[Senate Hearing 116-617]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
S. Hrg. 116-617
BUILDING THE SPACE WORKFORCE
OF THE FUTURE: STEM ENGAGEMENT
FOR A 21ST CENTURY EDUCATION
=======================================================================
HEARING
before the
SUBCOMMITTEE ON AVIATION AND SPACE
of the
COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE,
SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED SIXTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
NOVEMBER 5, 2019
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and
Transportation
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Available online: http://www.govinfo.gov
______
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
52-796 PDF WASHINGTON : 2023
SENATE COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION
ONE HUNDRED SIXTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
ROGER WICKER, Mississippi, Chairman
JOHN THUNE, South Dakota MARIA CANTWELL, Washington,
ROY BLUNT, Missouri Ranking
TED CRUZ, Texas AMY KLOBUCHAR, Minnesota
DEB FISCHER, Nebraska RICHARD BLUMENTHAL, Connecticut
JERRY MORAN, Kansas BRIAN SCHATZ, Hawaii
DAN SULLIVAN, Alaska EDWARD MARKEY, Massachusetts
CORY GARDNER, Colorado TOM UDALL, New Mexico
MARSHA BLACKBURN, Tennessee GARY PETERS, Michigan
SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO, West Virginia TAMMY BALDWIN, Wisconsin
MIKE LEE, Utah TAMMY DUCKWORTH, Illinois
RON JOHNSON, Wisconsin JON TESTER, Montana
TODD YOUNG, Indiana KYRSTEN SINEMA, Arizona
RICK SCOTT, Florida JACKY ROSEN, Nevada
John Keast, Staff Director
Crystal Tully, Deputy Staff Director
Steven Wall, General Counsel
Kim Lipsky, Democratic Staff Director
Chris Day, Democratic Deputy Staff Director
Renae Black, Senior Counsel
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SUBCOMMITTEE ON AVIATION AND SPACE
TED CRUZ, Texas, Chairman KYRSTEN SINEMA, Arizona, Ranking
JOHN THUNE, South Dakota BRIAN SCHATZ, Hawaii
ROY BLUNT, Missouri TOM UDALL, New Mexico
JERRY MORAN, Kansas GARY PETERS, Michigan
CORY GARDNER, Colorado TAMMY DUCKWORTH, Illinois
MARSHA BLACKBURN, Tennessee JON TESTER, Montana
SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO, West Virginia JACKY ROSEN, Nevada
MIKE LEE, Utah
C O N T E N T S
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Page
Hearing held on November 5, 2019................................. 1
Statement of Senator Cruz........................................ 1
Statement of Senator Sinema...................................... 3
Statement of Senator Wicker...................................... 5
Statement of Senator Capito...................................... 23
Statement of Senator Rosen....................................... 25
Statement of Senator Thune....................................... 27
Witnesses
Dr. Linda T. Elkins-Tanton, Managing Director, Interplanetary
Initiative and Principal Investigator of NASA Psyche Mission,
Arizona State University....................................... 7
Prepared statement........................................... 9
Jeffrey Manber, Chief Executive Officer, Nanoracks LLC........... 10
Prepared statement........................................... 12
J.R. (Josh) Gladden, Ph.D., Vice Chancellor for Research,
Professor of Physics, University of Mississippi................ 14
Prepared statement........................................... 16
SheLla Rivano Condino, Physics Teacher, Oakton High School....... 17
Prepared statement........................................... 19
Appendix
Response to written question submitted by Hon. Jerry Moran to:
Dr. Linda Tarbox Elkins-Tanton............................... 39
Jeffrey Manber............................................... 39
J.R. (Josh) Gladden, Ph.D.................................... 40
Sheila Rivano Condino........................................ 40
BUILDING THE SPACE WORKFORCE OF THE FUTURE: STEM ENGAGEMENT FOR A 21ST
CENTURY EDUCATION
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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2019
U.S. Senate,
Subcommittee on Aviation and Space,
Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation,
Washington, DC.
The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:30 p.m. in
room SD-562, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Ted Cruz,
Chairman of the Subcommittee, presiding.
Present: Senators Cruz [presiding], Wicker, Thune, Moran,
Gardner, Capito, Sinema, Cantwell, and Rosen.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. TED CRUZ,
U.S. SENATOR FROM TEXAS
Senator Cruz. Good afternoon. This hearing is called to
order.
I am very pleased to see a hearing on STEM and math and
science and precision is starting precisely at 2:30 and 0
seconds. That is an auspicious way to begin this discussion.
Earlier this year on one of the hottest nights of the
summer, nearly a half million people crowded onto the National
Mall. They were not there for a protest or to celebrate a
national holiday, and they were not there for a concert or to
watch a fireworks show. No. Instead, a half million people went
there drenched in sweat to watch the story of the Apollo 11
mission as it was projected onto the Washington Monument,
commemorating the moment 50 years ago when Neil Armstrong and
Buzz Aldrin took that giant leap for mankind.
As everyone in D.C. knows, if there are a half million
people on the Mall and it ain't a protest, something big is
going on. And landing the first humans on the Moon and
returning them safely to Earth marks as one of the epochal
moments in the history of mankind.
As we look out over our space landscape today, what we see
is very different from the landscape of 1969. Indeed, not only
did we succeed in going to the Moon and back again, but we have
gone on to put robotic rovers on distant planets, celestial
observatories in orbit that can literally peer into the
beginnings of the universe, and we have established an enduring
human presence in low-Earth orbit. In the span of a single
lifetime, we have seen space fundamentally transformed from an
uninhabited void or a scientific novelty to an integral part of
our daily lives and the world economy.
Space is often referred to as the last frontier. And
rightfully so. Much like the first frontiers of exploration,
space is hard. It takes meticulous planning and extraordinary
determination, and even then nothing is guaranteed. It is
dangerous, but the last frontier shares a critical aspect with
the first frontiers through its power now and tomorrow to
inspire us.
The space race of the 1960s inspired Americans to aim
higher, to dream bigger than they ever had before, to literally
shoot for the Moon. And I believe the burgeoning space sector
of today can do the same for an even bigger and broader swath
of the United States and the world.
Just a few weeks ago, we witnessed the historic all-female
space walk on the International Space Station, the first ever.
And when the United States returns to the Moon as a part of the
Artemis program--Artemis, of course, being the twin sister of
Apollo--well, NASA has committed that we will land the first
woman ever on the surface of the Moon and it will be an
American astronaut who steps forth on the Moon. As the father
of two young daughters, that makes me very proud, indeed.
As we return to bold space exploration, we do so not only
with a much more diverse astronaut corps, but also a much more
diverse set of commercial and nongovernmental partners. As we
move out on these plans, it is worth remembering the success of
Apollo 11 and our national space program as a whole was due in
no small part to the contributions of a diverse work force,
including countless women who were working behind the scenes
and whose stories have only recently become household names.
One of those women, Dr. Christine Darden, testified before
this Subcommittee earlier this year. Dr. Darden was one of the
famed human computers at NASA, and without her work and the
work of many other so-called computers, many of them African
American women, we never could have sent astronauts into space,
let alone brought them back safely.
Unfortunately, for far too long, Dr. Darden and the other
human computers' contributions were hidden, relegated to the
background for a time. Her story and the story of others like
her serves as a reminder of the lessons we need to learn to
ensure that we are cultivating and elevating talent and
leadership not based on race or gender, but based on merit,
based on skill, based on hard work, and based on passion.
Today's hearing is about building the kind of workforce
that ensures NASA and the diverse group of partners we return
to space exploration has the skilled base of people it needs to
be successful now and in the future, that ensures the space
economy can continue to grow, and that we will be successful in
establishing the United States of America as the leader and a
true space-faring nation.
To accomplish this, we can and should leverage the
inspiration of space and space exploration to get kids of all
ages, of all backgrounds, resources engaged, excited about
science and technology and engineering and math.
But that alone is not enough. Creating the space workforce
for the future will require us to take a serious look at the
road ahead, to explore unconventional partnerships and roles of
responsibility and to take other decisive actions as needed to
maintain U.S. leadership in space. Getting it right will be a
complex and challenging undertaking. After all, space is hard.
But I am reminded and encouraged by something Gene Kranz,
the Apollo 11 flight director, said of that mission when he
testified before this subcommittee in July of this year: what
America will dare, America will do.
I look forward to hearing from our witnesses today about
their work in STEM education and what suggestions they might
have for how we in Congress can act. And I want to thank, in
particular, the Ranking Member for her initiative in proposing
that we hold this hearing and for her leadership, bipartisan
leadership, that has strengthened this Committee, and I look
forward to continuing working alongside her many years to come.
With that, I recognize the Ranking Member.
STATEMENT OF HON. KYRSTEN SINEMA,
U.S. SENATOR FROM ARIZONA
Senator Sinema. Well, thank you, Chairman Cruz, for holding
this hearing. I am excited about today.
Our STEM workforce is at a critical juncture. The U.S.
space economy is booming, but if we do not build a strong STEM
education pipeline, we will face a deficit of millions of
workers over the next decade, putting our economy and national
security at risk.
Congress, Federal agencies like NASA, industry partners,
and most importantly, educational institutions must work
together to develop and prepare a 21st century workforce so we
continue to lead in space and so our economy remains innovative
and strong.
So thank you today to Dr. Elkins-Tanton, Mr. Manber, Dr.
Gladden, and Ms. Condino for joining us today to discuss this
important issue.
Since it was established in 1958, NASA has had productive
partnerships with universities across the country, including a
few in Arizona. As we develop more advanced space technologies,
set large goals for the country's space program, and grow our
aerospace industry, we must continue these partnerships to
ensure we have a strong work force. This starts with educating
students and giving them hands-on research opportunities to
excel in STEM fields.
Universities and students across the country currently work
with NASA on important projects such as mission monitoring,
research and analysis. In my home State of Arizona, Arizona
State University, University of Arizona, and Northern Arizona
University all work with NASA to further its mission both big
and small. The talented faculty across the state propose
innovative ideas and bring new opportunities to students.
When Administrator Bridenstine testified in front of the
full Commerce Committee earlier this year, he said, quote, NASA
has had amazing success with university partnerships. Arizona
universities are leading the world when it comes to university
engagement with NASA and developing these programs and
projects.
For example, at ASU, Dr. Elkins-Tanton's mission, Psyche,
marks the first time a university has led a deep space NASA
mission. She and her team will be the first scientists to study
an asteroid, which is remarkably similar to a planetary core,
once the spacecraft launches in 2023 and arrives at the
asteroid in 2030.
University of Arizona is also paving the way for future
missions with its work on OSIRIS REx. Dr. Dante Lauretta leads
the science team and the mission's science observation planning
and data processing. The team at University of Arizona is
critical to the success of this mission that will bring the
first asteroid sample to Earth.
All three of Arizona's public universities also participate
in the Arizona Space Grant Consortium, which is jointly funded
by NASA and the three universities. This Space Grant works to
attract and retain students in STEM fields. In Arizona, the
Space Grant Consortium partners awarded 175 paid internships
and fellowships to Arizona students in 2018 alone, which allows
students to work alongside principal investigators on a mission
like Psyche or OSIRIS REx, actively building Arizona's STEM
workforce.
These mission and research advancements offer us critical
insights into space, and they also spark interest and passion
in our next generation of scientists, mathematicians, and
engineers.
But students are not the only ones benefiting because NASA
gains innovative ideas which, when paired with their expertise
and resources, can push the boundaries of what we thought was
possible.
When the Administrator testified, he also stated that
university projects typically meet both cost and schedule. At
an agency like NASA where money and time are both limited and
projects are sometimes over budget and behind schedule, these
partnerships are key to maximizing science and discovery across
the universe.
As we look ahead, we must grow these partnerships, retain
the knowledge that is gained from them and train the next
generation. That is the only way we can ensure we have a
workforce ready to keep America at the forefront of space.
This week, we are introducing legislation to help address
the STEM workforce concerns that are raised today. The National
Aeronautics and Space Administration Authorization Act of 2019,
which I am looking forward to introducing with Chairman Cruz,
Chairman Wicker, and Ranking Member Cantwell, includes
provisions that require NASA to establish an outreach program
to encourage high school students to pursue careers in
technical education and gives NASA the ability to establish and
grow lasting partnerships between itself and universities
through research centers.
I am also proud to work with Senator Capito on legislation
which will modernize the space grant program for the first time
since 1988. Our bill will streamline the program and ensure
that State consortia have the resources to recruit and retrain
the next generation of scientists, engineers, and
mathematicians.
I look forward to hearing from our witnesses on ways we can
address these issues and the other issues we face as a country.
Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.
Senator Cruz. Thank you.
I now recognize the Chairman of the Full Committee for his
opening statement.
STATEMENT OF HON. ROGER WICKER,
U.S. SENATOR FROM MISSISSIPPI
Senator Wicker. Well, I want to congratulate my two
colleagues on their excellent opening statements.
Senator Cruz described the crowd witnessing the 50th
anniversary in dramatic, vivid, almost poetic words. I could
almost sense the pungent fragrance of that sweaty throng
gathered on the Mall.
[Laughter.]
Senator Cruz. Almost like a Senate hearing.
[Laughter.]
Senator Wicker. The clerk will note crosstalk and just say
``crosstalk.''
[Laughter.]
Senator Wicker. In the 50 years since the Apollo 11, NASA
has continued to achieve incredible feats. None of these
missions would have been possible without the support and
partnership of America's educational system, in particular the
talent and expertise found in our universities. And that is why
we are here today.
University researchers continue to lead groundbreaking
projects in space technology and scientific discovery. In doing
so, they involve students, some of whom become scientists, some
of whom become engineers, others mathematicians for NASA and in
the private sector. Maintaining this pipeline is vital to
maintain America's preeminence in outer space. And I am glad to
be a cosponsor of the legislation Senator Sinema mentioned.
