Winter 1999, Volume VII - No. 1

501 E. St. Joseph Street

Rapid City, SD 57701-3995

(605) 394-1975, FAX (605) 394-5360

Internet: lallen@silver.sdsmt.edu

Web site: http://www.sdsmt.edu/space

This newsletter is available at the above web site.

Future issues will only be sent regular mail to those recipients who request it. We publish one issue late each winter. Please contact us if you want to receive a printed copy.

The 5th Annual South Dakota Space Day will be held Friday, April 23, 1999, at Black Hills State University in Spearfish. The theme for this year's event, which is organized by the South Dakota Space Grant Consortium (SDSGC), is "NASA and the Environment: Where Earth and Space Meet."

The keynote speaker for South Dakota Space Day '99 will be Roger Zwieg, a NASA senior research pilot who is a native of Watertown. The purpose of Space Day is to provide hands-on interactive demonstrations to create excitement and interest in math, science, technology and the environment for all those who participate, as well as create an awareness of industry and educational resources available in South Dakota. Educational programs and exhibits will cover various topics that correlate NASA space programs to life on earth. Featured displays will include an Apollo EMU space suit, "Food for Space," and simulated moon rocks.

Based on previous attendance at Space Day events, over 2000 students of all K-12 grade levels are expected to participate in Space Day '99. Approximately13,000 students have attended previous Space Day activities over the past four years. This year's event is sponsored by Black Hills FiberCom, Black Hills Corporation's new telecommunications subsidiary, which will be providing a full suite of communications services to Rapid City and the Northern Black Hills beginning this summer.

Space Day is an outreach education project of the South Dakota Space Grant Consortium (SDSGC), which is supported in part by a grant from NASA. Black Hills State University (BHSU), an SDSGC educational affiliate, is hosting this year's event. SDSGC members include the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology (SDSM&T), South Dakota State University (SDSU), Augustana College, and the EROS Data Center. Industrial affiliates are Horizon's Inc., Rapid City; Raven Industries, Sioux Falls; and Raytheon STX, Sioux Falls. Educational affiliates include BHSU, Cheyenne River Community College, Lower Brule Community College, Oglala Lakota College, Sinte Gleska University, Sisseton Wahpeton Community College, Sitting Bull College, Science Linkages in the Community (SLIC), Scientific Knowledge for Indian Learning & Leadership (SKILL), South Dakota Discovery Center & Aquarium, and the Teaching SMARTSM program of Girls Inc., Rapid City.

Dr. Sherry Farwell, SDSM&T Dean of Graduate Education & Sponsored Programs, is director of the SDSGC, whose office is located on the SDSM&T campus. For additional information, contact Linda Allen, South Dakota Space Day Chair, or Annmarie Merager, SDSGC Outreach Coordinator, at (605) 394-1975.

Space Day, an outreach education project sponsored this past year by South Dakota Space Grant Consortium, South Dakota State University, and the South Dakota Discovery Center was hailed as the state's premier event to promote aviation, aerospace, science, mathematics and technology education. The program included numerous hands-on exhibits, state-of-the-art technology displays and various interactive opportunities.

The day-long event was held in a different part of the state in 1998 in order to reach as many students and teachers as possible. Over 2000 students attended the event.

The 1998 keynote speaker was NASA Astronaut and South Dakota native Sam Gemar, who was born in Yankton and raised in Scotland. He received his bachelor's degree in engineering from the U.S. Military Academy in 1979 and has since received numerous honors and medals, including two National Defense Service Medals. He is a member of the South Dakota Aviation Hall of Fame and the recipient of the South Dakota Newspaper Association 1993 Distinguished Service Award.

Selected by NASA in June 1985, Gemar completed a one-year training and evaluation program and became an astronaut in July 1986. Since then he has served on numerous flight missions, most recently the Space Shuttle Columbia in 1994, which was the second longest Space Shuttle mission to date, concluding after 13 days.

Currently, Gemar is chief of Flight Test Operations and Safety at Bombardier Aerospace, the third largest manufacturer of civil aircraft in the world. Members of the South Dakota Space Grant Consortium, supported in part by a grant from NASA, are the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, South Dakota State University, Augustana College and EROS Data Center.

