Great questions Barry! We were able to scale up to move from 55 students in 2019 to 333 students in 2021 reaching many more students through the virtual avenue.

 For the original on-site SEES program, 50-55 interns are chosen on the basis of their academic records, written application, recommendation letter, and video highlighting their interest in STEM. Each selected intern was placed into a team with a scientist mentor. They completed 60 hours of distance learning activities that must be accomplished prior to the residential internship. The two-week residential internship is where interns must be on-site at The University of Texas Center for Space Research. The internship included daytime research activities, experiential learning activities, evening STEM activities, and field investigation. The residential internship gives students the opportunity to experience college life by living in a dorm, participating in activities, and eating in the cafeteria.  Each year, several teachers and graduate students are selected as chaperones for the SEES program and support activities and are with the interns during the time they are on campus. The primary focus of the internship is for the students to learn how to interpret NASA data while working with scientists and engineers in their chosen area of work in the hopes that these students will major in STEM when they go to college.

 A total of 90 hours of instruction prepares the student for the internship.  30 hours of instruction  on NASA earth science content including NASA Eyes, Orbital Mechanics, Space Race, Remote Sensing, My NASA Data, GRACE, ICESat, Cryosphere, Science on a Sphere, EM Spectrum, Chasing Pluto, Kepler, and Astrobiology,  30 hours  for three-levels of Python coding, and an additional 30 hours of subject-matter content to prepare students for their individual projects.

 With the onset of the COVID 19 Virus, the shutdown of many facilities including NASA centers and universities as a response to the COVID 19 restrictions created a dilemma for the future of the 2021 program. Transitioning to a virtual environment created a rare opportunity to expand our reach to many more exceptional U.S. students from around the world. In response, the program was reorganized and reimagined to create a full virtual SEES internship experience for 333 student applicants. The 60 original students from previous years grew to a total of 333 high school sophomores and juniors from 45 US states, 1 territory, and 2 from oversees.

 In previous years, pre-internship activities would begin with 60-90 remote work hours prior to coming to the university with limited mentor contact. Mentors would hold one introductory meeting in a virtual environment, but any interaction with the students aside from that meeting was limited to email questions regarding the remote work.  However, in the 2021 SEES Virtual Internship environment, the project mentors worked through a remote classroom with the interns to support and complete the work as a team. The students were able to complete the pre-internship lessons working alongside their mentors to prepare them with the tools they needed to navigate through the virtual internship. This method not only allowed us to expand our reach but was advantageous to both the students and the NASA SME.

 The differentiated Python course was migrated to Basecamp software platform to create an all-in-one toolkit for the interns to working remotely. Mentors and undergraduate volunteers offered their Python expertise to answer questions and verify coding projects. Over 300 students completed the Python certification course, with 79 working through all three levels to complete the advance certification.

To mimic the on-site lecture discussions, students participated in a Virtual Speaker Series where they were able to interact with subject matter experts in a wide range of topics related to their projects. During the speaker presentations, there was a cumulative total of over 1,100 attendees over the 11 subject matter expert presentations. Students were guided in career and degree discovery as well as their exploration of material that related to their research.

 The internship concluded with student research teams presenting their projects to an audience of UT scientists and engineers, as well as other interns and their guests via a live Zoom webinar and Q&A. Over the course of two days, 82 team projects presented to a live audience. Student projects were prerecorded with students “in the wings” ready to answer the live questions being asked by the audience and their peers. The webinars were a huge success with over 3000 views in the last few months with a duration of three hours.

 The live public event was broadcast as a three-day event on YouTube, 2021 SEES Virtual Showcase, with presentations by selected research teams from each project. The 2021 presentations were broadcast for a national audience and can be viewed here:

 Day 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvbg218UBWY&t=23s

Day 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHjfsCmgfHY&t=12s

Day 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXyr3Eo5LgA&t=1s

 In regard to the application process, we had over 800 completed applications in 2021, with 96 teachers judging. Each application is judged by 3 teachers in round one and an additional 3 more for the top 50% in round 2. Through the application process we target underserved and underrepresented students, as well as have judges choose a judge’s choice. This student may not be the highest scoring student but a student that the judge feels would most benefit from the program. Through this method we hope to target student’s that we can “light a fire that leads to greater engagement and learning!” We have found that our judge’s choices have greatest growth through out the internship!

Thanks for asking Andresse!

We recruit through State Space Grants, minority organizations, regional centers, NASA network, and our former SEES students. Our SEES Alumni are some of the best recruiters for the program. We have a range of interns (current sophomores and juniors) from Title 1, Rural, IB, Homeschool, Private, and public schools located in 45 US states, 1 territory, and US citizens living abroad from 6 different countries.

Thank you Paige!

We love this idea with you. Please feel free to email us to explore this further: baguio@csr.utexas.edu, cmiller@csr.utexas.edu

Thank you Kim! We are so proud to be working with these future STEM leaders!

Our external evaluator has conducted the evaluation of the program while onsite and also virtual internships.  The common thread among students is that many wished to be onsite to interact with like-minded students and have a university experience.  Those working in the virtual environment also excelled in their research.  One former intern was just published in The Smithsonian Magazine with research.  Both onsite and virtual have strengths and weaknesses.  It is more difficult to "bond" with teams virtually but the research is outstanding.  Being onsite allows students to meet and learn about a broad range for projects and careers.  We are continuing this year with a hybrid experience.  We do see similar opportunities offered, mostly by universities.

NASA Langley does have a program, My NASA Data, where teachers can use datasets and research to have their students conduct authentic research in the classroom.  The combination of these two aspects builds opportunities for students.  Challenges include having teachers realize the benefit and utilize the information as well as advertising to students, particularly those in Title 1 and inner-city schools, for participation in programs such as SEES.

Thank you so much. These are amazing students with bright futures.