Today's panel represents a cross section of the NASA STEM
education ecosystem. I would like to extend a particular
welcome to Dr. Josh Gladden, Vice Chancellor for Research at my
alma mater, the University of Mississippi. Ole Miss' work with
NASA includes on graphene, a material with transformative
potential for many applications, including space flight. In
fact, this past weekend, NASA launched a graphene research
payload to the International Space Station.
So thank you all for being here today. Thank you, Mr.
Chairman, and I look forward to a great discussion on improving
STEM engagement to help build the space work force.
Senator Cruz. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I will say your
remarks reminded me--growing up, both my parents were
mathematicians, and an old engineer's joke about the Washington
Monument is a mathematician and physicist and an engineer go to
the Washington Monument. And they are each discussing how to
figure out how tall it is.
And the mathematician says it is very simple. All I need is
a length of string and a transit. I can measure the distance
through the transit. I can measure the angle to the top of the
monument. It is a simple matter of trigonometry to figure out
the height of the monument.
The physicist says, no, no, no, it is much simpler than
that. I will take the elevator to the top of the monument. I
will tie the string around the transit. I will lower it down to
the bottom of the monument and I will measure the length of the
string.
The engineer looks at both of them, looks at the tour
guide, and says, how tall is the damn thing.
[Laughter.]
Senator Cruz. With that, I am happy to introduce our
witnesses.
Our first witness, Dr. Linda Tarbox Elkins-Tanton, is the
Managing Director of the Interplanetary Initiative and the
Principal Investigator of the NASA Psyche Mission at Arizona
State University. Her research revolves around terrestrial
planetary formation, magma oceans, and subsequent planetary
evolution, including magmatism and interactions between rocky
planets and their atmospheres. She also promotes and
participates in education initiatives such as inquiry and
exploration, teaching methodologies, and leadership and team
building for scientists and engineers. Dr. Elkins-Tanton also
currently serves on the standing review board for the Europa
mission and served on the Mars panel of the planetary decadal
survey and on the Mars 2020 rover science definition team.
Dr. Elkins-Tanton received her Ph.D. in geology and
geophysics from MIT.
Our second witness is Mr. Jeffrey Manber, who is the
founder and CEO of Nanoracks. Since 2009, Nanoracks has created
products and offered research services for the commercial
utilization of space. Today Nanoracks is the single largest
private investor on the International Space Station with over
$40 million of private capital dedicated to commercial
facilities and equipment. Nanoracks employs 70 people in Texas
and has launched 250 small satellites and over 800 experiments
to the ISS.
Mr. Manber is also Chairman of DreamUp, an educational
public benefit corporation that lets students pursue
opportunities in space-based research and education.
Mr. Manber is a graduate of Northwestern University.
Our third witness is Dr. Josh Gladden, who is the Vice
Chancellor for Research and Sponsored Programs at the
University of Mississippi. In this role, Dr. Gladden works to
facilitate research and research funding, as well as provide
support for all funded projects at the university.
Prior to this role, Dr. Gladden served as Associate Vice
Chancellor for Research and as the Director of the National
Center for Physical Acoustics. Dr. Gladden also served in
elected national leadership positions including as a member of
both the executive committee for the National Spectrum
Consortium and chair of the Physical Acoustics Technical
Committee of the Acoustical Society of America.
Dr. Gladden received a Ph.D. degree in physics from the
Pennsylvania State University.
And finally, Ms. Sheila Condino is currently a physics
teacher at Oakton High School in Vienna, Virginia, but she is
also the founder and still an advisor of the famed Rocketry
Club at Presidio High School in Presidio, Texas. For those of
you who do not know, Presidio is located along the Rio Grande
River, 240 miles south of El Paso, and resides in one of the
most remote parts of the continental United States. For most
people in Presidio, English is a second language, and many
people face tough economic challenges, making it hard for
students to focus solely on school.
However, even under those circumstances, Presidio High
School's Rocketry Club has consistently placed well in contests
across the country, and as a result, they have become a well-
respected rocketry team. During her time in Presidio, Ms.
Condino and her students excelled qualifying for the national
finals at the Team America Rocketry Challenge.
In 2011, Ms. Condino was chosen by the National Aviation
Hall of Fame selection committee to receive the Scott
Crossfield Aerospace Education Teacher of the Year Award.
Ms. Condino, received her bachelor's degree in physics from
Philippine Normal University in Manila, Philippines.
And with that, I welcome each of the witnesses and welcome
Dr. Elkins-Tanton to give her testimony.
STATEMENT OF DR. LINDA T. ELKINS-TANTON, MANAGING
DIRECTOR, INTERPLANETARY INITIATIVE AND PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR,
NASA PSYCHE MISSION, ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY
Dr. Elkins-Tanton. Chairman Wicker, Chairman Cruz, Ranking
Member Cantwell, Ranking Member Sinema, and members of the
Committee, thank you so much for the opportunity to speak
today. I am testifying on my own behalf.
I am Managing Director and Co-Chair with University
President Michael Crow of ASU's Interplanetary Initiative,
which I will talk about a little bit today, and also PI of the
NASA Discovery mission Psyche, the 14th in the Discovery
portfolio, as mentioned by Chairman Cruz. Thank you.
We have a vision for an optimistic human space future, and
by ``we'' I mean we in this room. We have this vision. We want
humans to be an interplanetary species, and we want a situation
where our space exploration improves society on Earth and our
knowledge and care of the Earth itself. Those are the stakes
that we are talking about. These really are huge times for us
thinking about us going interplanetary, taking these steps.
Here are three key university-NASA partnership needs.
First is workforce development. We need talent to support
the growing aspirations of our Nation and to work with other
countries as the world's continuing leader in space. Therefore,
education has to be future-facing and workforce-oriented. I
think this is a very important thing to stress, that we are in
the information age now. The educational style of the
industrial era should be behind us. We need to look forward.
Second, returning to the Moon, this time to stay, will
require more than just engineers, scientists, and astronauts.
We need everyone involved, every aspect of society. We need
artists and philosophers. We need sociologists and
psychologists. We need business leaders and philosophers. These
are the kinds of connections that universities are really good
at putting together for a push like the push to become
interplanetary.
And third, this full stakeholder triangle of NASA and
universities and the private sector is required for our
interplanetary future. Nonprofit universities are uniquely
placed to create rapid responsive teams and transfer the
technological intellectual property produced at universities
into the private sector to the benefit of the space sector and
also to the American taxpayer. This transfer has to speed up.
So now is the time to grow our partnerships in these
fruitful, more targeted ways. Now is the time to set up
university-affiliated research centers and other such
mechanisms to speed up the development of specific solutions
and accelerate the flow of knowledge and technology to NASA and
to the private sector.
ASU is here to meet this challenge with a student
population of over 100,000 and as the number one ranked school
for university innovation 5 years in a row. It astonishes me
coming from the East Coast to see what a big public university
can be, and so many of us in this room understand the value of
these amazing institutions. And we are lucky in Arizona to have
several.
At ASU, our space sector partners include over 70 private
sector organizations, over 30 universities, and over 20
government agencies, labs, and centers. We have been working
very hard in the interplanetary initiative to develop new ways
to put together research teams that are effective, rapid, and
interdisciplinary, and include all the sectors. I feel strongly
that this triangle of three sectors--we have to figure out how
to bring those together to speed up innovation and speed up our
path to space. And we have been working on that specifically.
We have identified many of the big questions we have to answer
to achieve our space future, and we have begun to answer those
questions.
On the Psyche mission, we were challenged by NASA to make a
bigger student collaboration with greater impact. We pioneered
ways to create interdisciplinary capstone teams where students
learn real team collaborative skills while working on real NASA
mission challenges. We have, for example, student graphic
designers, student project managers and marketers working with,
for example, student electrical and mechanical engineers. This
is where the project managers actually get to help manage a
project. We have cohorts of student artists producing
inspiration and outreach.
And even though we are only 2 years into this mission, we
have a total of over 500 students who have worked with Psyche
already at a total of 27 universities from 15 states. And I say
this particularly to underscore my personal commitment that
this is not, of course, just about my university or just about
Arizona. This is about our society at large and our nation, and
I believe very strongly in bringing all sectors together. That
is what I am trying to work at in my career in every way.
The age of this Prussian style compliant industrial
workforce is over. You know what I am talking about. We do not
need to train better test takers. We need to change the nature
of education from a fixation on the memorization of a specific
content, something that I call the sacred content, the content
that your advisor taught you and you feel that you need to
teach the next person. We need to teach the ability to problem
solve, to assess data, and to work effectively in teams both
sharing information, criticizing and understanding information,
and giving and receiving feedback, things that often we do not
really practice until we are in the workforce. This is the
education of the future because the future is actually filled
with jobs that do not exist today. They do not exist today. So
we have to teach the process skills.
In the fall of 2020, the ASU Interplanetary Initiative will
launch the most forward-looking workforce-facing undergraduate
program to date. It is a part of our answer to education in the
information age. The bachelor of science in technological
leadership is a scalable three-year degree program using
exploration learning techniques in the classroom and having
students spend every summer in the workforce in internships.
Every student will learn the fundamental content for the future
of programming, statistics, calculus, collaborative problem-
solving, communication, positive team psychology, and they will
also learn team communication, ethical leadership, and critical
thinking via a special methodology that we have been working on
for years.
We can accelerate space development by connecting
universities, NASA, and the private sector for knowledge
sharing and rapidly targeted innovation. We can be system
integrators, but even more importantly, we can create and
deploy the teams with members of all three sectors to solve the
greatest challenges.
Together with my sister universities, we are ready to
create our future. So let us go to space together.
[The prepared statement of Dr. Elkins-Tanton follows:]
Prepared Statement of Dr. Linda T. Elkins-Tanton, Managing Director,
Interplanetary Initiative and Principal Investigator, NASA Psyche
Mission, Arizona State University
Intensifying and targeting NASA-University partnerships for our space
future
Full Committee Chairman Wicker, Full Committee Ranking Member
Cantwell, Chairman Cruz, Ranking Member Sinema, and Members of the
Committee, thank you for allowing me to speak today. I am testifying in
my personal capacity. I am the co-chair, with university President
Michael Crow, of the Interplanetary Initiative at ASU, and I am the
Principal Investigator of the NASA Psyche mission, the 14th in the
Discovery program.
We have a vision an optimistic human space future, we, in this
room, have this vision, where we are an interplanetary species, and
where our space exploration improves society on Earth and our knowledge
and care of Earth itself. Becoming multi-planetary in mind and in
reality is essential for the continued growth of civilization.
To achieve this future we need all stakeholders moving fast. Two of
the most critical stakeholders in this space future are NASA and
American universities. Our partnership, the partnership between
universities and NASA, is central and crucial to the future of space
exploration and settlement.
NASA partners with universities in many ways, though the most
common is through research grants and project contracts. But to speed
forward in the way we must to reach the Moon and Mars, we need to focus
and hone these partnerships.
Here are three key examples of university-NASA partnership needs:
1. Workforce development: we need talent to support the growing
aspirations of our nation, and to work with other countries as
the world's continued leader in space. Therefore, education has
to be future-facing, and workforce-oriented.
2. Returning to the Moon, this time to stay, will require more than
just engineers, astronauts, and scientists; it will require
medical professionals, legal and policy experts, architects,
writers, philosophers, and business leaders. Much of the
research among these disciplines takes place in universities.
3. The stakeholder triangle of NASA--universities--private sector is
necessary for our space future requires the full involvement
of. Non-profit universities are uniquely placed to communicate
the needs, create rapid responsive teams, and transfer the
research and technology intellectual property produced at
universities through partnership with NASA into the private
sector, to the great benefit of both the space industry and the
American taxpayer.
Now is the time to grow our partnerships in these more fruitful,
targeted ways: Now is the time to set up University Affiliated Research
Centers and other such mechanisms to speed up the development of
specific solutions, and accelerate the flow of knowledge and technology
to NASA and to the private sector.
ASU is here to meet this challenge with a student population of
100K+ and as the #1 ranked school for innovation, five years in a row.
Under president Michael Crow and his vision for the New American
University, ASU is redefining the landscape of public higher education.
It's a more inclusive and collaborative model than any other
university. We are here to solve real-world problems, and educate for
the future. Our partners value our ability to meet their needs, and on
their schedule.
A vibrant, deep workforce is critical to our future. And the age of
the Prussian-style compliant industrial workforce is over. We don't
need to train better sitters-still, better passive listeners. We need
to change the nature of education from a fixation on a specific content
memorization to the ability to problem-solve, assess data, and work
effectively in teams, both sharing information and giving and receiving
feedback. This is the education of the future: Educating for the
processes, the transferrable skills, that every person needs for work
and life, and to speed forward the economy of the future, which is
filled with jobs that don't exist today.
ASU has created the Interplanetary Initiative to specifically meet
the needs of aerospace and execute on the vision of the administration.
For three years we have been developing the most innovative ways to
build research teams that are effective, rapid, and interdisciplinary,
and we've developed really new educational programs that create
collaborative problem-solvers for the future workforce. We identified
many of the big questions that we will have to answer to achieve our
space future. And we've begun the work to answer those questions.
Together with our sister universities ASU can accelerate space
development in the following ways:
Connecting universities, NASA, and the private sector for
knowledge sharing and rapid targeted innovation--being system
integrators, but even more, creating and deploying the teams to
solve the greatest challenges
Developing core technologies needed to support the mission
Training the future workforce
We're ready now. Let's go to space together.
Comment on university-led space missions
As you all know, NASA flies both flagship missions, that are
organized from NASA Headquarters, and competed missions, which are led
by scientists either an universities or at labs or NASA centers. Each
has its purpose and place in our exploration of space. Flagship
missions are critical for stimulating development of new technology and
for fulfilling the most complex of planetary goals.