The Consortium has added several new educational affiliates this year. All South Dakota Tribal colleges, Cheyenne River Community College, Lower Brule Community College, Oglala Lakota College, Sinte Gleska University, Sisseton Wahpeton Community College as well as Sitting Bull College in North Dakota with two branch campuses in South Dakota are now affiliated with the SDSGC. Teaching SMARTSM, an organization of Rapid City Girls Inc., Science Linkages in the Community (SLIC), and Black Hills State University have also affiliated this year. Black Hills State University will be the on site host for the 1999 SD Space Day on April 23.

The South Dakota Weather Station Project is also expanding and now includes five West River middle school classes under the guidance of Larry Hines and Dr. Doug MacTaggart working with SDSM&T Space Grant Scholars Angie Monheim and Lisa Teeslink. The SD Space Grant Consortium provided the weather stations to the schools. (see related story page 5)

Personnel changes within the office were effective in January with the change in Outreach Coordinator for the Consortium. Linda Allen who has held the position since 1992 is now the Director of Special Projects and will leave the Consortium in June to work more with her family business. Annmarie Merager is the new Outreach Coordinator. Her background in science education has already been a definite asset to the Consortium.

With the expansion of the SDSGC web site we will reduce the number of copies of this newsletter which are mailed and provide the newsletter on our home page at space.html. If you are not able to access the newsletter on line please notify our office immediately so we can provide a copy through the regular mail.

We are excited about the SD Space Day 1999 and our keynote speaker Roger Zwieg who is a native of South Dakota and a NASA research pilot. We have been fortunate to have native South Dakotans participate in our annual Space Day. Last year and in 1995 Astronaut Chuck Gemar was the speaker. It is always inspirational for students to be able to visit with these very successful people. As we move into the next millennium we are planning for Space Day 2000 which will be in Sioux Falls at Augustana College, a member of the SDSGC. The speaker will be NASA Astronaut Story Musgrave, M.D.

Red Cloud High School is the third school in the country to be wired for the new NASA program entitled, "You Be the Scientist." This program introduces technology into secondary education systems to help students become "technology literate." It allows students to have fun while learning science and electronic communication and computer skills.

Currently, no other middle or high school program of this kind exists, yet, it is poised to go nationwide in the next couple of years and fifteen schools around the country will be running the program in a Beta Test mode by the end of September.

We are learning how to best integrate it into traditional curricula, while still introducing essential, new technical materials. The Beta Test schools have different approaches, such as Earth Science; Technology Education; Visualization of Basic Principles in Math, Physics, Chemistry, Sociology, Geography, etc; Multi-media; and more. Their feedback will guide NASA in tailoring these incredible, unique tools towards what is needed.

Red Cloud is a pioneer in this program and are currently leading the way. We'll see if they can maintain their momentum and path to find the way into the 21st century.

What’s Involved?

The mission statement of "You Be the Scientist" is to increase interest and aptitude in the fields of math, science, and technology at the middle and secondary levels to develop technical literacy.

The students receive raw, real time satellite data that they turn into images on their PCs. They can enhance the data anyway they wish and compare the products they make to those they find on the Internet. They have the same data the Air Weather Services uses and a roomful of equipment built-into their desktop computers. They can get their data from the satellites directly, or via cable or direct TV.

The program gets students’ attention with exciting imagery of their Earth in motion. They start to ask questions and begin to get actively involved. It provides a forum for answers as the teacher leverages questions into learning. Students learn problem solving in groups and tech ed by exploring science.

The program provides excellent hands-on technology, as all images are received only seconds after the satellite transmits its data. This brings endless possibilities as students have the opportunity to test real-life hypotheses.

Students are engaged in other activities such as:

• Tracking wildfires and predicting storm movements

• Analyzing cloud temperatures with rain correlation

• Demonstrating principles of Physics and Chemistry

• Posing questions to kids around the country

• Customizing their image products and e-mailing them

• Presenting their findings in their own web pages

Students are miraculously transformed into technological scientists as they use their data to solve problems, e-mail other schools and surf the web for corroborating data. They also send their final image products over phone lines and gain a firm understanding of the inseparable link between science and technology.

