The Pioneer Space Center and SGEEI have begun a new era of cooperation with the Lompoc Unified School District.  On January 10th a team of Lompoc and SGEEI volunteers moved into Building P18 on the Lompoc Unified School District headquarters campus.  The Center will be:

1. a “distribution center” where teachers can secure free classroom materials that would normally be thrown away at the end of conferences and conventions;
2.  a “library/resource center” for educators who want to learn about and order science and technology curriculum materials created by various government agencies (e.g. NASA);
3. a “meeting place” for professional gatherings and teacher professional development workshops.

The Center will be managed by Ms. Patricia Fresh and is scheduled to open it doors in the late Spring or Summer of 2009.  For more information contact Ms. Fresh at pfresh@sgeei.org or 805-733-2577

Sharon Freeburn, Director of the San Diego Science and Technology Teacher Resource Center has been certified by NASA as a NASA MESSENGER Educator Fellow.

As a result the STTRC will now begin holding workshops for the MESSENGER Spacecraft second fly-by of Mercury.  At these workshops teachers will learn how to incorporate this historic NASA event into their classroom.  This special 3 hour workshop to introduce teachers to the amazing materials that have been created to help you bring the solar system into your classroom. For mor information go to www.treasuresforteachers.org

Sharon is also certified as a Project Learning TreeTM Workshop Facilitator, Project WETTM Workshop Facilitator and Project WILDTM Workshop Facilitator

September 9, 10, & 11, 2008

Education alley was a wonderful success.  Over 2400 students, teachers and chaperones attended the three day event.  Once again, on behalf of the SD Section, Sharon Freeburn, San Diego Council Educator Associate, was a key member of the AIAA professional and volunteer planning team.  Last minute support was obtained from the Aerospace Corporation, Aerospace Industries Association and Wyle.  Some key statistics.

Volunteers from the From the San Diego Section Council included Joel Perez, Greg Marien, Keith Glassman, Doug Armstrong, Jenny Rhymer, Steve Harrington, Phil Smith and of course, Sharon Freeburn.

From NAVAIR we had Dan Nguyen, Alex Natchev, Walter Mohyi, Brett Gardner and Brian Frank (thanks Keith).

From the Science and Technology Teacher Resource Center we had Claudia von Wilpert, Jason von Wilpert, Terry Smith and Mary Deprizio.

From UCSD we had two students (thanks Jenny) and from SDSU two students

From the San Diego Eco Center we had Candace McGovern.

All told 36 different schools attended including Johnson Elementary, Patrick Henry High School, San Diego High School of Business, Feaster Charter, Innovations Academy, WOW Academy, High Tech Middle, Urban Discovery Academy, The Coastal Academy, Gonzalez Family Home school, Three R’s Academy, Rolando Elementary, Feaster Charter, Sweetwater Springs Community School, Lakeside Farms Elementary, El Toyon, Heritage Christian School, Adobe Bluffs Elementary, Spring Valley Middle School, Lakeside Farms Elementary, Kempton Elementary, Maryland Avenue, Murray Manor Elementary, Dehesa, Naranca Elementary, Sundance, Sunset Hills, Orange Acres Backpacking Club, Mar Vista Middle School, Montclair High School, Oaks Christian School, The Classical Academy, The Learning Choice Academy, Stuart Mesa Elementary, Adobe Bluffs and Rancho Santa Fe School.

Exhibitors included the Aerospace Industries Association, the AEROSPACE Corporation, NASA, Raytheon, National Air & Space Museum, Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, University of Houston, John Hopkins APL, NOAA, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Air Force Research Laboratory, National Coalition of Aerospace Education and the Federal Aviation Administration.

The Science and Technology Teacher Resource Center has launched a new colorful and informative web site at:

www.treasuresforteachers.org

Please visit the web site to learn more.

A self-organized alliance of commercial companies, academic institutions and non-profits announced the formation of the Biotechnology Space Research Alliance (BSRA) today the BIO2008 California Pavilion.  BSRA is a San Diego based collaborative that seeks to stimulate participation in the National Laboratory of the International Space Station (ISS) validating its capabilities as a unique and cost effective research environment for breakthrough biomedical and biotechnology discoveries.  BSRA will advance the development of the low Earth orbit environment for all users (scientific, technological, and commercial), in order to engender scientific knowledge, technological capability, and commerce on Earth as a gateway to 21st Century exploration and development of space.

