PART 1: WebChat sessions with NASA experts
PART 2: Students and scientists discuss design of space hardware
PART 3: Let's get that wheat growing!
PART 4: What's up in space: nothing new
PART 5: A Typical Day; No Holes in the Canister
PART 6: "Managing" the Day; Eurotravel

A new series of WebChats has been scheduled with NASA experts
from various backgrounds. Your students can virtually meet these
people and learn about their jobs, career paths, and personal
interests.

To participate, please RSVP for each event to Andrea by sending a
brief Email note to andream@quest.arc.nasa.gov with the date(s) you
plan to participate. This RSVP is very important, since it will allow
us to ensure that the chatroom does not become too crowded.

Wednesday, December 4 from 10-11 AM Pacific (1-2 PM Eastern)
Karen Borski is a Mission Science Support Engineer at NASA Johnson
Space Center. She is responsible for archiving data for life science
experiments on computers.

Wednesday, December 11 from 10-11 AM Pacific (1-2 PM Eastern)
Cecilia Wigley is a System Safety, Reliability & Quality Assurance
Lead at NASA Ames Research Center. She is responsible for insuring
that equipment flown in space is safe and functions properly.

For more information about all of this, please visit the web page at:
http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/smore/events/interact.html



STUDENTS AND SCIENTISTS DISCUSS DESIGN OF SPACE HARDWARE


As part of The Great Plant Debate
(http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/smore/events/datashare.html),students have 
been receiving some helpful hints from scientists  to
help in fine tuning their designs.  We were reminded that even within
NASA there are various approaches to how plants can be grown.
Please consider having your students join the discussion  of the
relative merits of the various hardware designs online for growing
plants in space.  The designs are posted  at
http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/smore/events/designs and the debate, on a 
maillist called  debate-sm

There are various ways to participate in this debate. You may
receive the messages direct to your email box, either in a standard
or digested form. The standard mechanism will deliver each
contribution as a new mail message. If you already get too much
email coming in, then you may opt for the digest option. This
collates all of the contributions in the past 24-hours, which is
then forwarded as one email per day to you.

To join these lists, send an email message to
      listmanager@quest.arc.nasa.gov
Write one of the following lines in the message body:
      subscribe debate-sm
      subscribe debate-digest-sm

In addition, you can also access this dialogue via the web. For this
option, see this web homepage:
(http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/smore/debate-sm-lwgate.html



LET'S GET THAT WHEAT GROWING!


Simultaneous to the Hardware Debate, let us encourage you to
participate in Part 2 of the Great Plant Debate: The Shuttle/Mir Seed
Germination Activity. This activity is designed to give students an
experience that parallels the investigations that space scientists
are conducting during joint missions of the Russian spacecraft Mir
and the U.S. Space Shuttle.  The lesson plan can be found at:
http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/smore/teachers/act1.html
Students will investigate the conditions that lead to the
germination of wheat seeds and observe the early stages of the plant
life cycle. This part takes about five days, so it would be wise to
begin on a Monday so the whole cycle may be observed closely. Data
of the students' observations will be collected to share with other
classrooms on the S/MORE website. Discussion will follow to try to
understand the differences.



WHAT'S UP IN SPACE



We were unable to obtain information from the past week. So this
regular feature will return next week.



[Editor's note: Gregory Goins is a research scientist in the Advanced
Life Support/Space Biology laboratories at Kennedy Space Center
(KSC). In this capacity he  investigates new technologies in
hardware to make it possible to grow plants within the constraints
of a spacecraft]

A TYPICAL DAY
Gregory D. Goins, Ph.D. - http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/smore/team/ggoins.html 
09/30/96

Every morning, I check the experiments in our
laboratory to observe overnight measurements. We have
computer logging of the most important parameters for
plant growth, such as lighting, temperature, relative
humidity, and carbon dioxide levels. Next, I measure
and replenish nutrient solution components.

I also often have a meeting with my colleagues in the
morning. There, we discuss highlights, successes, and
problems of the current experiments, and we schedule
and discuss matters and upcoming experiments. I spend
a large part of the day analyzing collected data from the
experiments. I also have to write up experimental
summaries and scientific papers for peer-reviewed
scientific papers. Also, I have to prepare for scientific
meetings, or a seminar here at KSC, detailing some of
the developments of our experiments.

We also spend time with outreach activities, whether it's
a tour or somebody else we need to tell about our
experiment. I would say that's a full day already. But the
main things are: making sure the experiments are
running well; attending the meetings to determine what
the experiments are or the status of the present
experiments; analyzing the data; writing the data for a
journal or a public seminar; and the educational outreach
activities for students, science fairs, or tour groups.

