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Fe a t u re s
M a r ch 2 0 1 9
Four Years Flying with SOFIA
This year, there are only 14 school districts in the country invited to participate. Below: Megan Smith of LHS will fly with SOFIA in October of 2019.
Since 2011, the SETI Institute has partnered with NASA and select school districts to give high school science teachers the opportunity to experience the Airborne Astronomy Ambassadors (AAA) program. MUSD became a partner district with SETI and NASA in the fall of 2016. This fall will mark the fourth consecutive year MUSD has sent teachers to experience this intensive week-long immersion experience at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center at Hanger 103 in Palmdale, CA. This year, there are only 14 school districts in the country invited to participate. In October 2016, Jeff Baldwin of LHS and Larry Grimes of SHS began the MUSD partnership with the program. In October 2017, Chris Courtney of SHS, Tim
Horning of MHS, Remberto Lopez and Juliet Mathews of EUHS, Todd Walker of LHS and District Science Coordinator Lisa Snyder flew with SOFIA. In October 2018, James Wright and Stephan Unterholzner of SHS, Joseph Verderame of WRHS and Lisa Snyder participated in the program. And in October of 2019, Megan Smith of LHS will take her turn to fly with the program.
The AAA program is a professional development opportunity for high school science teachers designed to improve science teaching & learning and increase student STEM engagement. Invited teachers fly two all-night missions on SOFIA, which is a highly modified Boeing 747SP airliner fitted with a 2.7-meter (106-inch) telescope combined with seven cameras and spectrographs that study celestial objects using infrared.