Flagship missions can engage a broader swath of the community
through competed calls for instruments. These calls can bring new
groups onto missions, but the project scientist then has the challenge
of organizing and uniting disconnected sub-teams.
Competed missions have the advantage of being conceived of,
budgeted, and planned as a whole from the beginning. Flagships, in
comparison, are planned in segments and not under a single person's
uniting vision.
University-led competed missions, in particular, are regularly
coming in on time and on or even under budget. These are sometimes the
results of that single uniting leadership. Both the science vision, the
results, and the correct scheduling and budgeting make it clear that
university-led missions are a critical part of the NASA portfolio.
Senator Cruz. Thank you.
Mr. Manber.
STATEMENT OF JEFFREY MANBER, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, NANORACKS
LLC
Mr. Manber. Thank you. Chairman Cruz, Ranking Member
Sinema, Senator Wicker, and other distinguished members of the
Aviation and Space Subcommittee, thank you for giving me the
opportunity to return to this room to testify.
I am going to talk about something a little different about
how we can use and we are using the commercial pathway to space
to ensure we have a workforce for the next generation beyond to
keep us in the lead as a space-faring nation.
When we opened the doors at Nanoracks in 2009, we were met
with a pleasant surprise. Our first customers were schools,
something we never predicted. Our first experiments on Space
Station were small nanolabs that were developed by middle
school students. The parents literally held bake sales not for
their soccer team but to send their very own space science
experiments to the ISS via the Nanoracks Space Act Agreement
with NASA. This is something that could never have been
imagined before the commercial pathway. So there was no direct
NASA funding, but there was the public-private partnership with
NASA that has only taken off since.
One of our major educational partners is the Student
Spaceflight Experiments Program run by Dr. Jeff Goldstein,
which has been a flagship program for us at Nanoracks and
DreamUp. They are now on their 15th mission to the
International Space Station. They have involved over 100,000
students, and they learn about all aspects of the process from
designing the payloads to the curriculums, to launching, to
sending it to space, and the return. And again, nearly all of
this has been done with no direct NASA funding.
And just this weekend, Nanoracks flew the first-ever oven
to the International Space Station for our friends in the Zero
G Kitchen, and you may have heard that the first customer is
the DoubleTree, which is baking cookies. And before you laugh
and before you say this has no place at an educational hearing,
let me say that DoubleTree and Hilton are working with
Scholastic, and they have put a program in place in 50,000
schools across the country involving 1 million students with
curriculum to show them how baking is different on the Earth
than in microgravity. And this is how we capture the hearts and
minds of the younger people. And let me say that these are the
students that will one day bring humans to Mars, and yes, they
are going to want dessert when they get there.
So these are just two significant examples of hundreds of
payloads that I can reference. The commercially funded
experiments that we have flown to the ISS include plant growth
chambers, fluid chambers, DNA sequencing, all paid for by the
parents, the students, the sponsors, but not again direct NASA
funding. Of course, we need NASA. We need that public-private
partnership, but this is a new model. It is one model for
assuring education of our workforce.
And let me add, Chairman Cruz, that Nanoracks and DreamUp
have flown by now almost 60 educational payloads from Texas
schools from Hawkins, Houston, Burleson, El Paso, San Antonio,
Austin, Buda, and more. And I hope my New York twang did not
destroy anything there. OK?
Senator Sinema, we have also flown four experiments to the
Space Station from Arizona, and just this weekend from Wallops
Island, we had 15 students from Arizona State and they deployed
commercially a CubeSat satellite. And it was wonderful to meet
all the students. And they are great, and it gives us all
optimism.
So I am happy to provide the Committee with our full list
of statistics for all the districts in which we have flown
payloads and what we are doing in the future.
But we can do better, and we can do more to prepare the
workforce for the coming space economy.
First off, both DreamUp and Nanoracks know we can do more
to bring our under-represented communities to space. We have
begun a dedicated effort to involve historically black colleges
and universities, and I should have some good news in signing
our first historically black college and university in the next
couple of weeks.
And second, we must do more than have just engineers, and
you have mentioned that. Space is more than satellites and
rockets. We have to engage agricultural colleges like Texas A&M
or Prairie View A&M. We need to involve biology departments and
pharmaceutical students to help find that cure for cancer in
the microgravity of space that we have long thought was
possible.
And finally, by 2025, as our Nation and industry is focused
on the return to the Moon, we are driven to meet an exciting
goal. Nanoracks and DreamUp are working to ensure by 2025 we
have sent at least one student research project from every
congressional district to the International Space Station. This
is how we make sure that we have opened the eyes of all the
students from all sectors of our society.
We need the excitement, the tools, the cost efficiencies,
and the responsiveness of the private sector. It is part of
this public-private partnership that my colleagues, mostly from
the university sector, are talking about today. We need to
assure that the workforce of tomorrow is ready to keep us on
the Moon, move us on to Mars, and just as importantly, unlock
the new discoveries in the unique environment of space.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Manber follows:]
Prepared Statement of Jeffrey Manber, Chief Executive Officer,
Nanoracks LLC
Chairman Cruz, Ranking Member Sinema, and other distinguished
members of the Aviation and Space Subcommittee, thank you for giving me
the opportunity to return to this room to testify before you. I look
forward to discussing how commercial access to the International Space
Station has provided an unprecedented educational experience to over a
million students across the United States.
Let me begin today by explaining that I am here in two different
capacities. I am, of course, representing Nanoracks as the CEO, but I
am also Chairman of the Board for DreamUp, Nanoracks' educational
sister company. Once just a division in Nanoracks, we spun DreamUp out
to be a standalone public benefit corporation because the business of
providing educational access to space was, and remains today, strong
and important. DreamUp's sole focus is bringing space to the classroom,
and the classroom to space.
We opened the doors at Nanoracks in 2009 with the goal to make
space accessible to everyone. I am proud to say today that the very
first customers that brought Nanoracks into business were in fact,
schools. Our very first experiments were small projects that were
developed by middle school students. These kids quite literally held
bake sales--not to sponsor their soccer team, or raise money for the
school dance, but to send their very own science experiment to the
International Space Station via a Nanoracks Space Act Agreement with
NASA. This is something that could never be imagined before the
commercial pathway. Nanoracks standardized and miniaturized
technologies as well has created programs that made something as
complicated and expensive as space, into something that was both
affordable and doable within one school year.
One of our major educational partners is the Student Spaceflight
Experiments Program, run by Dr. Jeff Goldstein, which has been a
flagship program for Nanoracks and DreamUp since our first flights on
the Space Shuttle. Dr. Goldstein's program is now on their 15th mission
to the Space Station, and he has engaged nearly 100,000 students across
the country in the spaceflight process--from creating and hypothesizing
an experiment, submitting a proposal for review, building an
experiment, flying it to space, and receiving the experiment back on
the ground for analysis. Of course, not every proposal is selected--but
even those which aren't are provided a unique classroom experience
where they think critically, collaborate, and build a proposal
strategy, just as they would as future NASA or industry employees.
Notably, all of this has been done with no direct NASA funding.
Dr. Goldstein's program is one of many incredible programs that was
built on commercial access to the Space Station. Just this weekend,
Nanoracks flew the first-ever oven to the Space Station, set to bake
DoubleTree cookies on orbit. Never before has something been baked from
raw ingredients in microgravity. This provides not only for a
fascinating microgravity experiment contributing to how we endure long-
duration space travel, but also allowed a private enterprise to build
an educational program, in partnership with Scholastic, that was
delivered to one million students in 50,000 classrooms across the
United States. Using a symbol of hospitality, this experiment shows
what will happen to one of the most relatable items on Earth--a
chocolate chip cookie--in the complex environment of microgravity.
Students who have never been engaged in space before, now have a
tangible object they recognize, and can think critically about what
would happen when gravity is taken away, and are learning how the
International Space Station and NASA are trying to best understand the
science behind human exploration. These are the students that may one
day bring humans to Mars--and yes, they are going to want desert when
they get there.
These are just two significant examples of hundreds that I can
reference. To date, Nanoracks has flown nearly 600 educational
experiments to the Space Station--experiments which include building
plant growth chambers and fluid chambers, materials aggregation, DNA
sequencing, and so much more.
If I might add, Chairman Cruz, that Nanoracks and DreamUp have
flown nearly 60 educational payloads to the Space Station from Texas
schools--from Hawkins, Houston, Burleson, El Paso, San Antonio, Austin,
Buda, and more.
Senator Sinema, we have also flown four experiments to the Space
Station from Arizona--including a university small satellite that
launched just this past Saturday! Over 15 students from Arizona State
University joined my team in Wallops Island to watch their hard work
take flight.
I am beyond proud of the educational outreach done by both
Nanoracks and DreamUp, but I would be remiss if I didn't use this
platform to share that we as a nation have so much more work to do.
These 600 payloads represent so much hard work done by students,
teachers, parents, and community leaders across the country--but the
strong majority come from well-off communities. Let's do more to bring
our underrepresented communities to space.
So today, Nanoracks and DreamUp have begun a dedicated effort to
engage Historically Black Colleges and Universities--and I hope to
share in the coming weeks some exciting news about these efforts.
Additionally, we will show that it's more than just engineers we are
looking for in the aerospace industry. We need to better engage
agricultural colleges like Texas A&M or Prairie View A&M, we need
involve biology departments and pharmaceutical colleges to find that
cure for Cancer. . Space is more than engineering today, and we are
dedicated to assuring we are fueled by more than a handful of schools.
Just last week, the 2019 National Assessment of Educational
Progress showed that average scores of fourth and eighth grade students
have declined since 2017. The Secretary of Education was quoted as
saying that America's `antiquated approach' to education fails too many
children.
This means that the model in which an educator, who holds all the
knowledge, stands in front of his or her classroom and imparts
knowledge to their students does not work anymore. The world is
changing too quickly, innovation happens too fast, and we must give
students real, hands-on experiences that teach them 21st Century
Skills, particularly the ability to think on their feet, adapt, and
persevere (even when they ``fail'').
We can do better by engaging the full spectrum of students in space
exploration as a clear path to make our next generations bolder and
brighter than my generation.
Since we're talking about education, let me provide the committee a
report card.
America has been doing great work in building up the next workforce
in STEM fields. The commercial pathway has provided unprecedented
access to students both in America and across the world, and created
job opportunities once never imagined. We have quite literally changed
the lives of students, and opened their eyes to the wonders of space.
But let's together cast a wider net. Funding for NASA's educational
division has long been debated. Let's not tie NASA's hands behind their
backs when it comes to educational outreach. Let's allow NASA the
freedom as other agencies have to have robust STEM programs. NASA is
likely one of the only government agencies that can inspire both a 5
year old and a 50 year old--something no other government agency can
boast. If we want to maintain American leadership in space, it's by
investing in the kids today that will be the future NASA Administrator,
or the future Chairman of this Subcommittee.
Today, I am announcing that Nanoracks and DreamUp are assuring that
every Congressional district in the United States has sent at least one
student research project to the International Space Station by 2025. We
will work with industry and educational organizations to assure that
the workforce taking us to Mars will be strong, world-class and
inclusive of all Americans.
I ask the Committee to join me and my team as we ensure America's
leadership in space via these ambitious but critical goals.
I am happy to provide the Committee with our full list of
statistics for all of the districts in which we've flown payloads, and
further information on our educational outreach products both on the
ground and on-orbit.
Thank you.
Senator Cruz. Thank you.
Dr. Gladden.
STATEMENT OF J.R. (JOSH) GLADDEN, Ph.D.,
VICE CHANCELLOR FOR RESEARCH, PROFESSOR
OF PHYSICS, UNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIPPI
Dr. Gladden. Mr. Chairman, members of the Subcommittee, let
me first thank you for the opportunity to provide my
perspective on the role that universities can and should play
in the development of the nation's STEM workforce to provide
NASA with the engineers and scientists needed to keep
accomplishing its mission into the next generation.
Chairman Cruz, you did a fantastic job of introducing me.
One little bit, if you go back a little deeper, I was a physics
teacher for about 5 years. So Ms. Condino and I can talk shop
afterwards.
As with many technical objectives and challenges we will
face in the next generation, the complexity of missions at NASA
will only increase. It is incumbent upon higher education to
prepare a workforce ready to meet those challenges.
One critical element in preparing this unique workforce is
the necessity to ingrain in them a predilection and a passion
for lifelong learning. Transformative technologies are no
longer coming once a generation. They are coming once a decade.
We have several programs and initiatives at the University of
Mississippi to address these educational challenges.
We have designed and are in the process of building a
unique 200,000 square foot STEM education facility. What makes
this space unique is that it is designed from the ground up
around collaboration across disciplines and active-learning
teaching methods that focus on small-group project work and
interactive technologies. These instruction methods have been
shown to both improve the comprehension of the science and
engineering principles, as well as promote group problem-
solving skills.
Another unique program at UM is our Center for
Manufacturing Excellence. All CME students major in
engineering, business, or accounting, but they also share a
body of coursework across all of these disciplines. CME
students focus on group projects, communications skills, and
understanding a holistic view of a particular problem, from the
technical all the way to the financial. We cannot predict the
technologies that these graduates will engage during their
careers, but we do know that they will always need to work in
teams and understand the bigger picture.
Universities also play a key role in developing and
disseminating next generation engineering principles. Lean
engineering, design thinking, additive manufacturing and
additive construction are important examples. Design thinking
helps break down complex, multidimensional design problems into
a manageable framework while lean engineering realizes those
designs through highly efficient production and manufacturing.
A challenge here, however, is not to sacrifice the technical
foundations upon which all of these concepts are built.