For the third consecutive year, college students from around the country will investigate a variety of scientific disciplines from inside a NASA aircraft in a student program originating from NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX.

NASA's 1999 Reduced Gravity Student Flight Opportunities Program, funded by NASA and administered by the Texas Space Grant Consortium, Austin, TX will take up to 96 teams of undergraduate students aloft in a KC-135A aircraft to study the effects of microgravity on various scientific experiments. This year, the students will fly in two separate sessions with the first 48 teams flying in March and the rest in August.

The NASA KC-135A aircraft flies over the Gulf of Mexico. During each two to three hour flight, the aircraft maneuvers through a series of about 40 steep climbs and descents, called parabolas. Depending on the precise trajectory flown by the plane, the passengers and their experiments can experience about 25 seconds of a zero-gravity environment on each parabola.

The KC-135A aircraft is used to introduce astronauts to the feeling of microgravity, test hardware and experiments destined for spaceflight, and evaluate medical protocols that may be used in space.

During the student campaign, teams of up to four students and a professional journalist will fly aboard the aircraft to conduct and evaluate their experiments. The journalist will document and report on the students' efforts. A supervising professor and a student ground-support team will remain at Ellington Field near Johnson to support their flying counterparts.

Months before they get to fly on the KC-135A, known as the "weightless wonder," the students must identify, develop and test their experiments. The experiments are critiqued for scientific merit and extensively safety-reviewed prior to the flight by NASA experts.

The first 48 teams of students, divided into Group A and Group B, will report to Ellington Field from March 8 - 20, and March 15 - 27, respectively. During the first week of their two-week visit to Houston, program participants receive pre-flight training and assemble and test their experiment packages. During the second week, the students fly with their experiments, adjusting equipment as needed, and conducting post-flight debriefings and reviews. Each team also is required to develop a program for sharing the results of its experiment with teachers, students and the general public following the conclusion of the flight campaign. Participants must analyze their data, prepare applicable education and information materials, and submit final post-flight reports.

The Spring 1999 student campaign, which will support 48 teams in August, is currently accepting applications. Student proposals for that campaign should be directed to Mr. Burke Fort, Director NASA Reduced Gravity Student Flight Opportunities, Texas Space Grant Consortium, 3925 West Braker Lane, Suite 200, Austin, TX 78759.

A list of the selected teams and additional information about the program can be found on the Internet at the following URL: http://www.tsgc.utexas.edu/floatn/

The Texas Space Grant Consortium is a component of the National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program, which is administered by NASA.

ACE Camp '99 will be held July 11 - 15. This will be the eighth summer that the Aerospace Career and Education (ACE) Camp will be held at South Dakota State University. Information and application materials will be sent to all South Dakota math and science teachers. Students in grades 9 - 12 with interests in any aspects of aerospace and/or aviation activities (careers) are encouraged to apply. Enrollment is limited to 25 and tuition is $215. A limited number of full and partial scholarships, based on need, are available.

Aerospace Career and Education Camp gives high school students (1) more knowledge on the importance of aviation in the world today, (2) an understanding of how aviation and aerospace industries have grown to what they are today, and (3) an awareness of some of the future developments and wide variety of career opportunities. Students are given the opportunity to spend 30 minutes of in-flight training with a certified flight instructor in a small aircraft. Other activities include hot air balloon demonstration and rides, visits to the SD Air National Guard, Doppler 2000 Storm Center, Air Ambulance, Aviation Maintenance Technical department at Lake Area Technical Institute, and EROS Data Center.

For further information please contact:

Mariah Tenamoc

SD Space Grant Consortium Engineering Resource Center

Box 2220, Harding Hall, South Dakota State University

Brookings, SD 57007

(605) 688-6341 • FAX (605) 688-5880

All SD school administrators will receive e-mail from SDSGC regarding NASA outreach programs and activity links. Our outreach office will update a summary of NASA science, math, and technology resources for K-12 teachers.

Help us keep in touch with you by sending your email address to Annmarie Merager at amerager@silver.sdsmt.edu.

