We are in a new era of private space exploration, new space suits, musical performances with curriculum guides, and a mission to support research to eradicate cancer. A tall order and a work in progress!
The Polaris Program! What is NASA's role? See below.
Polaris Dawn Program was launched from Florida for a 5 days mission. This is a private enterprise space exploration program funded primarily by one of the astronauts on board and Elon Musk of SPACEX.
Polaris Dawn has 5 main objectives:
High Altitude
The First Commercial Space Walk
In-Space Communications
Health Impact Research
Spacex has also designed new space suits for future exploration addressing new needs of flexibility.
About the Mission
https://polarisprogram.com/dawn/
Meet the Team of astronauts on Polaris Dawn
Full Interviews of the Polaris Dawn crew
Polaris Dawn Mission Commander Jared Isaacman (the billionaire who helped fund the Polaris Dawn project with Elon Musk)
Jared Isaacman is the CEO of Shift4 (NYSE: FOUR), the leader in integrated payment processing solutions. He is an accomplished pilot & astronaut with over 7,000 flight hours of aviation experience, including ratings in multiple experimental and ex-military aircraft. He was the commander of Inspiration4, the world’s first all-civilian mission to space that helped raise over $240 million for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital® to help eradicate childhood cancer.
Jared also holds several world records including two speed-around-the-world flights in 2008 and 2009 that raised money and awareness for the Make-a-Wish Foundation. He has flown in over 100 airshows as part of the Black Diamond Jet Team, dedicating every performance to charitable causes. In 2011, Isaacman co-founded what would become the world’s largest private air force, Draken International, to train pilots for the United States Armed Forces.
HARMONY OF RESILIENCE – the Music connection
The Polaris Program has partnered with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital® and El Sistema USA ® to create the Harmony of Resilience. This partnership is grounded in a shared belief in the power of human resilience and pursuit of extraordinary goals. Inspired by the universal language of music and the relentless fight against childhood cancers and diseases, this moment was created with the hope of inspiring the next generation to look towards the stars. Not just to dream, but to overcome, persevere, and achieve the seemingly impossible
The song in the video, "Rey's Theme," was written by John Williams for "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" and was performed by Gillis aboard the Polaris Dawn mission's Crew Dragon spacecraft.
The links and video of the performance which went live on Sept. 13, 2024 are below, with the music curriculum developed by El Sistema USA.
The Polaris Dawn and El Sistema USA Curriculum: A Musician’s Guide to Reaching for the Stars.
A Musician’s Guide to Reaching For the Stars
Educator Guides for Music Mission Prep:
https://polarisdawn.elsistemausa.org/#mission
Sarah Gillis is a classically trained violinist, engineer and Polaris Dawn Mission Specialist
Meet your Musical Mission Guides from Polaris Dawn
Polaris Dawn Education (available in several languages with links on the upper right corner of the web page)
For Educators :
The Polaris Dawn & El Sistema USA®
https://polarisdawn.elsistemausa.org/mission-prep-zone-1-daring-to-dream/
Mission Zone 1 : Who Supports Your Big Dreams ? Classroom Expansion
Mission Prep Zone 2 : Classroom Expansion - What Strengths Do you Bring to a Team?
Mission Prep Zone 3: Training for Space Life – How Might It Feel to Make Music in Microgravity?
Mission Prep Zone 4: Plotting the Mission Timeline
A perspective the mission from space.com:
The crew has also tested in-flight communications using SpaceX's Starlink satellite constellation and conducted outreach with the public, all while raising money for St. Jude Children's Research Hospitaland breaking altitude records, flying higher than any crewed mission in orbit since Gemini 11 in 1966.
NASA is working closely with Polaris Dawn and here are some of the ways:
NASA to Test Telemedicine, Gather Essential Health Data With Polaris Dawn Crew
Polaris Dawn crew members participating in these TRISH (Translational Research Institute for Health) studies will provide data about how spaceflight affects mental and physical health through a rigorous set of medical tests and scans completed before, after, and during the mission. The work will include assessments of behavior, sleep, bone density, eye health, cognitive function, and other factors, as well as analysis of blood, urine, and respiration.
