Space Awareness
Certification Partners Enhance Teacher Liaison Workshop
Written by: developer
This April for the 28th National Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, 69 Teacher Liaisons attended an all-day workshop, enhanced by presentations involving three Space Foundation Space Certification Program Partner companies and another organization that is exploring certification linkage with the Space Foundation. Space Certification Program Partners are those recognized by the Space Foundation and displaying the Space Certification™ seal, guaranteeing their technologies have stemmed from, or have been dramatically improved, by technologies originally developed for space exploration.
The presentations included:
- Unique Logic and Technology, Inc., provided its Play Attention product; an innovative feedback video game device used to help people with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The system evolved from a physiologically adaptive simulator system developed by NASA to keep pilots alert and avoid the dangerous inattention that stems from monotonous flights. Play Attention helps people to train themselves to stay focused and engaged. Space Foundation Space Education Specialist Bobby Gagnon (pictured, right) demonstrated Play Attention to the Teacher Liaisons and gave them a chance to try it out.
- Water Security Corporation conducted a breakout session for elementary teachers, which demonstrated its Certified Space Technology and Space Technology Hall of Fame® inducted water purification system and how it is providing safe drinking water in a number of developing countries. The technology is available in a range of permanent and portable configurations to provide safe drinking water in remote locations and for emergency applications, such as in the aftermath of earthquakes, floods and other natural disasters that damage or destroy potable water sources. Pictured: Eduardo Ballinas, president, Sinergia Sistemas, a Chiapas, Mexico, organization that uses Water Security Corporation equipment to provide safe drinking water
- SLOOH Space Camera, a Space Certification Program applicant,  conducted a middle-school-level breakout session that provided the teachers with an overview of the camera's capabilities, including a live astronomy demonstration with a web-based telescope. SLOOH is a web portal offering access to photography by a global network of space observatories. All users are allowed to view galaxy imagery for free, while paying members of SLOOH can direct telescopes toward points in the sky that they choose for more dedicated exploration. Pictured: Patrick Paolucci, vice president - sales and development, SLOOH
- A high school-level session on accelerometers that also included sessions using durometers provided by Rex Gauge, a Space Certification partner that makes durometers (hardness guages) based upon custom durometers used by astronauts during spacewalks to test a new experimental repair technique for the damaged thermal protection tiles of space shuttles. Pictured: Teacher Liaisons Paul Konichek and Susan Van't Hul
For information about the benefits of becoming a Space Certification Program Partner, visit www.spacefoundation.org/programs/space-certification
To read more about the Teacher Liaison workshop see the education article in this issue of Space Watch.
This article is part of Space Watch: May 2012 (Volume: 11, Issue: 5).