Dr. Maribeth Price, an assistant professor of geology and geological engineering at SDSM&T, was a 1998 Summer Faculty Fellow to the U.S. Geological Survey’s EROS Data Center working to integrate radar and Landsat TM mapping from SDSM&T. Radar remote sensing instruments, which are sensitive to geometry, roughness, and dielectric properties of imaged surfaces, may have potential for contributing this information to geologic mapping studies using Landsat TM data. The study fused L-band and C-band quad-polarimetric radar from the SIR-C/X-SAR mission with a Landsat TM scene in southwestern Nevada, and applied principal components analysis, band ratios, and other standard image processing techniques to the fused imagery. The ability of the two types of data to discriminate lithologic units both separately and in concert was evaluated by comparing the analysis results with a 1:250,000 digital geologic map. The radar shows some ability to make lithologic distinctions, and could be effective for automatically discriminating alluvial units from outcrop, which is difficult using TM alone. In this study, however, the contributions from the radar are subtle. Further work could show whether the radar information is just not suitable for this application, or alternatively whether more quantitative techniques are required to extract it. This results of this study were presented at the 13th International Conference on Applied Geologic Remote Sensing in Vancouver, BC, March 1-3, 1999.

Angie Monheim, received her BS degree in Electrical Engineering from SDSM&T and is currently a graduate student in Electrical Engineering. She is involved with the SDSM&T Solar Motion Team as the coordinator for the Instrumentation Team. Angie received a Space Grant fellowship for her work with the weather balloon research project. She also participates in various other SDSGC sponsored activities. She is a past chair of the SDSM&T IEEE Student Branch and directs the SDSM&T Pep Band.

Angie is also a free-lance musician in the Rapid City area, playing trumpet in various bands, ensembles, churches and contests. Besides playing music, she enjoys softball, science fiction, writing, paintball and trivia.

Lisa Teeslink is completing her MS in electrical engineering at SDSM&T. She has been a SD Space Grant Scholar for two years. Lisa has been actively involved with the weather station and balloon research programs as well as assisting with conferences and outreach activities.

Her current electrical engineering research is with embedded systems and electronic sensor interference. future plans are to pursue a Ph.D. in the AEWR program at Tech with an atmospheric emphasis.

The SDSU 1998 award for faculty summer research at EROS went to Madeleine Andrawis. Dr. Andrawis is an associate professor of electrical engineering at South Dakota State University. She spent the summer examining soil moisture through radar measurements. Soil moisture is an important parameter for agriculture, meteorology, and hydrology. While radar technology is not new, the use of satellite or space-borne radar imagery is. Her work was done in collaboration with EROS researchers David Meyer and Zhong Lu.

The SDSU undergraduate research awards for summer 1998 were awarded to:

Joanna Ruth Even is a junior majoring in electrical engineering/engineering physics. She is working with Dr. Stephen Schiller an research involving calibration and evaluation of a low-cost miniature spectrograph for remote sensing and astronomical application.

Sarah A. Buchholz is a senior Nutrition/Food Science major. She worked with Dr. Padmanaban Krishnan on a project dealing with shelf stability and efficacy of cereals and oil seeds for use in space food.

Denise Malo, a junior in Environmental Management and Agronomy, worked under the mentorship of Dr. David Clay. Denise compared remotely sensed information from Landsat TM and Aerborn Data Systems with yield monitor information. This information is valuable in that it can be used to evaluate week, insect, and nutrient management strategies and to develop future management strategies that reduce the impact of agricultural activities on the environment.

Dr. Daniel Swets, assistant professor in the Computer Science Department at Augustana College, is the Associate Director of the SD Space Grant Consortium and the contact point for the Consortium's activities at Augustana College.

As a 1998 SD Space Grant Summer Faculty Fellow, he received funding from the SDSGC and Augustana College to continue the initial progress made in algorithm developments on behalf of the USGS EROS Data Center (EDC) in the robust statistical smoothing of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index(NDV) data. Due in part to the connections and initial activities performed under the Space Grant, Dr. Swets was able to secure additional funding to further pursue these algorithmic needs at EDC for an 18:1 payoff for the activities sponsored by the South Dakota Space Grant Consortium.