SPACEX has developed new space suits designed for more flexibility during space walks (EVA’s – Extra Vehicular Activities) as part of the Polaris Dawn mission.
This raises many questions about government's role in space exploration, its ability to fund the many initiatives currently underway, and concerns about oversight while encouraging new opportunities to pursue space exploration. 3 - 5 6 - 8 9 - 12 13+ Science Technology Art/Music Polaris mission Polaris Dawn NASA Music in Microgravity private space exploration
Greetings from the Center for Slavic, Eurasian, and East European Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill!
As part of our outreach mission, we provide educators with the tools, resources, and knowledge needed to teach about the history, cultures, and languages of the region.
Through a grant from the Library of Congress - Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS) Eastern Region program, we are currently developing a professional development module for middle and high school history teachers, focusing on teaching about the Cold War using primary sources. Our goal is to equip teachers with resources and strategies for fostering students' historical awareness and understanding of the Cold War's legacies and its impact on contemporary events.
Your input is invaluable at this stage! Please help us tailor this module to ensure that it is both relevant and practical for your classroom. We estimate it will take you no more than 5 minutes to complete the survey - https://forms.office.com/r/PR4vTyc91C
Know a teacher who might be interested? Please share this survey with them!
Thank you for your participation!
Middle & high school educators! Educurious is offering a free PBL professional learning workshop for our new AAPI/US History unit “Kaona: Language is Life” on July 11th from 10 to 4 pm PST. This Library of Congress-Teaching with Primary Sources funded curriculum adds another exciting OER unit to Educurious' Ethnic Studies series.
Apply here: https://forms.gle/JtXWEn8QVJdifHKN7
The unit deconstructs the AAPI acronym that represents about 50 ethnic groups and over 100 different languages and then zooms in on the Hawaiian sovereignty movement. Students discover how Hawaiian activists have advocated for ea—sovereignty, life, and air—and aloha ‘āina—"love of the land" or "to love like the land loves us"—and ultimately apply what they learned to their own lived experiences.
Edited
June 6, 2024, will mark the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings along the Normandy coast during World War II.
Some American veterans fought for their lives along the beaches of Normandy. Other veterans were among the first to witness the horrors as they liberated emaciated prisoners from concentration camps. Veterans even helped Holocaust survivors as they began to reclaim their lives. Now, 80 years after the D-Day invasion, their stories live on.
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, in collaboration with Arlington National Cemetery, will present a special digital program honoring the resilience, commitment, and courage of American veterans. The sacrifices of such veterans inspired some Holocaust survivors to serve their new country.
The virtual event takes place on Wednesday, June 5, 7:00 pm ET, Registration is available here.
For additional D-Day materials, please see this excellent post by 
Susan Allen
on the 75th Anniversary of D-Day with valuable comments by 
Mary Alice Anderson
. 
Cheryl Davis
also shared a link to the D-Day Journeys Story Map, another engaging resource.
Thank you for your interest and support.
"The International Space Station Program brings together international flight crews, multiple launch vehicles, globally distributed launch and flight operations, training, engineering, and development facilities, communications networks, and the international scientific research community."
In an easily accessible and sufficiently succinct overview, NASA presents summaries of a collaboration designed to examine space exploration and how it can benefit mankind. Operating the space station and the responsibility for the hardware sent to the ISS are 5 partners: "...the Canadian Space Agency, the European Space Agency, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the State Space Corporation 'Roscosmos' . "
The space program and human exploration are moving forward with Moon to Mars initiatives (and spacecraft launching every few days).
This is a good departure point for where we are headed and how we hope to get there.
