MCCC Builds STEM Partnerships, Literacy Through PA Space Grant Consortium‏

Blue Bell, PA —Montgomery County Community College (MCCC) is the newest member, and the first community college in the Commonwealth, to join the Pennsylvania Space Grant Consortium (PSGC) under a three-year, $36,000 project, which is funded in part by NASA and is developed in coordination with Temple University.

In its role, MCCC is charged with inspiring educators and equipping them with the strategies, tools and resources to engage students in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) literacy. This includes building strategic partnerships between formal and informal STEM education providers and the industry. Montgomery’s Engineering program will accomplish its objective in three ways: by building on the work of its Student Engineering Research and Nanotechnology Laboratory (SERNL); by offering engineering outreach programs at local high schools; and by investing in undergraduate internship and scholarship programs.

“These initiatives focus on mentoring engineering students and exposing them to innovative research opportunities throughout the educational pipeline—starting in high school and continuing through graduation from a four-year university,” explained Dr. David DiMattio, dean of STEM at MCCC.

Research is the key focus of MCCC’s Student Engineering Research and Nanotechnology Laboratory (SERNL), which functions as an incubator for emerging technologies. The lab was initially created in 2013 to support MCCC’s QuadForge Undergraduate Research Program, an open source research project that affords freshmen and sophomore engineering and computer science students with the opportunity to develop autonomous quadrotor flight vehicles, also known as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs).

As part of the QuadForge project, students began developing and testing a world-first nanotechnology weatherization coating, in cooperation with industry partners, that allows UAVs to fly in bad weather environments, such as sea mist, snow and rain. The PSGC funding will enable students to continue experiments with advanced hydrophobic and superhydrophobic nanotech developments, as well as to explore new materials, such as knitted nanofibers.

“The work students are doing in our SERNL incubator has the potential of protecting NASA-related payloads and other industrial endeavors from water, oil and hydraulic fluids. This is groundbreaking stuff!” said DiMattio.

For the outreach portion of the PSGC project, MCCC will build on its successful partnership with North Penn High School (NPHS), where, for the past three years, SERNL students and faculty have introduced high school students to STEM disciplines, like mechanical and electrical engineering, chemistry, math and computer science, and key topics and concepts, such as design processes and tools and systems engineering.

This past summer, NPHS and MCCC students achieved another world first by immersing live electronic components in water for 11 continuous days without a failure and performing underwater assembly of multiple mechanical and electronic components. This fall, MCCC and NPHS’ Engineering Academy are partnering with Florida-based UltraTech International to continue their exploration of nanotech coatings for electronic components. The PSGC funding will enable MCCC to expand these programs to more high schools in order to increase STEM literacy among junior and senior high school students in the region.

The final portion of MCCC’s PSGC project will focus on growing undergraduate internship and scholarship opportunities for students by building strategic partnerships and linkages between STEM education and STEM industry.

“Internships and scholarships are critical tools in keeping undergraduate STEM students focused on their studies,” said DiMattio. “Select students can engage in research at a lower financial burden and can, at the same time, increase their skills and proficiencies in emerging STEM technologies.”

MCCC’s partnership with Temple University will also continue to provide students with unique opportunities. For example, last summer, two MCCC students had the opportunity to observe sounding rocket payload launches at Wallops Island, Va. as part of Temple Engineering’s RockOn grant project.

To learn more about Montgomery County Community College’s Engineering programs, visit http://www/mc3.edu/academics, then click on Areas of Study, followed by STEM.

Ozone Hole Stabilizing But Not Shrinking Yet

English: Ozone Hole (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The hole in the ozone layer is stabilizing but will take until about 2070 to fully recover, according to new research by NASA scientists.

The assessment comes more than two decades after the Montreal Protocol, the international treaty that banned chlorofluorocarbons and other compounds that deplete the ozone layer, which shields the planet from harmful ultraviolet rays.

