NASA's Earth Crew Explores Earth Science

Gretchen Cook-Anderson
NASA Headquarters, Washington November 26, 2003
(Phone: 202/358-0836)

RELEASE: 03-383

NASA'S EARTH CREW EXPLORES EARTH SCIENCE

On Monday, December 1, 2003, at 10 a.m. EST, NASA will
host the second in a series of six educational webcasts with
the NASA Earth Crew. The Crew is an audience of more than
55,000 students and families from across the country that
joined the new initiative through online registration since
January.

The program, led by Dr. Ghassem Asrar, Associate
Administrator for Earth Science at NASA and Gwendolyn Brown,
NASA's Chief Financial Officer, will be carried live on the
Internet and on NASA TV.

Bianca Baker, a 14-year-old student, Earth Crew member and a
Tree House detective on NASA SciFiles, an instructional TV
series for elementary school students, is the webcast
hostess. Brown and Asrar will answer questions submitted in
advance by Earth Crew teams through NASA's EdSpace Web site.

The theme of this year's webcast series is "Explorers and
Exploration." Each installment of focuses on one of NASA's
six Enterprises: Aerospace Technology, Biological and
Physical Research, Earth Science, Education, Space Flight,
and Space Science. The webcasts take place every two months.

"It is exciting for us to give students and their families
the opportunity to learn about what we do in each Enterprise
at NASA," said Dr. Adena Williams Loston, the agency's
Associate Administrator for Education. "We hope that through
the Earth Crew webcast series, and other NASA education
initiatives, students across the country will be inspired to
explore careers in science, technology, engineering, and
mathematics," she said.

The Earth Crew, an initiative of NASA's Educator Astronaut
Program, is comprised of students, families and educators who
receive updates about new projects, participate in
exploration-related activities and webcasts. They also and
have the opportunity to provide suggestions to NASA that may
help in planning future missions.

"I'm looking forward to answering questions from Earth Crew
members, and hopefully giving them a better idea of how NASA
is using technology and research to improve life on Earth,
something the agency has been doing ever since its birth 45
years ago," remarked Asrar.

NASA TV is available on AMC-9, transponder 9C, C-Band,
located at 85 degrees west longitude. The frequency is 3880.0
MHz. Polarization is vertical, and audio is monaural at 6.80
MHz.

To view the webcast on the Internet, or for information about
the Educator Astronaut Program and the Earth Crew, visit:

http://edspace.nasa.gov

For information about NASA's Education programs on the
Internet, visit:

http://education.nasa.gov

For information about NASA on the Internet, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov


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