Space, Spies and Baseball

SPREADING THE WORD:  This afternoon, I had an opportunity to talk about one of my favorite topics - NASA! - with a group of homeschooling parents. I prepared a quick PowerPoint showing just a few of the many, many ways to access NASA's vast resources.

I started by suggesting signing up for NASA's Education Express weekly email, as it's always a wealth of what's hot and now at NASA, with lots of educational opportunities and suggestions. 

I also suggested people sign up for NASA Science WOW!, another weekly email with a ton of resources delivered right to your inbox.

I also shared NASA's Educator and Student Current Opportunity pages on NASA's website:

Educators http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/current-opps-index.html

Students http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/current-opps-index.html

And, of course, I suggested people sign up to receive Jet Propulsion Laboratory's email. They often have programming and announcements of interest. We utilize JPL resources all of the time here at MPA. JPL: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/signup/

I also suggested NASA Kids Club (https://www.nasa.gov/kidsclub/index.html) as a 'safe' place to park your student if they want some screen time. There are games, videos, quizzes, and more about earth and space science.

NASA TV (https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/#public) is another great resource. I noted that they do a good job of tying programming in with current events, be it Black History month or Women's month, and so on. 

I also pointed people to NASA's launch schedule ( https://www.nasa.gov/launchschedule/), because what's cooler than watching a rocket launch?! I reminded the group that LOTS of other people are launching rockets these days, too.

Of course, I had to let people know about how to spot the International Space Station from your own yard or wherever. It's as simple as visiting https://spotthestation.nasa.gov/, and checking the schedule or signing up for email or text notifications.

While NASA is known for space exploration and programs, I noted that they are a preeminent agency when it comes to earth sciences, as well. A good portal for that kind of info is: https://www.nasa.gov/content/nasa-earth-science-news

And last but not least, I shared NASA's fabulous Eyes on the Solar System website:  https://eyes.nasa.gov/, which lets any of us be space explorers!

SPYBALL:  A couple nights back, we watched a couple of short documentaries which were part of ESPN's super popular 30 for 30 series. The first was titled "Spyball." It was about a former Major League Baseball player, Moe Berg.

He was a Princeton graduate who spoke 12 languages, He was a wonderful defensive catcher with a great arm, and a not so great bat. But what he's most famous for from a historical perspective was that Berg was no ordinary ballplayer. After he hung up his cleats, he served as a spy during World War II, serving on  spy with a top-secret mission and a license to kill

I'd definitely suggest you check it out!