3 - 5 6 - 8 9 - 12 13+ Science Technology Social Studies/History English/Language Arts NASA International Space Station Overview NASA ISS mission space exploration human space exploration
The Institute for Humane Education is offering a FREE micro-credential course in Solutionary Teaching and Learning starting in March just for social studies educators. Participants will learn an inquiry to action framework that guides students to develop the skills, knowledge, motivation, and hope needed to solve the challenging problems facing people, animals, and the environment. Participants will develop their own units and we would love to see the creation of units that integrate and rely on primary sources. See the attached flyer for more information, including how to register.
6 - 8 9 - 12 Social Studies/History Solutionary Teaching Inquiry to Action Professional Development
InquiryToAction SolutionaryLearning 6 - 8 9 - 12 Social Studies/History Project Based Learning
Attachments: 1
In 1897, Charles Fletcher Lummis published The Land of Poco Tiempo, a book about his walk through the Southwest and of daily life in the West. It was part culture history and part tourist guide. In it he coined the phrase "See Europe if you must, but see America First."
Through his editing of Out West Magazine and other endeavors, he sparked a movement of "See America First", encouraging people to be tourists in the Great American West. It worked and even sparked a conference in 1906. Thirteen states and British Columbia attended.
Catch phrases work. What catch phrase does your state Visitors Bureau use to get people to come visit? Have your students develop a catch phrase to get people to visit your town or your state.
On a US map, have students map out the sites suggested by Heber Wells in his "See America First" pamphlet. Map out the 13 states that attended the 1906 Conference.
What interesting places have advertisements encouraging See America First in these newspapers?
Arizona map
What does this image suggest about the See America First initiative?
https://www.loc.gov/item/2011649036/
For older students, have them research tourist booklets in the Library catalog.
What impact did this influx of tourism have on the Native Americans who lived on these lands?
The 2024 Presidential Primary Sources Project is an interactive distance-learning program created in collaboration between Internet2, National Archives and numerous National Parks, Presidential Libraries and Museums around the country. These sites present a series of free 45- to 60-minute interactive videoconferencing programs aimed at students in grades 4–12.
The 2024 program series will engage students in learning how to use and analyze primary sources as they are guided on a journey through the historical legacies of US presidents such as Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and George Washington.
Students get to learn from an expert and virtually visit a location of historical value and interest. In this immersive learning experience, students are not just recipients of information but also participants in the actual learning process, asking questions and analyzing artifacts. The series will run from January 16 through April 11, 2024. Free registration is now open.
Previous recordings from the sessions held from January through April 2023 are available on YouTube. See, for example, last school year’s program on Rosalynn Carter – Partner in Chief, a timely and very well-done tribute to the late First Lady.
Presidential Primary Sources Project
Social Studies/History US History Presidents Teaching With Primary Sources First Ladies Internet2 National Archives Distance Learning
Photographer Baldwin Lee, M.I.T. graduate and a Chinese American, had no plans to be a photographer much less photograph African American life in the American South. His work is currently on exhibit in NYC’s Howard Greenberg Gallery.
The NYT Opinion Guest Essay: The Troubling and Humane Photography of Baldwin Lee By Margaret Renkl Oct. 31, 2022
The first paragraph grabs you.
"NASHVILLE — When Baldwin Lee set out in March 1983 to photograph the American South, he was a stranger in a strange land. The New York-born son of Chinese immigrants, he had moved to Knoxville to establish the photography program at the University of Tennessee. When he left on his first of many photographic trips across the South, he was open to whatever subjects might draw his attention. “I had no agenda, no plan,” he told The New Yorker’s Chris Wiley. 'I took pictures of everything: landscapes, architecture, close-ups, still lifes, pictures at night, people, old, young, white, Black, poor, rich. I just wanted to see.' "
The New Yorker: Baldwin Lee’s Extraordinary Pictures From the American South
By Chris Wiley, Oct. 2, 2022
Baldwin Lee – by Hunters Point Press
Interview by Jessica Bell Brown
Essay by Casey Gerald
Edited by Barney Kulok
9 - 12 13+ Art/Music Social Studies/History Library Baldwin Lee, photographer African American South photographs
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