Carnage Middle School Teacher Chosen for NASA Program
May 20, 2004 - Carnage Middle School teacher Holly Hanrahan has been selected an outstanding educator by the NASA Educator Astronaut review team and will participate in NASA's Network of Educator Astronaut Teachers (NEAT) program.
Hanrahan, a 2002 Kenan Fellow, will take part in three days of workshops at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas in June. The workshops will consist of a behind-the-scenes tour of the center, briefings by NASA experts and curriculum development.
Hanrahan will be serving as facilitator for the 2004 National Institute of Aerospace workshop this summer which will take place in June at NC State, North Carolina A&T and NASA Langley Research Center. Daniel Keadle, one of her students (and his family) that has been working on the Tumbleweed project will be joining Hanrahan at NASA Langley for a day this summer to meet with the lead scientists of the Tumbleweed project and tour the center.
Hanrahan was also recently recognized as the North Carolina Air Force Association Teacher of the Year. She will be awarded a certificate and $250 check at the North Carolina Air Force Association's state convention in July. She will also be eligible to be awarded the National Air Force Association's Christa McAuliffe Award.
Hanrahan has been working with her Kenan Fellows program mentor Dr Fred DeJarnette of NC State University on the Mars Tumbleweed Project. They and their students designed a wind-driven sensor device that will take atmospheric and soil measurements on Mars with the goals of sending data back to earth, discovering life on the planet and paving the way for future manned missions to the red planet. This project has garnered worldwide attention. In addition to the NASA NEAT program and the Air force Association honors, Hanrahan and Dr. DeJarnette presented a poster at the International Workshop on Planetary Probe Atmospheric Entry and Descent Trajectory Analysis and Science in Lisbon, Portugal last year.
The North Carolina State University's Kenan Fellows for Curriculum and Leadership Development Program selects teachers to engage in a two-year fellowship. Teachers work in partnership with distinguished scientists and university faculty to develop innovative curricula for use in North Carolina classrooms.
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