an adapter.  This circuit that allows you to connect two cameras is known as a multiplexer and was the lesson in my engineering class the same week I was adding it to the kit.  Being able to utilize what I was learning in school to solve problems in a real engineering environment, taught me more about how to apply what I learn and how to break systems down to their most basic elements.  While I know that not everyone goes to a school that teaches them about electronics and multiplexers, I am sure that most students would be able to find connections between what they are learning and what they would be doing with our kit.

Well that's good to hear!

Thank you so much!  Most of my classmates are familiar with my project as I actually started working on it at school.  I go to a technical high school and study electronic engineering.  My teacher at the time arranged for me to work on this project with Mr. Moore and some of my early work was done in the classroom.  Most of my classmates in engineering find the project interesting and will sometimes ask me questions about it.  However, it is usually the parents who are most amazed. I would like to think that they are blown away by the educational implication of this kit, but it is probably more that they can't believe it was built by a high school student.

Maxwell, 

 Thanks for writing about your role and also how people feel about our work within the project.  I've often had a high school student as an "intern" and more recently been able to connect them with course credit through NH's Extended Learning Opportunity (ELO's) but transferring their work to college course credit is a huge leap.  

I've been working with first and second year college students this year and what has helped during Covid is finding and joining with them in MOOCs which give some accreditation and were online.  Also we immediately added the students with interest to industry conferences which went virtual and free.

Have you been in CTE courses? IS there any overlapping with their topics and the kit development?

It is very important that we all hear your "voice" and impressions beyond your lucky high school connected parents!  

Thank  you for what you share,

Betsy Stefany

Because I go to a technical high school, between a quarter and a half of my day is spent in engineering depending on my schedule for the semester.  Most of my courses for engineering are considered CTE courses and are usually accredited by local colleges.  During senior year, we spend the year on a senior project of our choice.  This allows us to go in depth into solving problems either at school or at a business during a normal year.  Overall, what I have learned in engineer directly went into this project and is the reason I have it in the first place

Thank you for this thorough view!  What are you "called" as you progress in this system?  I see your   title here as a High School Student Intern...so just checking if that is a state accepted or a project title.  We have a college "extern" who will post on our video.  Your post is a huge help to others to structure their posts and think about the value (huge) to those of us who develop the projects and want them to both be sustainable AND also learn as we build and flex to the opportunities around us.

Thanks again...

Adam, thanks for taking the the time to watch and we're glad you found it interesting! 

Thank you!  This may be a good project for our high school interns.

I just received this post..and have yet to receive Maxwell's from 3 PM or Sriam's 7:30.  I hope we can find a further discussion that will link us into discussion.   Solar panels are a fine addition, Maxwell. Too much has been pushed out by industry without visual support for comparison data between sites.  Please look at that as customers in rural areas are not finding their "handle" and worry about the deal.  Try light/temp loggers on the CubeSat...we sent them up on weather balloons.   The photo issue causes dizzy views...more on this is on Bob Riddle's response from his use.  Sriam,  the software connection to personal data comes through personal use.  The conference and webinars by Dept of Energy, Better Buildings...are ones you may not receive but tie to industry through use of data as direct measurement. Check their info out...and ...You should all be excited that we are connecting!