NASA Earth Scientists Engage Students at New Orleans Schools

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Oct 27, 2010, 09:03 ET

NEW ORLEANS, Oct. 27 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- More than a dozen NASA and university scientists will visit schools in the New Orleans area Oct. 29 to encourage students to learn more about our Earth system and the importance of the view from space.

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The scientists will be in New Orleans for a conference called the "A-Train Symposium," named after a fleet of NASA satellites orbiting the planet to collect data on a variety of aspects of the Earth system, including the atmosphere, land surface and oceans.

Part of the reason for holding the symposium in New Orleans is the city's experience with Hurricane Katrina, and a desire to reach out to the people affected.

"It's about science but it's also about why we need to do the science, which is to benefit society," said scientist Chip Trepte, one of the symposium organizers. "We discovered that the people of New Orleans were really interested in what we were going to be doing here, and asked if we'd reach out to their children. We thought that was a wonderful idea."

The symposium is Oct. 25 through 28 at the Sheraton New Orleans Hotel on Canal Street. As part of the event, NASA is also engaging middle school through university students and teachers in activities at the symposium.

Events for teachers include:

One-day workshops on remote sensing and the use of satellite data in the classroom.
Student-scientist GLOBE (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment observation) campaign.
Education webcasts from NASA Edge.

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SOURCE NASA