Additive manufacturing and additive construction will play
vital roles in any long-term space mission. Whether the mission
is a base on the Moon or a manned mission to Mars, replacement
parts cannot be stocked. They will need to be printed as they
are needed. Any larger-scale structures on the surface of a
Moon or a planet will require using native materials and
reliable additive construction technologies.
The role of advanced materials will also be increasingly
important in the next generation of space systems design.
Nanophase materials such as graphene have been studied for
several decades, but are now emerging as useful technologies.
Our Center for Graphene Research and Innovation designed a
graphene-enhanced polymer material that just was launched this
Saturday from Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia to be tested
on the International Space Station for protection. It will
spend about a year in space and is designed to protect against
hyper-velocity impacts. So in a year, we will be able to bring
that down and see how the experiment went. We and others are
exploring graphene enhancements on many technologies relevant
to NASA missions from microfiltration to high-efficiency solar
panels. And let me be clear. Both graduate and undergraduate
students play critical roles in all of these research
experiments.
Perhaps less obvious but an increasingly important skill
set is around space activities are legal and regulatory issues.
UM is home to the National Air and Space Law Center, along with
the Journal for Space Law since 1973. As space activities in
the private sector continually grow, appropriate light-touch
legal frameworks need to be developed and studied to best
inform decision-makers. UM is preparing this workforce with the
first Air and Space Law Masters Program in the Nation.
Let me take a moment to emphasize here, along with some
others who have already spoken on it, the importance of the
NASA Space Grant program. This program provides incredible
space science and engineering research opportunities to
graduate and undergraduate students from a wide swath of the
country. I can tell you from personal experience that nothing
can hook a young college student into a NASA career faster than
working on a real-world problem with NASA engineers.
I thank the Subcommittee for your attention and welcome
questions when it is time.
[The prepared statement of Dr. Gladden follows:]
Prepared Statement of J.R. (Josh) Gladden, Ph.D., Vice Chancellor for
Research, Professor of Physics, University of Mississippi
Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee, let me first thank
you for the opportunity to provide my perspective on the role
universities can and should play in the development of the Nation's
STEM workforce to provide NASA with the engineers and scientists needed
to keep accomplishing its mission into the next generation.
My name is Josh Gladden and I have the privilege of serving as the
Vice Chancellor for Research and Sponsored Programs and Professor of
Physics at the University of Mississippi. Before this role, I served as
the Director for the National Center for Physical Acoustics and Group
Lead for the Materials Physics Lab at the NCPA.
As with many technical objectives and challenges we will face in
the next generation, the complexity of the missions at NASA will only
increase. It is incumbent on higher education to prepare a workforce
ready to meet these challenges.
One critical element in preparing this unique workforce is the
necessity that they are ingrained with a predilection and passion for
life-long learning. Transformative technologies are no longer coming
once in a generation--they are coming every decade. We have several
programs and initiatives at the University of Mississippi to address
these educational challenges.
We have designed and are in the process of building a unique
200,000 square foot STEM education facility. What makes this space
unique is that it is designed from the ground up around collaboration
across disciplines and active-learning teaching methods that focus on
small-group project work and interactive technologies. These
instruction methods have been shown to both improve comprehension of
science and engineering principles and promote group problem-solving
skills.
Another unique program at UM is our Center for Manufacturing
Excellence. All CME students major in engineering, business or
accounting, but also share coursework across each of the three
disciplines. CME students focus on group projects, communications
skills and understanding a holistic view of a particular problem--from
technical to financial aspects. We cannot predict the technologies
these graduates will engage with during their careers, but we do know
they will always need to work in teams and understand the bigger
picture.
Along with other universities in the nation, we are expanding our
professional student options--students who are re-engaging with the
university to update their skills while remaining on the job. These
programs might range from a professional master's program with an
accelerated time frame to a certificate program to get up to speed on
an emerging technology. Another area we are looking to expand is what
one might call ``deep collaboration'' where technical professionals
from the government come spend extended time with research labs and
groups at the university. Such programs are highly mutually beneficial
to both the university researchers as well as the professional
engineers. These sorts of programs I believe will be become
increasingly important to our technical professional workforce.
Universities also play a key role in developing and disseminating
next-generation engineering principles. Lean engineering, design
thinking, additive manufacturing and additive construction are
important examples. Design thinking helps break down complex,
multidimensional design problems into a manageable framework while lean
engineering realizes those designs through highly efficient production
and manufacturing. A challenge here, however, is not to sacrifice the
technical foundations upon which all these concepts are built.
Additive manufacturing and additive construction will play vital
roles in any long-term space missions. Whether the mission is a base on
the moon or a manned mission to Mars, replacements parts cannot be
stocked--they will need to be printed as they are needed. Any larger-
scale structures on the surface of a moon or planet will require using
native materials and reliable additive construction technologies.
The role of advanced materials will also be increasingly important
in the next generation of space systems design. Nanophase materials
such as graphene have been studied for several decades, but are now
emerging as useful technologies. Our Center for Graphene Research and
Innovation designed a graphene-enhanced polymer material that was just
launched this Saturday from Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia to be
tested on the International Space Station for protection against hyper-
velocity impacts. We and others are exploring graphene enhancements of
many technologies relevant to NASA missions--from microfiltration to
high-efficiency solar panels. Let me be clear: Undergraduate and
graduate students play a key role in the development of such
technologies.
Perhaps a less obvious, but increasingly important, skill set
around space activities are legal and regulatory issues. UM is home to
the National Center of Air and Space Law along with Journal of Space
Law since 1973. As space activities in the private sector continually
grow, appropriate light-touch legal frameworks need to be developed and
studied to best inform decision makers. UM is preparing this workforce
with the first Air and Space Law Masters Program in the Nation.
Let me also take a moment to emphasize the importance of the NASA
Space Grant program which provides incredible space science and
engineering research opportunities to graduate and undergraduate
students across a wide swath of the country. I can tell you from
personal experience that nothing can hook a young college student into
a NASA career faster than working with a team on a real-world problem.
I thank the subcommittee for your attention and would welcome any
questions.
Senator Cruz. Thank you.
Ms. Condino.
STATEMENT OF SHELLA RIVANO CONDINO, PHYSICS TEACHER, OAKTON
HIGH SCHOOL
Ms. Condino. First, I thank God for allowing me to be part
of this STEM endeavor.
Second, thanks to you all for giving me this opportunity
today to share and give testimony about the impact of STEM
engagement, especially to the underserved, under-represented
minorities, women, and our rural communities.
I have been a physics educator for 27 years. I hope it does
not show the age.
[Laughter.]
Ms. Condino. And I have been an advocate of
interdisciplinary and applied approach to learning even before
I heard the acronym, STEM, in the late 1990s. I strongly
believe in practical and experiential learning as I myself
learn best by doing. Who does not enjoy hands-on and minds-on
activities, or the adventure of putting theory into practice,
or bringing knowledge to life, much more solving real-world
problems? The power of this method of learning gives students a
sense of responsibility, accountability, and ownership in their
own learning.
Every day before I start teaching, I always try reminding
myself of this quote: tell me and I forget, teach me and I may
remember, but involve me and I learn. Honestly, I have always
wanted to tell my former teachers about that quote because then
they will have a better understanding of what type of student I
was when I was young, but I never got the chance or the courage
to tell them anyway. So now as a teacher, this became my quote,
a daily reminder, that as a teacher I need to create a learning
environment that is transformative, engaging, fun, and where
learning remains implicitly.
Teaching in Presidio High School in Texas, which is a
border town, rural geographically isolated like what you said--
to be exact, it is 251 miles away from El Paso, which is about
4 hours away from the nearest Walmart, an economically
disadvantaged school that is one of the highlights of my
teaching career. I had my most meaningful and fulfilling
experiences as an educator in that school district. It is the
most challenging, yet it is the most rewarding. With more than
60 percent of the students identified as English language
learners, 95 percent Hispanic, 100 percent participating in the
reduced--no, not even reduced--free lunch program, it truly
challenged my creativity in teaching.
Thus, what I did was use my passion for aviation and
aerospace and began incorporating basic rocketry in my physics
teaching. I also created a free summer enrichment program in
rocketry and robotics to provide students activities that will
make their minds engaged.
This idea came to mind when I attended the first graduation
I had in that school where there were four empty seats placed
in remembrance of the four students who died due to drug-
related events, drag racing accidents, and even suicide. I felt
the urgent need for my intervention, a sense of responsibility
to this community by keeping these children away from bad
elements such as drugs, alcohol, teenage pregnancy, and street
racing.
Hence, I founded the Presidio Rocketry and Robotics Club in
2007 and created teams competing at The American Rocketry
Challenge, or TARC, which is a STEM initiative and the world's
largest model rocketry contest. The program grew. The
membership started with three young girls and then it has grown
to more than 30 students. With the support of my co-sponsor,
Ms. Adelina Portillo, who is an ESL teacher, because I do not
speak Spanish, and that was the hardest thing for me to do, to
be able to teach to a group of kids where we do not have any
communication that would be common for both of us, but we tried
to do English. We tried. The administrators, the staff and
teachers, the community of Presidio, even some of the companies
that are outside of Presidio helped sponsor our program, and it
became really popular amongst the middle school and high school
students. Even our neighboring rural schools--they were
encouraged and inspired to do the same initiative for their own
students.
Presidio gained national recognition because of its
consistent placement in the top 100 teams in the Nation at the
TARC contest in 2009 up to present. And in 2012, we got invited
to the White House Science Fair, and our team presented their
rockets to President Obama.
Because we mostly finish in the top 25 in the national
finals, Presidio teams got the chance to participate at the
NASA Student Launch Initiative Project, which is an advanced,
high-power rocketry program where students design, build, and
launch rockets which carries scientific and engineering
payloads. These aerospace STEM initiatives allowed our students
to enhance their critical thinking, analytical and
metacognition skills, conduct scientific research, improve
their communication skills both oral and written, develop time
management and organization, utilize technology through
software and simulations, problem-solve and troubleshoot, and
collaborate to make wise decisions. Through these programs, my
students developed STEM skills and soft skills employers are
looking for in the future workplace.
Our students also became involved in the NASA Texas High
School Aerospace Scholars program, Texas Alliance for
Minorities in Engineering statewide contest, the Texas Tech
STEM academic competition, even in botball robotics both in-
state and world championships, TCEA robotics, VEX robotics,
even in the prestigious Zero Robotics Virtual Contest held at
MIT. It sounds impossible to believe, but this is the records
of what my students in Presidio has done.
And, Dr. Manber, Presidio also participated in the Student
Spaceflight Experiment Program, SSEP, mission to the ISS where
we sent a microgravity flight experiment to the International
Space Station on SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft,
and compared results or our own ground earth experimentations.
This achievement is truly special because students collaborated
and communicated with astronauts on board the ISS, and the
community of Presidio developed awareness and exposure to STEM
literacy.
I know I left Presidio in 2014 and relocated here in
northern Virginia. However, I continue to mentor the Presidio
Rocketry team and communicate with them virtually through Skype
every Friday from 3 to 5 p.m. Eastern time, after school. I
review their rocket simulations and give them feedback on their
designs. I also virtually demonstrate strategies and techniques
on how to build stable and robust rockets.
I currently teach AP physics courses at Oakton High School
in Vienna, and I continued my goal of encouraging student
participation and interest in STEM. I am one of the teacher
sponsors of the Cougar Robotics, Rocketry, and Physics Clubs.
Our rocketry team won first place at the Battle of the Rockets
last year, became a national finalist at TARC, and currently we
are working with NASA on our SLI project. Our robotics FRC team
made it to the first Robotics World Finals in Detroit, Michigan
last year. Last Monday, our physics club members participated
at the STEM outreach program of the Association of Old Crows in
the International Symposium and Convention on Electronic
Warfare and we won the Cybersecurity Codebreaking Challenge.
Last Friday, I took my students to the Project Aviation Career
Education and Expo in Leesburg, Virginia, and we bagged $22,500
worth of scholarships on flight trainings.
[Applause.]
Ms. Condino. Thank you.
Because of my experiences in teaching in the third poorest
school district in the State of Texas and right now in one of
the richest counties in the entire country, I became more
certain. I am more determined and passionate about contributing
to the future workforce. This is my way of giving back to this
country. I hope that you too will continue to invest in our
youth's education for it will surely guarantee great returns.
Thank you very much and may God continue to bless us all
and God bless the United States of America.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Condino follows:]
Prepared Statement of Shella Rivano Condino, Physics Teacher,
Oakton High School
First, I thank God for allowing me to be part of this STEM
endeavor. Second, thanks to all of you for giving me this opportunity
today to share and give my testimony about the impact of STEM
Engagement especially to the underrepresented, minorities, and rural
communities.
I have been a physics educator for 27 years, and I have been an
advocate of interdisciplinary and applied approach to learning even
before I've heard of the acronym STEM in the late 1990s. I strongly
believe in practical and experiential learning, as I myself learn best
BY DOING. Who does not enjoy hands-on and minds-on activities? or the
adventure of putting theory into practice? or bringing knowledge to
life? much more solving real-world problems? The power of this method
of learning gives students a sense of responsibility, accountability
and ownership in their own learning.
Everyday before I start teaching, I always try reminding myself of
this quote: Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve
me and I learn. Honestly, I've always wanted to tell my former teachers
about this quote so that they can understand me better when I was a
student, but I never got the courage to tell them anyway. So now, this
quote has become my daily reminder that as a teacher I need to create a
learning environment that is transformative, engaging, fun and where
learning remains implicitly.