Prof. Marcia S. Entwistle is an assistant professor in the Computer Science Department at Augustana College. Her project entailed the performance of Speech recognition software under conditions of human fatigue. The purpose of this research project is to determine if automated speech recognition performance deteriorates, as measured by a decline in recognition accuracy, as the speaker becomes physically fatigued. The project will help determine if a relationship exists between human fatigue and the ability of speech recognition software to correctly recognize human speech. Using a NASA summer research grant, Prof. Entwistle completed objective and subjective means for measuring human fatigue and physical exertion. This led to the decision to use Borg's Perceived Rate of Exertion (PRE) as a subjective means of measuring the subject's fatigue. The support enabled the finalization of a research protocol for the experiment including the selection of hardware and software components that meet a minimum standard for non-speaker dependent recognition. By testing the software on various hardware configurations, it became clear that different hardware configurations have a sizable impact on recognition accuracy and thereby determined minimum hardware configurations for this research project.

Catherine Van Note is a junior at Augustana College and her hometown is Minneapolis, Minnesota. Her project developed a weighted least squares linear regression approach to temporal NDVI smoothing to more efficiently reduce contamination in the NDVI signal. This approach uses windows of n temporal points for calculating a regression line. The window is moved one period at a time, resulting in a family of regression lines for each point; this family of lines is then averaged. Since the factors that cause contamination serve to reduce NDVI values, this technique uses a weighting factor that favors peak points over sloping or valley points. A final operation assures that all peak NDVI values are retained. The resulting relationship between the smoothed curve and the original data are statistically based.

Seth Norris is a junior at Augustana College and his hometown is Estherville, Iowa. His project provided a review of cluster-computing research as it pertains to the use of commonly available hardware. The project sought to summarize the options cluster computing offers and analyze the performance, price, and compatibility issues involved in the implementation of a parallel system via a network with an eye towards implementing a parallel system with Intel 486-based systems.

Joey Gleason is an Augustana College senior from Nicollet, Minnesota. His project began a study of the parallel implementation of computer vision and image processing algorithms for the production of real-time, cost-effective image processing systems using PVM. Cluster analysis is very computationally intensive, and would benefit greatly by parallel analysis and implementation. This type of unsupervised classification is frequently utilized on data available from the US Geological Survey EROS Data Center, Sioux Falls, SD, which has a strong tie with Augustana College through a NASA contract to provide logistics and related services to the Data Center. The applications of this unsupervised classification include land cover classification of large raster images data including, for example, the entire Great Plains at a spatial resolution of 1km, 6 layers of data, over a t least 36 time periods.

Cullin Robbins is an Augustana College junior form Wheatland, Wyoming. The purpose of this experiment was to quantify relationships between biomass and remotely sensed data collected, at the EROS Data Center, Sioux Falls, South Dakota. In addition to biomass, she also attempted to establish relationships between reflectance and other biophysical parameters, e.g., leaf area index, absorbed photosynthetically active radiation, and plant phenology. A related objective was to test the hypothesis that C3 and C4 species could be differentiated on the basis of seasonal variations in spectral reflectance. Measurements were taken at Cedar Creek Natural History Area, a Long Term Ecological Research site, located approximately 25 miles north of Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota. The measurements were taken on experimental plots of which the specific species were known. Three different types of measurements were taken.

First, the amount of light that was reflected off the different vegetation types was measured with a Multispectral Radiometer. This instrument performs similar operations i.e., special bands, to that of the satellites used to collect the data from space. Second, an estimation of leaf area index was made using an LAI-2000 leaf are meter. Third, the amount of light that was absorbed by the canopy was measured with an instrument called a ceptometer. These measurements were taken throughout the growing season at set intervals. The radiometer measurements were taken every other week beginning in early May. The other two measurements were taken every month starting in late May. Also, clippings were taken from selected plots so that exact leaf area and biomass could be determined. Radiometer measurements were taken both pre and post clip on these plots so that exact leaf area and biomass could be determinant. Radiometer measurements were done post clip. These clippings were done 4 times throughout the growing season at intervals of about 3 weeks starting in mid-June.

