Each year the National Aeronautical and Space Administration (NASA) hosts a hands-on workshop called RockOn where college students and faculty create a sounding rocket experiment and launch it into space. In conjunction with that workshop NASA hosts a similar workshop specially for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics professors at Minority Serving Institutions (MSI). The focus of this MSI Faculty workshop is that, in addition to conducting the rocket experiment, the faculty members acquire strategies to incorporate the content into their lessons and encourage participation at their colleges.

For Dr. Nina Javaher and Dr. Yiheng Wang (Department Chair of Physics and Engineering at LSC-CyFair) this opportunity was too good to pass up. “As a computer science educator, my aim is to further enhance my professional knowledge while assessing and evaluating the suitability of different programs for our students' involvement, hence the reason for sending an application to NASA RockOn.” Dr. Javaher states. She prides herself on being an educator at an MSI college and prioritizes dynamic learning and pedagogy.

The professors will be traveling to Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, VA in May to design, build, and program a Geiger counter (radiation detector) from scratch and place it in a sounding rocket that will launch in June of this year. While learning and doing at the RockOn workshop, they will also be planning ways to take what they learn back to their campuses and students while also encouraging them to continue their educational journey with similar opportunities.  Dr. Javaher says “I hope to actively involve our LSC-Online students in upcoming opportunities, including the next RockOn event, to strengthen our partnership with NASA RockOn and maximize the benefits for both our students and our institution as a whole.”

Both educators are no stranger to expanding the educational landscape and possibilities for their students. They have previously worked with NASA in other ways to bring hands-on experiences into the classroom, including via NASA Community College Aerospace Scholars, NASA Minority Innovation and Tech Transfer Idea Competition, and NASA Lunabotics.