Teaching in Presidio High School in Presidio, Texas, a border town,
rural, geographically isolated and economically disadvantage school, is
one of the highlights of my teaching career. I've had my most
meaningful and fulfilling experiences as an educator in that school
district. The most challenging, yet the most rewarding. With more than
60 percent of the students identified as English Language Learners, it
truly challenged my creativity in teaching. I used my passion for
aviation and aerospace and began incorporating basic rocketry in my
physics teaching. I also created a free summer enrichment program in
rocketry and robotics to provide students activities that will make
their minds engaged. This idea came to mind when I attended a
graduation one year, where 4 empty seats were placed in remembrance of
the 4 students who died due to drug related events, drag racing
accident and suicide. I felt the urgent need for intervention, a sense
of responsibility to the community by keeping these children away from
bad elements such drugs, alcohol, teenage pregnancy, and street racing.
Hence, I founded the Presidio Rocketry and Robotics Club in 2007 and
created teams competing at The American Rocketry Challenge, a STEM
initiative, the world's largest model rocketry competition. The program
grew membership starting from 3 young girls to more than 30 students!
With the support of my co-sponsor Ms. Adelina Portillo, the
administrators, staff and teachers, community of Presidio and companies
who helped sponsor our program it became popular amongst high school
and middle school students. Neighboring rural schools were encouraged
and inspired to do the same initiative for their students. Also,
Presidio rocketry gained national recognition due to its consistent
placement in the top 100 in the Nation at TARC since 2009 to present!
In 2012, we got invited to the Whitehouse Science Fair and our team
presented their rockets to former President Obama. Because we mostly
finished in the top 25 in the national finals, Presidio team got the
chance to participate at the NASA Student Launch Initiative project, an
advanced-high-power rocketry program where students design, build, and
launch a rocket which carries scientific or engineering payloads. These
aerospace STEM initiatives allowed our students to enhance their
critical thinking, analytical and metacognition skills; conduct
scientific research, improve their communication skills both oral and
written, develop time management and organization, utilize technology
through software and simulations, problem-solve and trouble shoot, and
collaborate to make wise decisions. Through these programs, my students
developed STEM skills and soft skills employers are looking for in the
future workplace.
Our students also became involved in the NASA Texas High School
Aerospace Scholars program, Texas Alliance for Minorities in
Engineering STEM Statewide contest, Texas Tech T-STEM academic
competition, Botball Robotics in state and world championships, TCEA
Robotics, VEX Robotics, even in the prestigious Zero Robotics Virtual
Contest held at MIT! Presidio also participated in the Student
Spaceflight Experiments Program SSEP Mission 2 to the ISS, where we
sent a microgravity flight experiment to the International Space
Station on SpaceX-1 (Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft) and
compared results of our own ground Earth experimentation. This
achievement is truly special because students collaborated and
communicated with the astronauts onboard the ISS, and the community of
Presidio developed an awareness and exposure to STEM literacy!
I left Presidio HS in 2014 and relocated in northern VA. However, I
continue to mentor the Presidio Rocketry team and communicate with them
virtually through Skype every Friday from 3-5 pm Eastern time. I review
their rocket simulations and give them feedback on their designs. I
also virtually demonstrate strategies and techniques on how to build
stable and robust rocket.
I currently teach AP Physics courses at Oakton High School in
Vienna, VA. I continued my goal of encouraging student participation
and interest in STEM. I am one of the teacher sponsors of the Cougar
Robotics, Rocketry and Physics Clubs. Our rocketry team won first place
at the Battle of the Rockets this year, became national finalist at
TARC, and currently working with NASA SLI project. Our robotics FRC
team made it to the FIRST Robotics World Finals in Detroit, Michigan
last year. Last Monday our physics club members participated at the
STEM outreach program of the Association of Old Crows in the
International Symposium and Convention on Electronic Warfare and won
the Cybersecurity Codebreaking Challenge. Last Friday, I took my
students to the Projet Aviation Career Education and EXPO in Leesburg,
VA and bagged $22500 worth of scholarship on flight trainings.
Because of my experiences in teaching in the 3rd poorest school
district in the State of Texas and in the one of the richest counties
in the entire country, I became more certain, determine and passionate
about contributing to the future workforce. This is my way of giving
back to this country. I hope that you too will continue to invest in
our youth's education for it will surely guarantee great returns. Thank
you very much and may God continue to bless us all and this great
country. God bless the United States of America!
Here is a list of a few students who became part of the STEM
programs and their current STEM related careers.
1. Ana Nieto--mechanical engineer, Aurora Flight Sciences, a
subsidiary of Boeing Company in Manassas, VA
2. Itza Rodriguez--structural design engineer, The Boeing Company
in Seattle, WA
3. Antonio Bujanda--mechanical engineer, assistant professor at
Texas Tech University in Lubbock, TX
4. Janet Nieto--chemist at Reliable Analysis in Michigan
5. Daniella Barraza--environmental scientist, Bureau of Land
Management in Las Cruces, NM
6. Aida and Ana Luevanos--directors, Alumni Relations at Sul Ross
University in Alpine, Texas
7. Taylor Galliete--mechanical engineer, Sandia National
Laboratories in Albuquerque, NM
8. Helena Cardona--architect, CAS Architects in Mountainview, CA
9. Miguel Nieto--Legislative Assistant, Texas State Capitol House
of Representatives in Austin, TX
10. Mextli Delgado--mathematics teacher in Odessa, TX
11. Tatum Galliete--film, Warner Brothers in Los Angeles, CA
12. Roxanne Hernandez--business analyst, Select Energy Services in
Austin, TX
13. Matthew LaRosa--physicist, Lockheed Martin Corp Missile Division
in Orlando, FL
Senator Cruz. Thank you very much, Ms. Condino, for that
very powerful testimony. And let me say to each of you, thank
you for your testimony. That was illuminating. That was
important and particularly for those of you who are or have
been educators, thank you for the time you have spent helping
inspire, helping shape the next generation of scientists and
innovators and leaders.
Ms. Condino, let me say as well, you are Skyping every week
with the students in Presidio High School, and if you would,
please convey for me to the students at the Presidio Rocketry
Club how proud we are of the hard work they are doing.
And in fact, one story that I wanted to ask you to
elaborate on is a story that a spokesman for the Aerospace
Industry Association recounted in a ``Texas Monthly'' article,
which is that the Presidio team, in order to be able to afford
their first trip to Virginia for the Team America Rocketry
Challenge had to auction off a goat. And according to the
article, your team auctioned off a goat in Presidio every year
for the next 5 years. And in 2014, the team placed its highest
ranking yet, fourth place at the competition. Could you
elaborate on that please?
Ms. Condino. Like what I said, it is an economically
disadvantaged school, and so we do not have much of a budget.
But it is very difficult to convince the school board to allow
us to go outside of Presidio. So what I decided was, together
with the teacher that I worked with, you know, my co-sponsor,
we have to raise funds in order for us to show that we wanted
these kids to move forward.
And one of the initiatives that we did was a suggestion
from a parent to auction a goat because at that time when we
tried to compete in the TARC, and we made it to the top 100, we
have to fly out of Texas. But we have to go to the airport 4
hours away first. It was the transportation that was the most
difficult and then the budget on how to build the rockets as
well.
So I always tell the kids we cannot waste money. We cannot
waste time. We have to do everything through simulation first,
and through that simulation, build from scratch. And we decided
let us show to the school board that we are willing to put in
time and effort.
There were a group of companies, particularly Lockheed
Martin Corporation, because at that time when we learned that
we made it to the national finals, we were already told we are
not moving on because we do not have the budget, there is
liability, and all of those things. But when I mentioned it to
Mr. Steve DeLeon, who used to work at Lockheed Martin at that
time, he felt like he wanted to help. And so he was able to
gather about $3,000, and he told me put pressure to your board
and tell them we are willing to support this initiative. And so
we went.
But we have to do it every year. We cannot just rely on
other people's money every single time. We have to show them
that we also are putting in some of our efforts. And yes, we
first raffled the goats. In that particular area, goat is a
common thing to eat. So they would pay money in order to eat
the goat. But there are winners where they do not want the
goat. So I auctioned it. After I raffle, we auction it at night
because we have this arts festival. And with one little goat,
we could make $2,000. But it is all about hard work. It is
about your initiative. We sell donuts. I burned my fingers by
barbecuing in front of church every Sunday because I wanted to
show the community that we are not just traveling out of town
for pleasure. We wanted to compete and bring back that glory to
that little town of Presidio.
Senator Cruz. Well, thank you for your creativity and your
passion, and perhaps in honor of that story at our next
subcommittee hearing we may have to serve cabrito tacos.
[Laughter.]
Senator Cruz. Mr. Manber, you mentioned in your testimony
that Nanoracks and DreamUp have flown roughly 60 educational
payloads to the ISS from Texas schools in Hawkins and Houston,
Burleson, El Paso, San Antonio, Austin, Buda. What is the
impact on those schools of being able to participate? And how
can we expand it so that more schools have that opportunity?
Mr. Manber. Well, I think Ms. Condino has just told us the
impact. It is incredible the impact. We have students coming to
us now who are asking us for help on their thesis, their
university thesis, Ph.D. thesis. They started with us 5, 6, 7
years ago. Teachers tell us every week that the students never
forget participating in a project that actually goes to space.
And so with a great deal of humbleness, we see how many lives
that we have changed, having these students decide to go into
STEM and go into engineering or biology because of space. So it
has had an extraordinary impact on the lives of the students
and the teachers and the parents when they see that this is
something real and something that can be done within an
academic year or almost an academic year.
You ask an excellent question, how do we expand it? We are
sometimes that awful thing of a business, and we are investing.
We are investing to expand to reach out to the disadvantaged.
We have to reach out to more communities. We are working with--
--
Senator Cruz. What does it cost for a school to----
Mr. Manber. OK. The smallest price we have is $15,000 U.S.
for a month on the Space Station. And so it is test tubes. And
I will be honest with you. I do not mean to do this here at a
hearing, but we do not make money on that. I mean, we also work
with NASA and the German Space Agency and others. And on this
educational at $15,000 you can do a test tube that goes up.
Senator Cruz. Let me repeat that for anyone at C-SPAN
watching. You are saying any school in America----
Mr. Manber. Yes, $15,000 will put you up for 30 days on the
station.
Senator Cruz. Wow.
Mr. Manber. And we have lists of all of the payloads that
have flown previously. So you can see the research that has
been done. We work with partners like Dr. Goldstein who can
provide a curriculum. DreamUp has a curriculum. And we are
expanding. That program is growing rapidly. It is also growing,
as I said, into more disadvantaged locations.
We still have trouble with NASA. We have trouble because we
do not quite fit, but we are picking up the first of our NASA
funding for disadvantaged communities.
And we are also going overseas now. And I think it is a
great story in American leadership. Both DreamUp and
Nanoracks--we have done work with the UAE on contests and in
Germany. And so this is a great story of all working together,
the students, the community, NASA, and the private sector. So
it is a good story.
Senator Cruz. So $15,000. If I am doing my math right, that
is about seven and a half goats.
[Laughter.]
Senator Cruz. And you may think of an alternative price.
Mr. Manber. Well, I can think of alternative things we
could auction off in Texas.
[Laughter.]
Senator Cruz. Senator Capito.
STATEMENT OF HON. SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO,
U.S. SENATOR FROM WEST VIRGINIA
Senator Capito. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank all of
you for being here today.
I am from West Virginia and we have a great relationship
with NASA in West Virginia. We have the Katherine Johnson IV&V
Center that we just renamed in her honor, our proud West
Virginian.
I would like to ask really anybody on the panel. But in my
observations there, I think one of the most enlightening thing
that I have seen and really I think the way to get our students
is the collaborative efforts they do with Fairmont and also
with West Virginia University.
So how do you see that expanding? I do not know. Dr.
Gladden, you might be more involved with that at your school.
How do you see that expanding and is there any pushback from
NASA to continue those kinds of internships and availabilities?
Because a lot of them end up working there in the end.
Dr. Gladden. Well, thank you for the question.
I certainly do not see any pushback from NASA. I think that
NASA has been a very good partner too with the higher ed
community providing those internships, those opportunities for
our students, and also as we have talked about before, the
research projects. Students are always involved in every
research project. And so those are golden opportunities for
those students to get involved in a real project of interest to
NASA but also to engage with the professionals at NASA. And
that engagement, even over and above the technical parts, is
really quite valuable.
So, no, I certainly do not see any pushback. And I think
that all of us in higher ed are always looking for more and
more experiential opportunities for our students.
Senator Capito. So that would be like the Space Grant
program.
Dr. Gladden. Exactly. Yes, Space Grant is a great example
of a vehicle to make those sorts of things happen.
Senator Capito. Ms. Condino, you talked about your robotics
team. Another observation I have had--I have seen a lot of
robotics teams. We live in a rural State. And one of the things
that I have noticed that I think is kind of lost on people when
they think about the STEM education that comes from being a
part of a robotics team, whether it is an elementary, middle
school, or high school, but the skill sets that you are
developing are not just your science and technology skill sets.
You are learning how to present. You are learning how to work
collaboratively. You are learning how to share knowledge with
other teams from other States or other schools. And I think
that part of the robotics team, for that person that may not
have the highest technological skills or maybe cannot work the
controllers as well as somebody else, to have a member and the
concept of teamwork is something that I think is incredibly
important and certainly NASA is a team.
So how do you see that with your experience as a teacher?
Ms. Condino. In our robotics program, we divide our group
into subcommittees or committees, you know, little committees.
We actually right now we even have the business committee, the
marketing group. We have kids that are involved in just
documentation alone, even the scouting group because they have
to pair up with some other schools. So it is important for them
to have good relationships with the opponents so that in the
end, if you do not actually make it to the top finals, the top
teams will get the chance to select you. So having good
relationships with them.
So it is not at all just the build skill or the coding
skill and the programming skill. It is all types of skills that
actually is being honed and enhanced in these kinds of
programs.
Senator Capito. And I think that really fleshes it out.