The South Dakota Space Grant Consortium (SDSGC) recently provided five middle school teachers from western South Dakota with weather station training on the SDSM&T campus. Funded by a NASA grant from the National Space Grant and Fellowship Program Office, the South Dakota Weather Station Network is sponsored by the SDSGC, in which SDSM&T is the lead institution. The weather station pilot project is a collaborative effort between SDSM&T and Black Hills State University.

Teachers from Buffalo, Kadoka, Sturgis, Rockyford (Porcupine), and Tiospaye Topa (Ridgeview) were trained to use weather stations that collect temperature, humidity, pressure, wind and rain data. Ron Johnson, Research Assoc. Prof. of Meteorology, IAS, presented the teachers with information on national weather data collection and regional forecasting.

The middle school science teachers were provided with a weather station system and associated software that records and processes the meteorological data. The schools will collect the data and then e-mail the reports weekly to SDSGC’s headquarters at SDSM&T. The data will eventually be put on a web site for access by researchers, teachers, students and the general public.

"NASA’s support of this project is fostering many exciting opportunities to develop students’ interest in math, science and technology at an early age," stated Dr. Sherry Farwell, SDSM&T Dean of Graduate Education & Research, who also serves as SDSGC Director. "This project provides a good example of collaboration between higher education and K-12 schools in South Dakota."

Co-directors of the South Dakota Weather Station Network pilot project are Dr. Douglas MacTaggart, SDSM&T Research Scientist, and Dr. Larry Hines, BHSU Math/Science Educator and interim co-director of BHSU Center of Excellence for Mathematics and Science Education.

Michael Roggenthen fifth grade student at Hill City Elementary School was the 1998 first place national winner of the Intergalactic Art Contest sponsored by NASA/NSTA Space Science Student Involvement Program. He used NASA education resources from the SD Space Grant Consortium and TIE as part of his research for the art project. Michael and two team members just finished 2 NASA projects, "Mission to Mars" which explores the Vales Marineras with a solar powered plane and "Watching Earth Change" which looks at rejuvenation following the 1988 Galena Fire in Custer State Park. Michael also recently earned his Arrow of Light Award in Webelos and will bridge over to the Boy Scouts this spring.

The USGS EROS Data Center celebrated 25 years of "Exploring Our Planet" with an open house in September. A record 10,285 people visited EROS. 350 EDC volunteers gave tours and answered questions as visitors had full access to EDC. Exhibitors included the SD Space Grant Consortium affiliates SDSM&T, Augustana College, and SDSU. EROS is also a member of the SDSGC.

Former NASA Astronaut Mary Cleave was the keynote speaker. She gave two talks describing her experiences as a mission specialist aboard the Space Shuttle. Educational activities during the day included a series of four hands-on booths which challenged middle school students to learn how EROS staff receive, archive, correct, and analyze data.

A volunteer group of EROS staff also visited 6th and 7th grade classrooms in the Sioux Falls area the week before the open house to present classroom activities based on aerial photos and satellite images.

Augustana Science Day was held on October 23, 1998. This event provided hands-on science experiences for high school students. Three hundred seventy junior and senior high school students and 35 high school teachers attended this day long event. The registration was waived for 20 Native American students that also attended.

Besides participating in the hands-on sessions, two presentations were given: The opening address was titled "Become an Archeologist-Put Your Life in Ruins" by L. Adrien Hannus, a Professor of Art and Director of Archaeological Laboratories at Augustana College. The closing session was titled "Sir William Crooks Lives Again With Fun and Mystifying Demonstration." This magic show was presented by Eugene Erickson, a long time chemistry teacher from Lincoln High School in Sioux Falls. Three scholarships or fellowships were awarded to first year students majoring in the sciences. These students were: Amy Dvorak and Mark Helberg from Lincoln High School in Sioux Falls and Andrea Meyer from Brookings. A $500 award was presented to Theresa Putnam from the Sioux Valley School District for the Science and Math teacher of the year. Next year's Augustana Science Day has tentatively been set for Friday, October 22, 1999.

