Science Research

A Career in Space Exploration

A career in space research is an exciting opportunity for those who love science and space exploration. Working for NASA is truly a job that can take you out of this world into new frontiers. Space has already brought many new improvements to those on earth. Understanding if there is other life outside of our galaxy is an important concern for the whole world.

All of us have a specific talent and area of gifting, and those who enjoy research can possibly provide new solutions to energy concerns around the world. Getting an education in science with a focus on space careers can open many exciting doors of opportunity.

Exploring other galaxies does come with risks, but the challenge is welcomed by many brave people. They enjoy the thrill of exploring the unknown. They enjoy tapping into technology that can advance our world in ways that some of us have never thought possible. The sky is truly not the limit when it comes to using your interest in space to be a part of NASA or some other organization that deals with space exploration.

Careers in these fields require a very strong foundation of math, science, and research. The field is highly competitive, so students have to be vigilant about excelling in all areas of education. Only the best and brightest minds get a chance to work with NASA. Our nation is in dire need of new energy sources, and exploring space may be the answer to some of our concerns about energy and global warming.

It is a good idea to talk to someone that has a career in space exploration. They will be able to share important information that can help a person in their journey toward a career in science. Visiting NASA is a good idea also. In addition, NASA offers internship opportunities that provide valuable experience and contacts for the future.

Filed Under: Research, Space Tagged With: NASA, Space exploration, SpaceX

Caught up in Your Career

Have you ever heard the expression “you are married to your career”. In so many cases people feel that if they are not tied to their work there is someone there that is ready to take their place. The truth is there is always someone that can step in and take your place.

Years ago major companies started sending their top executives on long extended vacations, forcing them to leave work because so many reports where coming out that the average executive was so burned out they were not performing at their maximum potential.

The truth can be said about any position not just top executives. When you work so much and carry over vacation time year over year it does no one any good. Not the company and especially not your family who is probably suffering the most from an absentee spouse, or father or mother.

Someone once asked the question, if you new you had 3 more days to live, would you ask to work extra time at your job or would you spend that time with the ones you love the most? Easy answer.

However getting caught up in your career is very easy to do as you always believe there will always be time to take the family on that vacation that you have been putting off or get to you child’s next event of next year there will be another anniversary and you can make up for it then.

The truth is there is never enough time and that is why we get caught up in our careers and if you don;t make the time for fun and family know one else will. So make the time and I promise there will be enough work to go around when you get back from that vacation, however you will be much more prepared to tackle the challenge after a good few days of rest and relaxation.

Filed Under: Education, General Tagged With: Career, Employment, Overtime (sports)

The Importance of a Classroom Size

In many cities in many schools around this country over crowed classroom size has become a serious problem in our public school system. In the county where I now live there is a law that states when the nineteenth student enters the room an entire new classroom and teacher must be added.

This has not always been the case just last year there were twenty six students in my daughters classroom. This creates an environment where students do not get the attention or one on one time they need to properly gather their education.

Students with a higher capacity for learning are being left alone to fend for themselves where the attention is being given to those that are struggling just to keep up. This by no means is fair to those that are in a position to further their studies and grow at a much more faster rate.

And what happens to those students if they are being given the proper allotment of time, what happens to those students who need the extra time and attention just to keep up. Well they begin to fall farther and farther behind in their studies.

I believe the county got it right in maintaining classroom size and keeping in within the realm of the teacher to adequately teach those student in their classroom and assign the proper attention to each individual student. Understanding that this costs money and more classrooms and teachers will lead to asking for higher taxes is a double edge sword. However it is a problem that needs to be addressed and was.

In your community if you are seeing the same problems with the over crowding address it and bring it to the attention of your local congressman or woman and make your voice heard. Your child’s future depends on it.

Filed Under: Education, General Tagged With: Classroom, Student, Teacher

Future NASA Missions

Discovering the planets and their composition has been a key component to NASA’s recent missions. In fact, NASA is launching several new missions in 2011. Here they are:

1. Juno is a spacecraft that will be launching in August of 2011. It is going to Jupiter to uncover many of the planet’s mysteries. Juno will take five years to reach Jupiter, and then plans to complete its mission in one year. It will orbit the planet thirty-two times and collect information about its magnetic fields, water content, and cloud motions. This data will reveal Jupiter’s chemical makeup and temperature. Jupiter also has the Northern and Southern lights that need exploring, and Juno will explore the magnetosphere near these areas. This will determine the planet’s magnetic fields and their influence on the environment.
2. A new Mars Rover, named Curiosity, is scheduled to launch late this year. It will not land on Mars until August of 2012, but scientists are trusting that it will submit key findings back to Earth. It has its own science lab on board, which will analyze molecular and elemental components relating to life on Mars. In addition to this, it will monitor environmental changes on Mars.
3. Glory is a spacecraft that will launch after February 2011. It plans to study how the sun and particles in the air affect planet Earth. The device will have an Aerosol Polarimetery Sensor and a Total Irradiance Monitor, which will unlock mysteries about the Earth’s temperatures and environmental changes. Glory will assist scientists in predicting global warming and provide information about the atmosphere in general.

Filed Under: Research Tagged With: Jupiter, Mars, NASA

Mars Exploration–Rover Mission

The Mars exploration device, called Rover, has photographed many landscapes and changes in the atmosphere on the planet. Specifically, Rover has transmitted information back to Earth about the Santa Maria crater, which is 295 feet wide. The crater has diverse textures and pictures show that the crater is roughly the size of a football field.

The exploration Rover, named Opportunity, will be studying rocks at the Santa Maria crater for the next two months. It has spent over seven years on the planet and continues to send images and information to Earth on a regular basis. The mission originally planned to last only three months, but when Opportunity did so well and continued to function flawlessly, the mission became endless.

The Rover has made important discoveries about Mars’ wet environments which may have supported life at one time. Opportunity has a twin Rover, named Spirit, that is also currently on the planet, and this vehicle has also taken extraordinary photographs and information. Currently, Spirit is stuck on Mars without the capability to transmit information. Because it is spring and the vehicle runs on solar power, scientists are attempting to communicate with Spirit while the sun’s rays are highest on the planet. NASA fears that if the vehicle does not have enough power to communicate during this season, it certainly will not in winter. Certain motors in the Rover stopped working and made it unable to obtain solar power during critical periods.

Because the sun can temporarily disrupt signals sent from Earth to the Rovers, NASA plans to refrain from any attempts to contact the vehicles between January 27 and February 11. Afterward, information will be processed again.

Filed Under: Research, Space Tagged With: Earth, Mars, Mars rover

The Importance of a High School Education

The year is 2011 and to fill out an employment application is one of the toughest things to do without an education. Some will argue that a high school education won’t get you a job that’s better than working at McDonalds. Don’t believe it and don’t sell yourself short.

Yes many employers are looking for higher educated candidates with bachelor or even masters degrees. However there is still that part of the workforce that are needed in skilled jobs that can be trained instead of taught in a college classroom.

These employers however want to know that you can be taught and that you do have the resolve to stick something out until you are given the proper training to make it in your new field. Never underestimated what a high school education is all about. It is much more than learning what is just in your history class it is what does this person consider to be important and what is their tolerance to training.

Some one once said high school is the best four years of your life, well who ever said that didn’t have much of a life after high school or wasn’t paying attention in class. High school is there to prepare you for the best years of your life. Your high school teachers are what hopes to be the first in a long line of mentors for your future.

High school is your last line of defense into the real world. Yes enjoy the time; only understand that this is simply a preparation of what is yet to come only on a much smaller scale.

All and all those that do make it out of high school with a degree and either move into the workforce or go directly to college they will soon realize that it wasn’t the best years of their lives, it was their easiest. Enjoy have fun and prepare yourself for the ride to come.

Filed Under: Education, General Tagged With: Education, High school, Master's degree

Are Teachers Under Paid?

How many arguments can be made about whether teachers are under paid or even overpaid. What do you teach, how many students in your class, do you work nine months or the entire year? All good questions to factor into the equation to debate the argument.

The bottom line is teachers are the life line of our youth in this country and the level of education they receive is crucial to what our country and economy will look like in ten or twenty years from now.

You can not say teachers are under or over paid unless you sit down with e very teacher and evaluate their performance in the classroom and the impact they have on their students. However if you can do that then i would be willing to guess every teacher would probably earn a different salary.

How do you compensate for the impact a teacher has on the life of a student? Anyone in human resources and accounting can figure out what to pay an individual for giving out and grading tests but how do you pay on the emotional curve. You don’t and you can’t, that is the problem with the system.