Dr. Elkins-Tanton, it is great that Senator Rosen is here
with me today. I joke that we are the STEM times two because we
just recently got a bill passed, the Building Blocks of STEM
Act. Part of our mission has been to draw in more women into
STEM at a younger age.
What is your experience with this, and how do you think we
can increase the participation not just of women but other
minority groups that are not well represented in the STEM
fields?
Dr. Elkins-Tanton. Thank you for this question. This is
something I am so passionate about and I think about deeply.
And anyone who is listening, I want to work with you on this. I
think it is for anyone who feels that their voice cannot be
heard either because of their gender or their socioeconomic
background or their race or any of the reasons there could be
implicit bias against a person.
And to me the really key step in advancing equity is
culture. I think that you need a culture of the organization
where people can rise on their merits, where they are not
bullied out, where they are not harassed out. Sociologists say
that until there are about 30 percent of people who you feel
like are like you on the team, you feel like you are alone, and
therefore you are the most vulnerable person. It does not
matter what the hiring rubric is. If you do not have a good
culture, you will not have diversity.
And I would just add to that also the experiential
learning, the inquiry learning of things that we are working
on--you can create any kind of miracle with one fabulous
teacher and 30 kids or with a perfect internship. But if we
cannot do this at scale, we have lost. We need to be able to do
this at scale.
And so that is the purpose of so much of what I have been
working on personally, trying to make sure that these
experiential inquiry experiences can be done at scale. I think
it is critical to equity and diversity as well.
Thank you.
Senator Capito. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Senator Cruz. Thank you.
Senator Rosen.
STATEMENT OF HON. JACKY ROSEN,
U.S. SENATOR FROM NEVADA
Senator Rosen. Thank you.
Well, I have to tell you that all of you are so inspiring.
And oh, my goodness, I can tell you I have so many friends who
are teachers that find the creative ways to inspire their
students through music, through physics, through all kinds of
things. And it is the art and passion of teaching that will
really move our country forward because when you grab those
young minds--you have grabbed me. I am like ready take your
class. And there you go. So thank you, and all of your passion
is infectious. You need to go around the country talking about
this.
And Senator Capito and I did introduce a bill, Building
Blocks of STEM to help get young girls, pre-K through 12,
involved in STEM education. It should hopefully be passing the
House and the President will sign that into law. We will get
some things moving.
But we do, in Nevada, have a wonderful woman, Dr. Elisabeth
Hausrath, who is a research geoscience professor at UNLV. So
she got the bug early. And so we know that currently half the
states in the United States, including Nevada, only receive
less than 10 percent of Federal R&D funding. The NASA EPSCoR is
a joint Federal/State program designed to allow more states to
participate in space and aeronautics research, building upon
what the kids learn in the younger grades.
So we received $100,000 at UNLV to study minerals found on
Mars. Like I said, geoscience professor, Dr. Elisabeth
Hausrath--she is a role model for so many. We have been
featuring her. She is leading this research project and she was
selected by NASA as one of 10 scientists who is going to choose
which rock and soil samples from Mars that are going to be
brought back to Earth.
So the President's budget proposal--it terminates this
NASA's office of STEM engagement and significantly is going to
cut NASA EPSCoR. So we are going to do Building Blocks of STEM.
We are going to try to provide grants and help for teachers and
schools and bring this up to scale, we hope, around the
country. But what do we do if we terminate this project? Where
do we go from here?
Dr. Elkins-Tanton. One very practical thing I might say, as
the PI of the mission, Psyche--and by the way, speaking of
gender, I believe I am the second woman to ever win a competed
deep space mission. I really feel strongly about that.
Senator Rosen. Congratulations.
Dr. Elkins-Tanton. And the first was Maria Zuber, who I am
sure many of us in this room know, my friend and mentor.
We are allowed to take a percentage of our PI-led mission
money and use it for undergraduate education and outreach. And
so that was something that I mentioned in my testimony. But
that could be expanded beyond the undergraduate. If the
missions could also then reach K through 12, could reach out to
communities with that money. If that money was just allowed to
be used in a broader sense, that would immediately be perhaps a
simple way that we could help with the potential tightening of
the NASA budget.
Senator Rosen. So maybe offering internships and
scholarships for people who are going to graduate school or
undergraduate, that they can come down and help teachers like
this do some great things in their classroom, give them those
extra skills.
Dr. Elkins-Tanton. That is exactly right. You know, our 550
undergraduates we have had involved in two years--that could
have been 550 undergraduates and 550 high school students or
middle school students. That would begin to make a difference.
Senator Rosen. Thank you.
And so I guess what I want to ask each one of you in all
the different areas that you work in, how can we here in
Congress help you get the next generation inspired to reach for
the stars, if you will? Right? Because that is what NASA is all
about. And thinking about that, using that imagination. So we
are the policymakers. We are the lawmakers. You cannot
legislate everything, but what can we do to help you inspire
that next gen? Please.
Mr. Manber. Thank you for your enthusiasm, Senator.
Senator Rosen. I am a former computer programmer. I like
the STEM stuff.
Mr. Manber. We have found at both Nanoracks and DreamUp
that first off, NASA opens doors. I have unfortunate news that
not all of the American public likes all of the American
government. OK. This is news for you. But NASA still opens
doors, and NASA must be there. It is a wonderful brand. It is a
wonderful history. And no matter where we are when we say we
are working with NASA to go to the International Space Station,
people smile. I mean, there is just this trust of what NASA has
been, is, and will be.
So what I would say from your vantage point is I do not
want to see NASA go away in STEM. I mean, so many governmental
organizations have STEM outreaches, which is wonderful. But
NASA is a special part of our government, and they have such a
proud history.
So we have found that contests inspire when it is something
real of going to space. This is just from our vantage point.
Senator Rosen. I watched the moon landing, and so I know
what it inspires.
Mr. Manber. When a student can be part of something that
involves a launch of a rocket or whatever, a satellite, or
whatever it is, that is inspiring, and we need that the history
of NASA to be there to continue to make them motivated.
Senator Rosen. Please, yes.
Dr. Gladden. So I just want to tee off of that because I
think that is really truly important. You know, NASA is
uniquely positioned of really any Federal agency to capture
hearts and minds of students at a very young age. And I think
this also connects back to the gender gap discussion we were
having a few minutes ago that even before the students get to
Ms. Condino, reaching back into the middle school, that is
where you begin to see some differentiation happening based on
gender. And I think trying to reach back into the middle school
or even elementary school through NASA and the allure of NASA,
that might be a powerful thing for our country.
Senator Rosen. Ms. Condino, what do you think?
Ms. Condino. From a teacher's standpoint, I think it is
reduction of all of those tests, and instead of focusing so
much in the classroom and teaching to the test because it is
mandated by the State or the government, why not allow us
teachers to create all of those STEM initiatives and projects
and have the kids put their minds and participating and doing
activities that are like that?
Senator Rosen. Experience-based learning. I like it. Thank
you.
I yield back.
Senator Cruz. Thank you.
Senator Thune.
STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN THUNE,
U.S. SENATOR FROM SOUTH DAKOTA
Senator Thune. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
As the demand for jobs in STEM fields continues to grow, it
is critical that we have students from all over the country who
have those skills and are competitive on graduation regardless
of where they choose to receive their education.
NASA's Established Program to Stimulate Competitive
Research, or EPSCoR, provided, as you know, funding to areas of
the country that are typically unrepresented in Federal space
and aeronautics research funding. South Dakota's universities
continue to produce high quality students in STEM fields, and
EPSCOR funding has been essential in making a broader base of
STEM expertise available to NASA.
So could you just, as a general question, sort of speak to
the importance of building a nationwide STEM workforce that
draws from every state across the country?
Dr. Elkins-Tanton. Thank you for that question.
I see the effects of the tightening our STEM workforce
every day working on this mission. I see it at Jet Propulsion
Laboratory. It see it at Maxar, our industry partners. Everyone
is feeling it. It is a real problem on the ground right now,
which I imagine Mr. Manber can relate to.
So to me showing students early that you are not a special
kind of person if you go into STEM, that anyone who is
interested can do it. There is not this differentiator between
the STEM people and the non-STEM people. You can love art and
you can love philosophy and you can love sports and you can
also love math. And you can work with people who love all those
things.
If we could make it more of a connector instead of
necessarily a differentiator, if we could work on the culture
of not judging girls in fifth grade and telling them they are
not good at math, work on that culture, give the teachers the
freedom to connect not just STEM, but all the fields together,
to me that would be a great impetus for bringing people into
this world of STEM.
Mr. Manber. In Houston, we just hired our first in-company
recruiter, and we have done it because we are having trouble
filling jobs. We are very, very hungry to find the right level
of young engineers that have space experience, and we have
picked up some new programs lately. And my head of engineering
is frantically, you know, where do we find the people? This is
a serious problem for us, and in the space community, we cannot
do non-U.S. citizens. We cannot do the visas. So we have a
problem in this country today. We are growing 30 to 40 percent
a year, and I am worried about getting the right people. I am
just having trouble with it.
Dr. Gladden. So I think all of that is exactly right.
I might touch on one element of that question that I think
was in your question, Senator Thune, about the demographic
diversity across the country, so making sure we are drawing
engineering talent not just from the East Coast and the West
Coast but all through the country. And I do think that is
critically important because we are culturally different. We
have different experiences as young children. And so that
little girl who grew up fixing her tractor on her farm could
make an amazing engineer, but she has got to have the
opportunity to see that path forward.
And so I think that is where programs like NASA EPSCoR and
others can be so invaluable to making sure that all of those
students in South Dakota and Mississippi and everywhere in
between can see that path forward because there is talent out
there. It is not that we do not have the talent. I think we
have a pipeline problem.
Senator Thune. Ms. Condino, you mentioned in your testimony
some of your experience teaching in a rural community in Texas.
And I am curious. We obviously work very hard in South Dakota.
We have got some exceptional students, and that is thanks to
the dedication of the faculty and the administrators and State
officials who work very hard to make sure that they have to
tools they need. But one of the challenges that we face is
recruiting teachers and retaining STEM teachers.
And I am just wondering, based on your experience in Texas,
if you could share any ideas that might help schools in South
Dakota and other rural states recruit and retain teachers who
are equipped to teach STEM-related courses.
Ms. Condino. I remember moving from teaching in El Paso to
Presidio, Texas where my salary was cut more than $10,000. But
I think that is one thing that would attract teachers in those
rural areas because there are gems in the rural areas. The kids
could do much because they have nothing to lose. And that is
one thing that I have noticed. If I would present the students
something that is new to them, they will grab it in a
heartbeat. They will do whatever I want.
But it is very difficult to keep the teachers because one
would be either pay scale, obviously, and the lack of proper
training. I am very resourceful in my own way. I tried to use
technology and all the other resources inside and outside, and
that is what I promise my students every day that if I cannot
get the resource from right here, I will bring it to you.
Like for career day, I remember how every year we have a
career day in November. But the first career day I attended in
Presidio, we only had plumbers. And I have nothing against
those kinds of jobs, plumbers and people who work in the salon.
The most popular were the border patrol and the military. But I
felt like these kids have to be exposed. So I told the teachers
and administrators, hey, I want to do a virtual career so that
I could have people from the outside, professors in the
universities from the outside that I know, and even those in
other countries, former students of mine are already in--that
are professional, have the kids get exposed to that.
Answering what you asked about keeping the teachers, it is
the individual. I can only speak for myself. It does not matter
where I go. It does not matter how much I get paid for
teaching. This is my passion. And so I will just give 100
percent of what I have. And I really hope that those other
teachers would stay in that teaching profession because we are
losing the majority of them.
But I am proud to tell you that Presidio High School or
even the elementary has now faculty members that were my former
students. So they are going back. And that is what I told the
students. When you leave Presidio, you have to come back and
help your community to flourish.
Senator Thune. You have to be able to handle the 40 below
wind chills in South Dakota too on top of it.
[Laughter.]
Senator Thune. But I just want one last question, if I can,
Mr. Chairman.
In addition to the achievements of NASA and its partners,
maintaining American leadership in space is also going to
depend on continuing improvements in our cybersecurity
capabilities. We have a little university in South Dakota,
Dakota State University, which has been a real leader in
training qualified cybersecurity professionals.
How important are sophisticated cybersecurity capabilities
and a large network of cybersecurity professionals to
maintaining American scientific and technological leadership in
space, would you say?
Mr. Manber. Thank you for the question, Senator.
Growing up in our software capabilities and cybersecurity,
we are spending more and more money, and we think it is well
spent on protecting our internal and external communications.
It is something none of us here know the moment it is going to
be a crisis or whether it will be a crisis, but it is a threat.
And so even a small company like mine is investing more and
more to ensure confidentiality and security in our
communication systems. We are hit all the time. We are hit all,
all the time.
Dr. Gladden. Ditto for universities.
Dr. Elkins-Tanton. Just to add briefly onto that, the team
of people working on the Psyche mission is now above 800. We
are at so many different organizations. The openings for cyber-
attacks through those many, many organizations is vast, and for
a project like this, the catastrophe could only be imagined.
And so it is beyond critical to add to everything that is said
at the table.
Senator Thune. I am glad to hear that Dakota State is very
much on the right track I think. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Senator Cruz. Thank you, Senator Thune.
Mr. Manber, you spoke compellingly about the challenge of
finding qualified employees who are trained engineers and able
to fill the demands of the modern workforce.
A question I want to ask all four of the panel members, in
your opinion, how important is space? How important is the
mission?
You know, I think back to when John F. Kennedy came to
Houston and came to Rice University and laid out a vision that
within a decade, we will take a man to the Moon and bring him
home. And I have always liked the fact that President Kennedy
said at the time--he was at Rice, and he said why does Rice
play Texas. Not because it is easy. Because it is hard.
[Laughter.]