The Onida Composite Civil Air Patrol Squadron was called to Spearfish July 28 to help find an airplane that disappeared July 26. The airplane left Spearfish enroute to Brookings by way of Pierre. Those from Onida assisting in the search effort were Capt Nancy McKenney, Cadets Brad Miles and Tina McKenney.

Capt. McKenny's duties were answering phones, gathering details the community could give to help in the search, answering the media questions, as well as flying in the CAP airplane conducting the search and being part of a ground team.

Due to the difficult terrain in the search area, the Army National Guard was also involved and had CAP members ride in Guard Humvees as observers. Cadets Miles and McKenney spent most of their time in the Humvee going where no vehicle could go. These machines go over falled trees, over 21" walls, and up steep inclines. They also spent time interviewing the residents.

On any given day there were from 30 to 50 Civil Air Patrol senior and cadets working either on the ground or in the air. Finally a tip came in from Lead, SD reporting a possible sighting of the aircraft. A team interviewed the people making the report and within a few hours an aircraft and ground crew had found the missing airplane.

After the plane was found, the Humvee was used to try and blaze a trail to the site. Cadets spent 6 days at Spearfish and were a very important part of the search.

Capt Nancy McKenney - Onida,SD

Teaching SMART, a program of Girls Incorporated® of Rapid City (formerly Operation SMART Western South Dakota project), sponsored the 8th Annual Equity in Education Conference at the Rushmore Plaza Holiday Inn, Rapid City, South Dakota, on Friday, January 22, 1999.

The theme of the conference was "Celebrating Success in Fairness." Dr. Ann MacKenzie, Project Evaluator, reported on the five-year evaluation of Teaching SMART in western South Dakota classrooms. Dr. MacKenzie also conducted a session on "The Wonder of Alternative Assessment." A second speaker, Marlene Rothermel from the Technology Innovations in Education (TIE) office in Rapid City, spoke on "Technology in Our Classrooms: Promise and Challenge."

The Teaching SMART program was developed by Girls Incorporated® of Rapid City, a program of Youth and Family Services, and is based on the Girls Incorporated® program Operation SMART. With the financial assistance of The Bush Foundation of St. Paul, The National Science Foundation, and other sources, Girls Incorporated® of Rapid City has researched, developed, tested, implemented, and evaluated this program for elementary science classrooms. After five years of successful implementation, Teaching SMART is now available to school districts nationwide.

The Teaching SMART program was one of three math, science, and technology programs for girls featured on a CBS news segment on "Girls in Education." Teaching SMART is an educational affiliate of the SDSGC.

The program will increase elementary student confidence in science skills; increase content knowledge; increase problem-solving skills; and increase elementary teacher's use of equitable hands-on, inquiry based teaching methods. The methodology and activities becomes the central science program for the teachers involved. Wonder, anticipation, investigation, and constructive conversations are part of the lesson. Teachers begin to infuse some of the Teaching SMART ideology into the rest of their curriculum, teaching, and in interactions with children. Teachers readily voice the importance equity now plays in their classrooms - not just in science class, but throughout the entire day, whether at lunch, on the playground, or in the classroom

Pam Christol, NASA Education Specialist will present the latest in NASA teacher resource materials during the Aerospace Teacher Workshops June 21-25.

Sponsored by the SD Space Grant Consortium, these interactive, hands-on workshops are designed to get the latest aerospace and aeronautics education resources to teachers and youth organization leaders in a fast paced summer workshop. K-12 teachers will receive FREE lesson plans, videos, CD ROM's, posters, how-to projects and experiments to use in their classrooms.

Other presenters during the week will be Bill Daley, climatologist/geographer at Hernandez Engineering in Houston, TX, sub contractor to NASA's Space Shuttle Earth Observation Project; Dennis Yeager, Director Aerospace Education North Central Liaison Region Civil Air Patrol; Al Neal, Rapid City Flight Standards Office Federal Aviation Administration.

The two workshops will be held simultaneously at Augustana College and the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology and presenters will rotate between the campuses. In addition to the classroom program, there will be field trips to area resources involved in aerospace/aeronautics.

Mini grants up to $150.00 are available for Native American teachers. Teachers should submit a letter requesting assistance and describe how you will use the materials in your classroom to integrate math, science, and technology throughout the curriculum.

