My Friends at NASA
This Spring, I have had the wonderful opportunity of working with professionals at the NASA Glenn Research Center to bring the Make it NASA: What Will it Take to Live on Mars? program to the Dover Middle School’s afterschool group, Study Plus.
As part of this program, (Learn more here!) we were able to speak to a young NASA engineer Thursday afternoon about careers in STEM professions and what it’s like working for NASA.
What is STEM? STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. I personally prefer STEAM, which adds Art to that mix.
STEM professions could be anything from doctors to engineers to architects.
Our NASA contact started us off by talking about her background and what she wanted to do when she grew up. Shockingly, our friend originally wanted to be a lawyer, but she soon found a love of mathematics that led her to a career in engineering.
Now she works with the Icing Research Tunnel, which simulates conditions where ice occurs on aircraft in order to test parts and develop ice protection systems.
Students got to ask all kinds of questions, from how astronauts get into the International Space Station to if there is any other planet like Earth in our galaxy and if we would ever colonize the moon.
We even talked about Minecraft. Turns out our engineer friend at NASA is a gamer.
This was a great opportunity and a really fun afternoon! I am so grateful to NASA Glenn for their outreach to schools and libraries as well as their flexibility and kindness. A very special thanks to them and to Dover Middle School for making this great connection happen!
Stay tuned to hear how the rest of the Make it NASA: What Will it Take to Live on Mars? project goes!
-Liz Strauss, Teen/Outreach Services Manager