Senator Cruz. That inspired a whole generation.
My question to you is how important is space for inspiring
a new generation of students, a new generation of teachers? How
important is going back to the moon? How important is building
a sustainable habitat for ongoing research on the Moon? How
important is going to Mars and perhaps finding the first signs
of life in the universe? How important is that for inspiring
the next Nobel laureate in physics? Share the importance of
space for inspiration.
Dr. Elkins-Tanton. In our world today, a lot of the
narratives we hear are narratives of fear and narratives of
guilt. But the only way you really get people to stand up and
do the miracles that we are capable of is when you have a
narrative of optimism and a narrative of hope.
And that is what space is. Space is the opportunity to be
who we could be as human kind, that we do not always see
ourselves being every day here. It is the inspiration that if
we can create these things that you are listing, these
beautiful ideas we have, then we can be bolder and better in
our lives here at home. It is the inspiration for students to
go into STEM fields for something that they find could make
them a bigger and a better human being.
And so I think it is incumbent upon us. If we turn away, it
is a failure of our species. We have to do this.
Mr. Manber. We just opened an office in the UAE in Abu
Dhabi, and we have been doing work on the Emirates astronaut
who went to the Space Station. We did their educational
payloads, which is pretty cool.
Why are they looking at space, and why did we open an
office in Abu Dhabi? It is funny how we take things for granted
in this country and we do not realize. They have studied the
last 50-100 years, and they said the best way to ensure that we
as a society in the UAE stay together as the oil revenue goes
down is to get into space. And to them, they have announced a
100-year program to go to Mars. And so they have looked and
studied us, and they said what you did during this Apollo era
and what you continue to do in space is the best way that we as
a government can inspire our kids not to leave our country and
to get meaningful jobs.
The same in Australia. The same in Mexico. The same in the
UK. All have opened space programs in the last 2 to 3 years,
all looking to the United States as the role model.
And here we do not even see it. Here we have to be reminded
only when someone gets in front of us for a brief period of
time. And it just frustrates me that we see every day how kids
are encouraged by and motivated by space, and of course, there
are strategic advantages, commercial advantages.
But to answer the question, the world has looked around and
said, you know, what you guys did during Apollo, hey, that is
the best way to motivate our next generation. So space is
important for a whole bunch of reasons, but one of them we know
already. It inspires.
Dr. Gladden. That was all very well said.
The only thing I would add to that I think is that if you
just look from a straight up return on investment, direct
return on investment, it is probably not a great thing to do.
But the intangible power of the space exploration is--it is
intangible. It is immeasurable. I do not think I can pinpoint
any single initiative or program in this country's history that
we could all collectively be more proud of and more inspired by
than the Apollo program. I mean, it really kind of took this
country to a whole different level. And the inspiration that it
delivered to the country then got leveraged into all kinds of
other technical advances. So that is when you sort of look at
our return on investment, you got to pull all that into it as
well. So I think that the power of space exploration--it goes
way beyond just the direct dollars and return.
Ms. Condino. I think it is a reminder that we really are
not alone, and we have to go out there. Either to protect
ourselves in the future, and explore what is beyond and how can
we use that to make our planet even better. So it is a
testimony where this is where we could put all the skills that
we have developed. Why is it not inspiring to be able to be the
first person on Mars? I myself wanted to travel and go to
space. That is my lifelong dream.
Senator Cruz. You know, one of the things we have heard as
well is the enormous demands in the STEM fields and that these
are only going to keep growing, whether cybersecurity, whether
space, whether computers, whether programming. The world is
getting more and more complicated, more and more technological,
and people lacking those STEM skills have a much higher chance
of being locked out of their best chances of the future.
At the same time, we are facing a shortage of graduates
with the skills necessary, and one of the things that all of
you all have testified to is to address that, we have got to
expand the pool. We have got to expand the graduates who are
coming out. And in particular, minorities, African Americans,
and Hispanics continue to be under-represented in STEM fields,
and women continue to be under-represented in STEM fields.
Both of those are realities I personally have considerable
familiarity with. My mom was one of those human computers. She
came out of Rice in 1956 and got hired at Shell as a computer
programmer at the dawn of the computer age. And my dad was a
Cuban immigrant who came out of Texas in 1961 and became a
computer programmer at IBM with a heavy Spanish accent and an
amazed wonder to be in America.
I want to ask each of you, how do we expand the ability of
minorities, the ability of women to see that they can achieve
in the STEM fields, to gain the skills they need, and to get
the tools to pursue careers if that is their passion and their
aptitude and their dreams? And I want to open it up to anyone.
Ms. Condino. Well, especially the women, when I used to
teach in Presidio, it was very difficult at the beginning to
kind of like to have them speak up for themselves. So I always
tell the kids self-advocacy is very, very important. And I ask
your teacher will be here as your second mom. And after they
have already gained all the skills and those exposures that we
provided for them, they need that full support in the end as
well until they continue.
Like these young girls that I mentored all the way until
they finally called me and said, Mrs. Condino, my last question
for you is help me decide. Should I accept a job at Lockheed
Martin Corporation or should I go to Aurora Flight Sciences,
which is owned by Boeing. Things like that.
So it's continuing to mentor these kids whether they are
male or female and continuing to provide them that exposure. I
am very happy where I am at right now at Fairfax County public
schools because especially in my school, they were pioneering
these capstone projects where in lieu of having this final
exam, these kids are developing projects from ninth grade all
the way to senior. And the capstone projects are amazing where
they conduct research.
They do presentations at--you know, even at the Department
of Education, we have students who published a book. There is a
student who actually created a story about her struggle and her
way to the United States I believe from Siberia and it ended up
being a film. So she was invited to this film festival. So
things like that is already starting. And again, it is
experiential learning.
And we are now moving on to the middle school where the
middle schools are also sort of like being exposed at a young
age because these are the skills that we will need for our
future workforce. And I think we have to start really early.
And as a teacher, we need to be there and continue our
mentorship. Even if they are already graduates, we still
continue to communicate with them.
On Thanksgiving, one of my former students at Herndon High
School just graduated with a degree in physics, and he is now
working at the Missile Division of Lockheed Martin. And he has
told me I am coming home on Thanksgiving, and I want to buy you
dinner. So things like that where you just give everything that
you have because it is not just for me anymore. It is not about
me anymore. It is about my kids, the future of my children and
their children's children. And I wanted to be able to
contribute now.
Senator Cruz. And the choice you described your former
student is facing, I would like to see a lot more students
having choices like that.
Dr. Gladden. I will be brief. I think the only extra point
I would add to that is, as I stated earlier, reaching further
back into the grade levels, if we are thinking about trying to
grow, which absolutely we need to do, grow the under-
represented groups within the STEM fields, the professional
ranks, I do think that we will get more bang for the buck if we
reach back as early as we possibly can. And whatever the
programs are, whether they are NASA programs or Department of
Ed programs or wherever they live, I think we need to start
early because a lot of those preconceived notions--and some of
them are cultural, some of them are implicit bias. I mean,
whatever the reasons are, they start very early. And once they
start, it is hard to then peel them back, get them back on
track at the high school level and certainly at the university
level.
Mr. Manber. A few moments ago, I talked about the
extraordinary brand that is NASA. It is almost a disadvantage
in the sense of your question. How do we reach out to more
disadvantaged communities? We have now made a conscious effort
to go reach out to not only African American and Hispanic
communities but also first people. And when you go in and when
you say you can go to the International Space Station--I will
again use a New York analogy--they say, what? Are you selling
us the Brooklyn Bridge?
So one of the problems that we face is that NASA sometimes
has a love-hate relationship with commercial, but the more that
they hear that a small company sent an oven to the Space
Station or the more times it comes out instead of it just being
NASA and still very often when we do things, it is under NASA.
Now, there are a lot of, let us say, first people who are
not going to think that they can go to the Space Station in
this way. So to answer you very practically, we have started to
just go to some of these conferences, meet with the people, and
say either we want to train you or we want to locate something
in your community or on the reservation, or you can send
something and we will help you.
So it is just hard work, but we cannot wait for the
government to do it. But we could have a little bit of emphasis
put on NASA that sometimes it is not NASA. Sometimes it is the
commercial sector. We say, just laughing, when something goes
wrong, suddenly it is us, but when it is right, you know, it is
NASA. It is a joke. It is a joke. So it is really trying to get
over the brand, over the gravitas that is NASA.
Dr. Elkins-Tanton. To go back to what Ms. Condino said, so
many students are drawn into STEM fields through the team
experience of building something together. If you get away from
the hero model where it is just that one really smart boy who
answers the question and everyone else feels left out, if
instead you have everyone at the table working together to
solve something, that is where you get real diversity. We can
do that at the middle school. We can do that in elementary
school. We can do it in high school. That is what our whole new
degree is. It is all inquiry and experiential learning. We can
do it at scale. We can solve the problem of numbers.
The thing that you can do to help would be to release some
of the strictures on K through 12 on teaching to the test so
that the teachers feel that they have more freedom to teach in
these other ways that we know work.
Senator Cruz. Well, wonderful. I want to thank each of the
witnesses for your hard work, for your passion, your
dedication, for your testimony here today.
I am extending because I am being told that Senator Sinema
is a minute away. So right as I am in my peroration, getting
ready to try to wax eloquent, and instead--all right. Let us
ask another question, which is universities.
What should universities be doing better to expand STEM
education? And let me ask you in particular. NASA Space Grants.
How much of a difference are they making as a practical matter?
Dr. Gladden. The Space Grant program is hugely impactful.
It not only funds the faculty to do some of their exciting work
and partner with NASA to solve a particular problem, but as I
said earlier, there are always students involved in those
problems. So those are critical.
I would say beyond the NASA Space Grant program, higher ed
as a whole is looking pretty deeply--and we certainly are at
the University of Mississippi--at the STEM education
experience. We have kind of a cookie cutter traditional mold,
you know, we have this department and this school, and so on
and so forth. But the real problems do not fall like that. And
you have to be able to work with folks who do not have an
engineering background but they have got an accounting degree
or a business or a biology degree, or whatever it is. And the
Center for Manufacturing Excellence is an example of this layer
that you put on top of those majors that blends and then builds
teams of those students. Some are accounting majors. Some are
business majors. Some are engineers. But they are all working
on a yearlong problem, and they are all taking class work so
they understand each other's world.
And so I think the more of that that we can do, get
creative about--and, you know, teaching to the test--I am fully
onboard with trying to move away from that and get more
creative at the secondary level. That is kind of the same at
the university. We do not teach them too much to the test, but
we teach a lot to the way we have always taught. Can I get an
amen on that?
[Laughter.]
Dr. Gladden. But I think I am beginning to see more and
more willingness in the university and higher ed to think a
little bit broader.
Senator Cruz. And I will say I think that is the first call
and response we have had at a subcommittee hearing.
[Laughter.]
Senator Cruz. That is wonderful.
Senator Sinema.
Senator Sinema. Well, thank you so much, Mr. Chairman, for
allowing me to pop out to another Committee. I am really glad
to be back here.
I want to thank you again, all, for being here and
testifying on such an important issue.
My first question is for Dr. Elkins-Tanton. In your written
testimony, you discussed the difference between NASA-led
flagship missions like the Hubble telescope and principal
investigator-led missions like Psyche, the mission that you
lead. When testifying before the full Commerce Committee in
July, NASA Administrator Bridenstine made the same point which
you make in your written testimony, that university-led PI
missions are more likely to complete it on time and under
budget as compared to the NASA flagship missions.
As a principal investigator, what do you see as the
differences between how PI-led missions are managed as compared
to flagship missions? And what lessons could NASA learn from
PI-led missions to keep more of our flagship missions both on
time and on budget?
Dr. Elkins-Tanton. Thank you for the question, and I very
much hope not to disappoint you with Psyche mission. We are
going to try to be on schedule and under budget. We will see.
Doing our best.
The big difference between the way these missions are run--
the PI-led missions are conceived of as a whole and the team
built from the beginning. And so the schedule and the budget
and the instruments that are needed and the plan for the
mission are all built as a whole, as a single unit. Whereas,
the flagship missions come from the decadal survey. They are
trying to answer the really big, really tough space challenges
that we have. And they are put together by competition so that
the instruments are picked from a pool, and then the leadership
is picked. And so once the leadership is in place, what they
really have is a whole bunch of separate, I might say, city
states that they need to blend into a functional government all
together. And that is a big challenge.
And it is not that I think this is wrong. I think that the
aspirations of our flagship missions and the new technology
developments that they drive, which makes budgeting much
harder, are what we should be doing. They are the hard things.
But if there is a possibility to create a more united team
earlier in the process, I think that will help with the
budgeting and scheduling challenges because that is where I see
them coming from.
Senator Sinema. Thank you.
My next question is also for you but I welcome all of our
panelists to respond if they are interested as well.
I am really proud of Arizona's universities that we have
taken advantage of NASA programs like Discovery and New
Frontiers, which provide principal investigators the
opportunity to propose and receive funding for a mission that
advances NASA's scientific and exploration goals.
What I am concerned about is what happens when one of these
missions ends. So after NASA and the university make
significant investments to develop expertise in a complex and
focused field of air space, astrophysics, or astrobiology, the
funding to support the research disappears afterwards. So this
can lead both NASA and universities to lose a key source of
expertise and it makes some of the follow up research for these
missions much harder to complete.
So what opportunities currently exist or should exist to
help NASA and universities make continuous or long-term
investments in space-related research fields, and what more can
we do to help NASA, universities, the private sector, and
individual researchers develop these long-term relationships to
fuel decades of research?
Dr. Elkins-Tanton. It is such a constant problem in space
research, both on the science and the engineering side, that
you buildup an incredible expertise and then the funding and
the emphasis goes away. And then those people need to leave for
other jobs.