The announcement included remarks by Dr. Mike Wiskerchen Director of the California Space Grant Consortium, Mr. Mark Uhran NASA Deputy Associate Administrator for the International Space Station, Dr. Julie Robinson NASA ISS Deputy Program Scientist, and Joe Panetta BIOCOM CEO.

Dr. Wiskerchen stated that the purpose of the BSRA is to:

• Enhanced communication and interaction between NIH, NSF, DoE and VA and the biotechnology industry regarding space and biotechnology research results, plans, and opportunities;
• Expanded commercial biotechnology space research and development and development of new businesses and commercial products and processes;
• Increase industry space-related biotechnological research and development by providing forums to stimulate joint ventures and developing other programs and projects both within the United States and Internationally.

For more information go to www.bsraportal.org

In December 2007 the California Space Grant Foundation, a California Not-For-Profit Corporation, changed its legal corporation name with the California Secretary of State.

The legal name was changed
from:      “California Space Grant Foundation”
to:     “Space Grant Education and Enterprise Institute”.

The mailing address for all corporate correspondence remains

2825 Dewey Road, Suite 205
San Diego, Cal 92106

The corporation remains an IRS 501c3 and publicly supported organization under IRS Section 509(a)(1) “Publicly-Supported Organization” and Section 170(b)(1)(A)(vi) “organizations publicly supported by charitable contributions”.

SGEEI seeks to transform students’ Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education experiences by providing student focused resources, programs, funding and mentors.  We address the students’ entire education pathway from the time they enter elementary school until they graduate from a technical college or research university.  We also seek to inspire, educate, support and nurture their teachers and administrators, helping them to concentrate on their students by providing explicit and effective resources.  In doing so we seek to elevate STEM teaching from a much derided vocation to an honored and sought after profession.

The Alliance for Commercial Enterprises in Space (ACES) in collaboration with the NASA Ames Space Portal hosted an Entrepreneurial Space Summit.  The event was held on May 17th and 18th at the NASA Research Park at Moffett Field, California with a reception on the evening of May 16th.  This Summit was designed to define the next five years of global entrepreneurial space continuing our efforts to identify partnership opportunities involving funded new and emerging government and commercial space programs and enterprises.  At this summit we:

• Updated the “Friendly Front Door” government role in entrepreneurial space through the AMES Space Portal (http://spaceportal.arc.nasa.gov),
• Introduced global warming related entrepreneurial space, and key leaders of the NSF funded National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) and European Global Measurements for Ecology and Security (GMES) to explain how commercial companies and universities can work with their national programs and Told about new opportunities such as the State of Hawaii’s PISCES initiative and other Hawaiian and international space initiatives,
• Let entrepreneurial space leaders such as Ecliptic CEO Rex Ridenoure tell how they successfully partnered with NASA and
• Provided an update on the NASA Innovative Partnerships Program (IPP) with a presentation by Doug Comstock, NASA HQ, IPP Director.

The California Space Grant Foundation gave a $500.00 grant to the Madison High School, San Diego California, FIRST Robotics Team. The grant was given during the AIAA San Diego Section Awards Dinner at which the Madison Devil Ducky students displayed their robot to the members attending the dinner. The FIRST Robotics Competition is an exciting, multinational competition that teams professionals and young people to solve an engineering design problem in an intense and competitive way. The Madison team participated in the 2007 San Diego regional contest and the National Competition in Atlanta. For more information about the Madison HS USFIRST Team go to http://www.madison.sandi.net/Robotics/html/.

Congressional Visits Day is a chance for the over 35,000 members of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics to add their voices to the issues and concerns facing the U.S. Aerospace industry today. Team San Diego was composed of Phil Smith (San Diego Section Senior Member) and Christine Fanchiang (MIT Student member, originally from the Bay Area). We met with Gary Kline, science and technology legislative assistant to Brian Bilbray, with Michael Harrison, senior science and technology legislative assistant to Duncan Hunter, with Karen Foster, science and technology legislative aid to Bob Filner and Daniel Hazard, science and technology legislative assistant to Susan Davis. Congresswoman Davis joined the meeting near the end. San Diego has a great many aerospace firms seeking high skills engineering and technical workforce. Education and the workforce were prominent concerns in our discussions with Congressional staffers. For more information go to www.aiaa-sd.org or www.aiaa.org.