******************************************

NO HOLES IN THE CANISTER
Gregory D. Goins, Ph.D. -
http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/smore/team/ggoins.html

We had an in-flight experiment on the shuttle recently, in
which the specimens were flown in a sealed "canister."
The first experiment did not have holes in the canister, or
any way for oxygen to get into the canister, yet there
were live specimens within. I had remembered that as a
kid, that any time we would go out and catch a firefly or
bugs, we were always sure to punch holes in the glass
jar lids, or whatever we caught them in to make sure
they received oxygen.

The specimens in the experiment did not develop
normally because there may have been very little active
gas exchange occurring. When I heard about the
problem with the experiment, I suggested putting several
"holes" in the canister. It turned out that not having the
holes in the container the first time was most likely the
problem. The experiment turned out to be a complete
success after the experiment was re-flown.



[Editor's note:  Paul Savage is the payload manager for the
Fundamental Biology Research Project for the NASA/Mir
Science Program. He helps to coordinate between the various
agencies and personnel who are involved in the life sciences
research carried out by the crew of Russian cosmonauts and United
States astronauts onboard the Mir space station.]

"MANAGING" THE DAY

Paul Savage - http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/smore/team/psavage.html
DATE: 07/30/96

During a typical day I have many meetings in order to
coordinate with program teams and subgroups of
engineering and science to ensure their communication
with each other. I also try to solve problems raised by
management at Johnson Space Center, and answer
questions about equipment and procedures during the
three to five teleconferences I have per week. I am also
studying Russian two hours per week.

I interact with management at NASA Headquarters, as
well as local management at NASA-Ames. At the local
level, I discuss: budget issues, travel requirements, plans
for the year, and contractor performance evaluations, and
give presentations to management on the status of
projects.

*********************************************

EUROTRAVEL

Paul Savage - http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/smore/team/psavage.html

Having the chance to see  Moscow, Russia, France, the
Netherlands, and Budapest, Hungary, increased my awareness
of the rest of the world, and helped me appreciate
the difference in cultures. I try to share these experiences
with my son to help expose him to different ideas and
people.

Moscow, Russia

I have traveled to Moscow three times and remember
being overwhelmed with certain images. One of the
images I remember was the size of the city where nine
million people live. On the surface, the city does not look
attractive. The buildings are gray and rundown. Even the
modern buildings look old and are crumbling. But many
people continue to live and work in the buildings, and the
city will be celebrating its 850th anniversary next year.

The parks and public areas are not kept up very well, and
on some levels, Moscow looks like a huge city that could
have been deserted. But seeing Red Square, the Kremlin,
and St. Basil's Cathedral contrast with the rest of the
city, and the city's ability to maintain ornate cathedrals
was amazing.

There were also big, bold sculptures celebrating the
common man, victories and heroes, which we do not
have in the United States. I felt that I had a better feel for
the city after visiting. I think it is a great place to go, if
you look beyond the size and the environment, and have
an opportunity to meet the wonderful Russian people
there.

Budapest, Hungary

Budapest, Hungary, is a beautiful, magnificent city.
Before World War II, Budapest was actually two cities,
Buda and Pest, and after the war their names were
linked. I had heard that Budapest was the center of
eastern European government and culture but I always
imagined it was a dreary, war-ravaged eastern European
city.

The Danube River was clean and well kept, and the
scientists we worked with were very welcoming and
showed us special places of government and history in
the city.

The part of the city once called Buda sits on a hillside
overlooking the Danube River. (The river was a natural
division between Buda and Pest.) Visiting Budapest
developed my interest in eastern Europe. It reminded me
of the tragedies of eastern European countries during
World War II. It also helped me understand what is
happening in the world today in countries like
Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The Netherlands

Visiting Amsterdam was very different and fascinating.
Seeing historic places like the Anne Frank house, the
freewheeling night life, and the Red Light District
showed me how a permissive culture is different from
that of the United States. Seeing the country helped me
add a piece to my travel puzzle.

Note:  As this project has officially ended, these and other inactive
 mailing lists have been shut down.
If this is your first message from the updates-sm list, welcome!

To catch up on back issues, please visit the following Internet URL:
http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/smore/updates
To subscribe to the updates-sm mailing list (where this message
came from), send a message to:
   listmanager@quest.arc.nasa.gov
In the message body, write these words:
   subscribe updates-sm

CONVERSELY...

To remove your name from the updates-sm mailing list, send a
message to:
   listmanager@quest.arc.nasa.gov
In the message body, write these words:
   unsubscribe updates-sm

If you have Web access, please visit our "continuous construction"
site at http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/smore