We saw this happen after the Apollo era with lunar science.
Our institutional knowledge of lunar science began to drain
away because the funding was severely cut.
I envision a kind of world where when we are so lucky, as
we have been in Arizona at UofA and at ASU, to win these big
competed missions and we get these tremendous teams together,
what I would love to see is the opportunity for those people
then, waiting for the next possible mission opportunity, rather
than vanishing into a different industry, that is a moment when
we can bring together university, private sector, NASA to do
these kind of triangle sector efforts to hit the next big
target that we need. And then we do not lose the people. They
are still on the same teams. They are still educating new
members, and they are connecting better with the private
sector. They are doing tech transfer. They are filling in a gap
in Artemis. They are doing whatever the next important thing
is. And I would love to see NASA create partnerships like that
that would strengthen and grow a workforce.
Senator Sinema. Yes?
Dr. Gladden. So you are absolutely right that when those
specific projects end and the funding stops and then you have
sort of invested quite a lot of time and energy and money into
developing a relationship and a skill set and then it is gone.
So one of the things that we do at the University of
Mississippi--and other universities do this very well also--is
really work on developing the relationship with the program so
that when that funding ends, that we have got a trusting
relationship between the scientist and engineers on the Federal
side and our faculty members and research staff. And so what
that tends to do is the funding may have dried up or shifted in
other directions, but once you have the relationship there and
you have some flexibility in your skill set--that is another
key element is that, as we were talking about sort of changing
the way we think about developing on the education side a more
flexible curriculum, that is going to lead to a more flexible
faculty in the future that are not so narrow that this is what
I do and if it does not fit in this box, then I am not involved
or I cannot be involved. And so I think those sort of things,
having that flexibility and that long-term relationship, is
really key to extending the time that we are collaboratively
working.
The one other point I will quickly make is we do have some
models with other Federal agencies where we have scientists
from the Federal side come and stay on our campus for extended
periods of time--it might be 3 months, 6 months, or even
longer--and our faculty members also go there for extended
periods of time. Those are incredibly valuable. And we even go
so far with a particular agency where we have Federal
scientists embedded full-time with our faculty in one of our
facilities. That is the kind of thing that builds relationships
that last decades.
Senator Sinema. Thank you.
So my next question--sorry, Dr. Elkins-Tanton. I have
another question for you.
Since 2015, you have worked as the principal investigator
on the Psyche mission, which proposes to send a probe to
Psyche, an asteroid with an exposed nickel-iron core.
Apparently it resembles the core of a newly formed planet much
like the Earth several billion years ago.
As you have developed this mission, how have you worked
with both undergraduate and graduate students, as well as other
researchers at Arizona State University, and what do you
believe that students and researchers gain from the opportunity
to work firsthand on a mission like Psyche. And then what more
can we do to ensure that students and researchers across the
country have the opportunity to participate in NASA missions?
Dr. Elkins-Tanton. Thank you.
We have been hitting this topic I think really beautifully,
and I want to focus on a couple of really key parts of what we
have tried to do in Psyche, which I think connect so much with
everything that we have each said, and that is giving students
at all levels the opportunities to work in interdisciplinary
teams toward goals.
So Dr. Cassie Bowman is the research faculty at ASU who
runs all of the Psyche student collaborations. And one of the
innovations that she has made--in fact, we are writing research
papers about this--is figuring out how to run capstone teams.
But we would really like them not to be capstone teams. We want
them to be every semester every year of your education working
together where there is an engineer and there is a user
experience designer, there is a graphic designer, there is a
marketer, there is a student project manager on the team just
like it will be when they hit the workforce, trying to solve
problems that come from the project. And so our engineers, our
people at JPL, our people at Maxar, they share challenges they
are facing and give them to these teams.
We had a set of capstones that competed for a flight on a
Blue Origin launch, and the team that won was a virtual team.
We had someone in the military who was on a ship. We had
someone at a university on the east coast, in the south,
someone in the north. They literally mailed their hardware back
and forth. They did Skype teams. And they won. And so that is
the workforce of the future. And that is how we want to engage
people. I think we should do as much of this as we can.
Senator Sinema. Thank you.
Mr. Chairman, I want to just take a moment again to thank
all of our witnesses for being here today, and I want to thank
you for hosting this Committee hearing. This is something I am
very interested in. It is important to my state. I know it is
important to our country, not just for the future
competitiveness of our country, but for our national security.
So thank you for the work that you all do, and thank you in
particular for the folks that you are teaching and mentoring
across our country to ensure that we remain competitive and
safe. I appreciate it.
Senator Cruz. Well, thank you, Senator Sinema.
And I want to thank each of the witnesses. It is sort of,
as Yogi Berra said, ``deja vu all over again.'' But thank you
for your terrific testimony, for your passion, and for the
difference you are making.
The record for this hearing will remain open for the next
two weeks. Any Senators are asked during that time to submit
questions for the record, and upon receipt, the witnesses are
asked to submit your written answers to the Subcommittee as
soon as possible.
And with that, this hearing is adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 4:17 p.m., the hearing was adjourned.]
A P P E N D I X
Response to Written Question Submitted by Hon. Jerry Moran to
Dr. Linda T. Elkins-Tanton
Question. The Cosmosphere, located in Hutchison, Kansas, is a great
example of the role informal education centers play in introducing STEM
and inspiring students at an early age. Nick Hague, a native Kansan,
and astronaut who recently served as Flight Engineer on the
International Space Station for Expedition 60 has stated that a junior
high trip to the Cosmosphere reinforced his desire to become an
astronaut. Additionally, they have hundreds of stories of students who
participated in their education or camp programs, ultimately going on
to work at NASA, JPL, Space X, Virgin Galactic, the Armed Forces and
more. How can we continue to leverage centers like these toward
advancing our common goal of furthering STEM education and inspiring
future generations?
Answer. I had a similar formative experience as a child while
visiting the American Museum of Natural History. The effectiveness of
informal education is striking, and it shows the truth of the saying
that education is what is done to us, and learning is what we do for
ourselves. In museums and libraries and community centers and camps all
over the country, people are learning, and that learning feels personal
and exciting and important. We need these programs.
The work of the NASA Education group is central to the vibrancy,
rigor, and networking of this kind of program. I've followed their work
closely and endorse it highly. These programs need a structure and
support to grow in synergy and excellence, and not become isolated and
possibly outdated. NASA effectively connects the centers with
universities and with each other. Further, corporate partnerships with
the growing space sector should increasingly help bear the burden and
better connect the triangle of private sector--education--government.
Your word, inspiration, is central to all of our efforts. Unless a
person is inspired they may wander aimlessly in their education and
career; in fact, they may wander off the path. Our world needs all the
inspiration we can get and these informal education programs are a key
ingredient to societal vigor and progress.
______
Response to Written Question Submitted by Hon. Jerry Moran to
Jeffrey Manber
Question. The Cosmosphere, located in Hutchison, Kansas, is a great
example of the role informal education centers play in introducing STEM
and inspiring students at an early age. Nick Hague, a native Kansan,
and astronaut who recently served as Flight Engineer on the
International Space Station for Expedition 60 has stated that a junior
high trip to the Cosmosphere reinforced his desire to become an
astronaut. Additionally, they have hundreds of stories of students who
participated in their education or camp programs, ultimately going on
to work at NASA, JPL, Space X, Virgin Galactic, the Armed Forces and
more. How can we continue to leverage centers like these toward
advancing our common goal of furthering STEM education and inspiring
future generations?
Answer. Of all the challenges faced by political leaders,
convincing students that space exploration is cool is not the biggest
hurdle! Kids have a natural feel for learning about space, whether
human exploration or scientific missions to other planets. At
Nanoracks, we have our educational subsidiary, DreamUp, which has sent
hundreds of privately funded student research projects to the
International Space Station. The goal is to leverage the communities,
the families, the parents and the schools to engage more with local
centers and programs. Outreach is the biggest need right now. We have
the wonderful partners such as the Cosmosphere. What is needed is more
engagement with the communities including outreach and educational
programs. It is very important that we ensure the students of today can
fill the technical jobs of tomorrow.
______
Response to Written Question Submitted by Hon. Jerry Moran to
J.R. (Josh) Gladden, Ph.D.
Question. The Cosmosphere, located in Hutchison, Kansas, is a great
example of the role informal education centers play in introducing STEM
and inspiring students at an early age. Nick Hague, a native Kansan,
and astronaut who recently served as Flight Engineer on the
International Space Station for Expedition 60 has stated that a junior
high trip to the Cosmosphere reinforced his desire to become an
astronaut. Additionally, they have hundreds of stories of students who
participated in their education or camp programs, ultimately going on
to work at NASA, JPL, Space X, Virgin Galactic, the Armed Forces and
more. How can we continue to leverage centers like these toward
advancing our common goal of furthering STEM education and inspiring
future generations?
Answer. I could not agree more that centers such as the
Cosmosphere, the Center for Math and Science Education at the
University of Mississippi, and many other similar organizations around
the country, play a critical role in the sustained interest and passion
of young people in the STEM fields. I have a personal story similar to
that of Nick Hague referenced in the question. I have no doubt that the
visits I made to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, as well as other
science museums in the southeast U.S. had a profound effect on my
interest in the field of physics. These fields take a great deal of
education and sustained dedication, so ultimate success in getting into
the STEM workforce requires a level of deep interest and passion.
The question is, how can we maximize the exposure of young people
to these experiences during their formative years (approximately 6th--
12th grade)? I have a few suggestions:
1. Lower the financial bar of entry to these museums and education
centers as much as possible. No cost of course would be best,
but perhaps free under 18 years old might be more realistic. I
understand these facilities are not inexpensive to design,
build, and maintain. Perhaps these kinds of endeavors are well
suited for public-private partnerships.
2. Increase geographic access as much as possible. While some
minimum population center would be needed for sustainability,
creative on-line elements such as virtual reality, can help
exposure in more rural areas. The University of Mississippi has
established a VR Learning Lab to both teach students how to
build VR worlds and help public and private sectors understand
the training and outreach opportunities.
3. Include elements in these centers that not only talk about the
amazing science, engineering and technology; but also what a
career in these fields ``looks like''. These could include
regular speakers from professionals in the field, recorded
video, and on-line video chats. These should be as interactive
as possible so young people can ask questions.
4. Increase awareness as much as possible. This would include
outreach to schools, civic groups, local government, social
media, religious organizations. Let people know what is
available to them in their area and how to access it.
5. Keep the content and programming fresh. Some sections should
regularly rotate and capture emerging technologies to provide
vision about not only where we have been, but where we are
going. This provides some motivation for students to regularly
visit and deepen their interest in STEM careers.
______
Response to Written Question Submitted by Hon. Jerry Moran to
Shella Rivano Condino
Question. The Cosmosphere, located in Hutchison, Kansas, is a great
example of the role informal education centers play in introducing STEM
and inspiring students at an early age. Nick Hague, a native Kansan,
and astronaut who recently served as Flight Engineer on the
International Space Station for Expedition 60 has stated that a junior
high trip to the Cosmosphere reinforced his desire to become an
astronaut. Additionally, they have hundreds of stories of students who
participated in their education or camp programs, ultimately going on
to work at NASA, JPL, Space X, Virgin Galactic, the Armed Forces and
more. How can we continue to leverage centers like these toward
advancing our common goal of furthering STEM education and inspiring
future generations?
Answer. The influence and impact to students of opportunities like
these is prodigious. Many claimed that it truly inspired them to pursue
STEM courses and careers. I believe it is best if we continue to
provide these kinds of opportunities particularly internships, not only
to undergraduate and post graduate students, but as well as high
schools students. An example is how Aurora Flight Sciences, an
aerospace company whose headquarters is based on Manassas, VA. Aurora
provided internship experiences to 3 of my high school students from
Presidio High School during their senior year. Their experiences paved
the way for them to pursue mechanical engineering! All three finished
with ME degrees, currently 1 is working for Aurora, 1 for Boeing and 1
associate professor of mechanical engineering in a university!
Summer camps and other STEM educational activities can also be a
great start to expose young kids however, most of them require
extremely expensive fees just to participate. For students coming from
rural areas and cannot afford fees, this would limit their chances of
participation. There are only a few programs like NASA High School
Aerospace Scholars (Texas and Virginia) that provide all expense trip
to students who qualified and completed prior work. The NASA Student
Launch Initiative for high school and middle school used to provide a
small amount of scholarship money to help purchase materials for the
rocket at least, but now it is taken away. Therefore, schools who
cannot afford the materials, even if they qualify and have students who
are skillful cannot participated due to the cost of both rocket and
travels. Although my Presidio Rocketry Teams in the past will do
anything to make it possible for us to participate, like crazy
fundraising (raffling goats, BBQ and donut sales) and driving 24 hrs.
on a yellow school bus just to make it to the rocket launch in
Huntsville AL, NOT everyone can be willing or has the means to do so.
I believe it is best if we provide more accessible and affordable
programs for all. Access to virtual programs can also be an option,
specially to those schools in the farthest corners or edges of the
country.
As a classroom teacher, I went on my own way to bring STEM to my
class. I attended numerous STEM workshops and professional developments
on my own dime to ensure I received proper training and enough
knowledge to share it to my own schools and students. Again, not all
teachers could be willing to use their own money for things like these,
but providing teachers training and support may play a big difference.
I brought in rocketry, robotics, math and science competitions, STEM
business, and so on and so forth so that despite our challenging
geographic location, our students can still experience the same
opportunities as other kids in the cities. We had virtual career days
where students talk to experts and professionals through skype. But
these endeavors may be small in scale, but it has a large effect on our
little town. Many of the students in the past only wish to graduate
from high school to get a job at a grocery store or gas stations, but
majority of the students now aspire to go to college and finish college
so they can have better lives in the future.
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