The cost is $150.00 for college credit or $50.00 non-credit or re-certification only. A check must accompany the registration form. Registration deadline is June 1. Enrollment is limited to 24 participants at each workshop site. If interested, please fill out the form below or for more information call the SD Space Grant Consortium 394-1975, e-mail lallen@silver.sdsmt.edu.

Name___________________________________________________

SSN_____________________ Address_____________________

City/SD/Zip________________________________________

School & Address__________________________________________________

Phone: Home _________________________ Work___________________________

Workshop site: Check Appropriate Categories

Fee must accompany registration. Make checks payable to SD Space Grant Consortium/Foundation

Kristie Maher was appointed Executive Director of the SD Discovery Center and Aquarium in February upon the resignation of Craig DeTample. Kristi is a graduate of the USD with degrees in elementary and special education. She taught elementary and special education in Minneapolis and Fort Pierre before starting at the Center in 1996. Prior to her new position she served as the SD Water Festival Coordinator, museum educator and Lewis & Clark Curriculum project coordinator for the Discovery Center. Kristie's major goal for the Center is to add some high drama exhibits and to offer more science events to the general public.

Annmarie Merager is the new Outreach Coordinator for the SDSGC with an office at SDSMT. Annmarie has a BS degree from the University of Wyoming in science education with double majors in zoology and biology. She is also the part-time state coordinator for Project Learning Tree.

Heather Schilling became the Director for SKILL following the resignation of Philip Huebner. Heather has MS degrees in K-12 curriculum and instruction and in K-12 administration from SDSU. Her undergraduate education was from SDSM&T and BS degrees from BHSU in elementary and special education and endorsements for middle school.

She has worked as a first, second and fifth grade teacher and special education coordinator in Manderson, SD. Following that, she worked for the Pennington County Sheriff's Office and the Western SD Juvenile Services Center and taught all subject areas for 4-12 grade adjudicated youth and managed the Title I program. She still manages that program and tutors youth in addition to her new responsibilities at SKILL.

SKILL is gearing up for another fun and exciting summer with the NASA Honors Summer Science Camp at SDSM&T. Heather is looking for interested students to attend and staff to teach or monitor the students. SKILL is also exploring ways of incorporating the summer explorations with school year learning.

Mariah Tenamoc, a Ph.D. candidate in sociology at SDSU is coordinating outreach for the Consortium at SDSU. Formerly known as Darla Christensen, Mariah coordinated ACE Camp '98 and will coordinate ACE Camp '99 also. She is a native of North Dakota, has a BS degree in Sociology with a minor in Business Administration and an MS degree in Sociology from North Dakota State University, Fargo.

Prior to her work at SDSU, she worked in various capacities with a multidisciplinary, international research effort managed by the North Dakota Water Resources Research Institute. The effort culminated in a volume compiling 14 research projects, co-edited by Mariah with Dr. Jay Leitch, NDSU, to be published in the U.S. and Canada. Mariah hopes to teach and conduct research at the college level after completing her current program.

Larry Hines from BHSU is the new Coordinator for the SD Space Grant Consortium's Weather Station Network at SDSM&T. He also serves as a liaison for the SDSGC between the two universities.

He has a BS from BHSU and began his professional career as a high school math and science teacher in Broadus, MT. From there he went to Klamath Falls, OR to teach 9th grade algebra. In 1968 he received an NFS Fellowship to obtain his MS degree at the University of Wyoming. Following completion of that degree, he returned to his home town of Sturgis, SD where he taught mathematics and physics for 25 years. He became a resident teacher at BHSU in 1994 and has continued that association as a mathematics and science educator focusing on elementary methods. He also maintains a close relationship with the BHSU Center of Excellence in Mathematics and Science Education.

South Dakota Space Grant Consortium

501 E. St. Joseph Street

Rapid City, SD 57701-3995

Return Service Requested

Established by NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) March 1, 1991.

Purpose: to enhance coordination between higher education, government and industry.

Funding: provided by NASA with matching funds from Consortium members

Internet: lallen@silver.sdsmt.edu

Web site: http://www.sdsmt.edu/space