Levels of chlorine in the atmosphere are falling as a result of the treaty, but have not yet dropped below the threshold necessary to have a shrinking effect on the ozone hole that forms each year over Antarctica, according to scientists at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. They presented their findings last week at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/news/nation/2013/12/16/Ozone-hole-stabilizing-but-not-shrinking-yet/stories/201312160113#ixzz2neqxGjk1

NASA Discovers Two Earth-Like Planets; Penn State Grad On Scientific Team

An artist’s depiction of an extrasolar, Earthlike planet.. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Two planets orbiting a distant star represent the first Earth-sized planets to be discovered at a distance from the host sun that allows them to be warm enough to sustain liquid water, an essential element to support life.

The NASA-led project, involving a Beaver Falls native and 2003 graduate of Penn State Erie, discovered five planets orbiting the star Kepler-62 that lies 1,000 light-years from Earth.  One of those planets is 1.6 times the size of Earth and another is 1.4 times Earth’s size.

Planets as large as three times the size of Earth are terrestrial, or made of rock.  Larger planets typically comprise gases or a combination of gases and rock, which would not support life, said Justin R. Crepp, now an assistant professor of physics the University of Notre Dame.

While Earth-like planets within the habitable zone represent the holy grail of astronomy, technology in development will be necessary to determine whether the two planets contain oxygen, carbon dioxide, methane or water — all elements necessary for life.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/news/science/nasa-discovers-two-earth-like-planets-penn-state-grad-on-scientific-team-684053/#ixzz2QqgVJ0qg

Neil Armstrong, 1st Man On The Moon, Dies At 82

Neil Armstrong, one of the first two men to land on the Moon, and the first to walk on it, in 1969 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Cincinnati, OH – Neil Armstrong was a soft-spoken engineer who became a global hero when as a steely-nerved pilot he made “one giant leap for mankind” with a small step onto the moon. The modest man, who had people on Earth entranced and awed from almost a quarter-million miles away, but credited others for the feat, died Saturday. He was 82.

Armstrong died following complications resulting from cardiovascular procedures, his family said in a statement. Armstrong had had a bypass operation this month, according to NASA. His family didn’t say where he died; he had lived in suburban Cincinnati.

Armstrong commanded the Apollo 11 spacecraft that landed on the moon July 20, 1969, capping the most daring of the 20th century’s scientific expeditions. His first words after becoming the first person to set foot on the surface are etched in history books and the memories of those who heard them in a live broadcast.

Read more: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=411316

Giant Iceburg Breaking Off In Antarctic

A massive crack in a huge sheet of Antarctic ice discovered in mid-October last year is steadily growing, as seen in recently released satellite images.

The fissure in the Pine Island Glacier ice shelf marks the beginning stages of the birth of a 350-square-mile (900 square kilometers) iceberg, part of a natural process known as calving.

The image was snapped on Nov. 13, 2011, when the rift was roughly 19 miles (30 km) long, 260 feet (80 meters) wide for most of its length, and 195 feet (60 m) deep. When researchers first spotted the crack in mid-October, it was roughly 18 miles (28 km) long.

Read more and see picture: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46227647/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/stunning-photo-captures-growing-antarctic-ice-rift/

Earthquake Shortens Day, Shifts Earth’s Axis: NASA

Image via Wikipedia

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory says the March 11, magnitude 9.0 earthquake in Japan may have shortened the length of each Earth day and shifted its axis, but it says you shouldn’t notice the difference……

Read the rest of this interesting article here:

http://newsroomamerica.com/story/109755/9.0_japan_earthquake_shortens_day,_shifts_earth’s_axis:_nasa.html

NASA

Crashing rockets into the moon to see if there is water…OMG are you people serious?? 

Anyone who is thinking drugs should be legalized in the United States needs to take all this evidence into account before making any decision.  Drug use must be running wild.  Between NASA, Norway and the Nobel Peace Prize going to Obama I think we have an epidemic that nobody wants to talk about.

You heard it here first!