Performance based pay is the wave of the future, if you can produce you get paid, if you can’t well then you don’t get paid as much or you don’t have a job. This is how it works in private schools and this is why private education costs more. Private schools attract higher quality teachers that provide greater and better results. Come full circle this is why some parents pay taxes to send their children to public school buy opt out and pay even more and they end up going to a private school.

At the end of the day under paid or over paid is all relevant to what your children are getting out of their classroom. Figure out this mathematical equation and you will be able to fix the public school system.

Filed Under: Education, General Tagged With: Education, questions, Teacher

Astronaut Requirements

Requirements for becoming an astronaut are numerous. Having what it takes can be difficult; astronauts need certain personal life skills, in-the-classroom training, and personality traits. Not everyone is designed for this profession, but here are a few requirements to keep in mind:

• American astronauts must be United States citizens. Natural born citizens as well as those who have acquired citizenship are eligible.
• Astronauts must complete rigorous mathematics and science courses. They also must excel in these and possess outstanding grades. A solid understanding of science and math, as well as a post-graduate degree in one of these areas, is almost always required. NASA provides colleges with information regarding their expectations on a regular basis.
• Today, many astronauts are required to not only fly spacecraft, but to explore and understand the land they fly to. They should have a strong background in science. In most cases, astronauts are actually astronomers and engineers. They are able to take the knowledge they have learned and apply it in space.
• Most NASA associates work in research environments after graduate school. Computer programming and similar professions actually do not fly into space anymore. Those jobs are all done from earth, so students should keep that in mind when pursuing their degree.
• Graduates will interview with an Astronaut Selection Board. These individuals decide who might be a good fit within their team. Selections are based on motivation, communication skills, adaptability, and potential experience. People with high scores in all of these areas may be considered for positions with NASA.

Filed Under: Research, Space Tagged With: Astronaut, NASA, Space

NASA Discovers Arsenic-Loving Bacteria

Recent research from NASA has confirmed that there are organisms on earth that can thrive and reproduce amidst the toxic chemical arsenic. For most living things, arsenic is deadly and can cause severe health problems and genetic disruptions. However, this organism substitutes arsenic for phosphates in their cells, and can survive in disastrous conditions as a result.

Because of this molecule, scientists believe that there may be life in space that they did not recognize before. Since they know that not all life requires the same environmental basics, research will broaden as the search for life on other planets continues. New devices for locating life may be developed as well.

In the past, researchers understood that there were six main components essential for all life forms: phosphorus, oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, hydrogen, and carbon. Although scientists understood that some organisms can breathe arsenic, they had never seen one building parts of itself from this otherwise toxic chemical. The strain of bacteria, known as GFAJ-1, is a stepping stone for scientists to uncover new life forms both on earth and in space. The bacteria thrives in a lake in Menlo Park, California, and has been tested in numerous laboratories. The organisms are able to grow and live even though phosphorus was only available in small amounts, and most of it was substituted with arsenic.

The lake from which the bacteria were extracted is highly alkaline and has high salinity as well. This is contributed to its isolation from freshwater sources for many years, and scientists believe that microorganisms have adapted to it despite high arsenic levels as well.

Filed Under: General, Research Tagged With: NASA, Phosphorus, Space

Understanding the importance of research

Everybody does it to some degree. It could be a student researching for a paper to write of a project that they have coming up. It could be a high level executive researching that new client that they are looking to add. It could be that family sitting on the couch researching which movie to watch on the internet.

When it comes to research it is very simple, it is the means to gain knowledge. This is accomplished by different mediums, paper, communication and most recently the internet.

The gathering of knowledge could be defined as research. There are many ways to gather this knowledge as we have discussed and there is a great emphasis put on gathering the correct knowledge. If you understand the importance of delivering the correct information whether if it is for a grade or landing that next big contract.

Understanding where you are getting your information and to what degree it is credible information should be your first priority when researching for your project. Know that sometimes you must first research where the information is coming from. Research is a cycle and once the cycle is complete you will end up with a excellent paper or project.
So what ever your project might be and whether you plan on getting and A or hiring the best candidate for the position or just landing the next big account remember the amount and the accuracy of your research will play a big roll in how well the end result comes out.

So remember. understand your topic or product

do your do diligence on your topic and or product

verify your research two or three times

know where to gather your research and the different types you have at your disposal

once you have completed your work verify that all you have written is as accurate as possible

If you can master all these things when researching for your project, you will end up with an excellent project.

Filed Under: General, Research Tagged With: Information, Knowledge Management, Research