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By NASA
7 Min Read NASA Project in Puerto Rico Trains Students in Marine Biology
A forested green peninsula of Culebra Island juts into the blue waters of the Caribbean as a rain storm hits in the distance. The teal blue surrounding the island indicates shallow waters, home to the island's famous coral reefs. Credits: NASA Ames/Milan Loiacono Tainaliz Marie Rodríguez Lugo took a deep breath, adjusted her snorkel mask, and plunged into the ocean, fins first. Three weeks earlier, Rodríguez Lugo couldn’t swim. Now the college student was gathering data on water quality and coral reefs for a NASA-led marine biology project in Puerto Rico, where she lives.
“There is so much life down there that I never knew about,” Rodríguez Lugo said. “And it’s beautiful.”
“There is so much life down there that I never knew about, and it’s beautiful.”
Tainaliz Marie Rodríguez Lugo
OCEANOS 2024 Intern
The sea whip and purple sea fans in the photo above are found off the coast of Playa Melones, Culebra, a small island off the east cost of Puerto Rico and a popular destination for snorkelers.
Puerto Rico is home to more than 1,300 square miles of coral reefs, which play a vital role in protecting the island from storms, waves, and hurricanes. Reef-related tourism provides nearly $2 billion in annual income for the island.
But coral reefs in Puerto Rico and around the world are experiencing more frequent and severe bleaching events. High ocean temperatures in regions around the globe have led to coral bleaching, which is when corals expel zooxanthellae – the colorful, symbiotic microscopic algae that live inside coral tissues and provide 80-90% of its nutrients. When stressors persist, the corals eventually starve and turn bone-white.
In April 2024, NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) announced that the world was experiencing a global bleaching event, the fourth on record. You can see bleached spots in the lobed star coral pictured above, which is also colonized by Ramicrusta, an invasive, burnt orange algae that poses an additional threat to reefs.
Students Are Given Ocean Research Tools
Beginning in June, the month-long program that Rodriguez and 29 other local students participated in is called the Ocean Community Engagement and Awareness using NASA Earth Observations and Science for Hispanic/Latino Students (OCEANOS). The goal of OCEANOS is twofold: to teach Puerto Rican students about marine ecology and conservation, and to train students through hands-on fieldwork how to use marine science tools to monitor the health of coral reefs.
The course included classroom instruction, scientific fieldwork, collecting and analyzing ocean data from La Parguera and Culebra Island, and a final presentation.
In the photo, OCEANOS instructor Samuel Suleiman shows a 3D-printed clump of staghorn coral to a group of students off the coast of Culebra. In areas where coral habitats have been damaged, conservationists use 3D-printed corals to attract and protect fish, algae, and other wildlife.
To practice coral surveying techniques and evaluate biodiversity,students used compact cameras to snap a photo every half second, recording seven-meter by seven-meter quadrants of the ocean floor. Back on land, the students stitched these images – roughly 600 images per quadrant – into high-resolution mosaics, which they then used to catalog the types and distributions of various coral species.
Low Light, Poor Water Quality, and Invasive Species Threaten Coral Reefs
Students also built their own low-cost instruments, with sensors on each end to measure temperature and light, to help assess water quality and characteristics.
The ideal temperature range for coral falls between 77- 82 degrees Fahrenheit (25-28 degrees Celsius). Water above or below this range is considered a potential stressor for coral and can impair growth. It can also increase the risk of disease, bleaching, and reproductive issues.
Coral relies on light for growth. Less light means less photosynthesis for the zooxanthellae that live inside the coral, which in turn means less food for the coral itself. Cloudy water due to excessive sediment or phytoplankton can dim or block sunlight.
Additional threats to coral include fishing equipment, boat groundings, chemical runoff, and invasive species.
In the photo above, OCEANOS instructor Juan Torres-Pérez holds two clumps of cyanobacteria, a type of bacteria that has choked a section of reef near Playa Melones. The exact cause of this excessive cyanobacteria growth is unclear, but it is likely due to land-based pollution leaching into nearby waters, he said. In the background, dark brown piles of cyanobacteria littering the ocean floor are visible.
Students Help Grow and Plant New Coral
Suleiman walked students through the process of planting new coral, which involved tying loose staghorn and elkhorn corals into a square frame. Each frame holds about 100 individual pieces of coral. Suleiman leads a group called Sociedad Ambiente Marino (SAM), which has been working for more than 20 years to cultivate and plant more than 160,000 corals around Puerto Rico.
Divers anchored these frames to the ocean floor. Under ideal conditions, branching species like elkhorn and staghorn coral grow one centimeter per month, or about 12-13 centimeters per year, making them ideal candidates for coral reef restoration. By comparison, mountainous and boulder coral, also prevalent in the Caribbean Sea, grow an average of just one centimeter per year.
The frames will remain on the ocean floor for 10 to 14 months, until the corals have quadrupled in size. At any given time, SAM has about 45 of these frames in coral ‘farms’ around Culebra, totaling almost 4,500 corals.
Once the corals are ready to be planted, they will be added to various reefs to replace damaged or bleached corals, and shore up vulnerable habitats.
In the photo above, Suleiman gathers loose corals to place around an endangered coral species Dendrogyra cylindrus, more commonly referred to as Pillar Coral (front left). This underwater “garden,” as he called it, should attract fish and wildlife such as sea urchins, which will give the endangered coral — and the other species in this small reef — a better chance of survival.
A New Generation of Marine Scientists
From the 2023 OCEANOS class, roughly half of the undergraduate students went on to pursue marine science degrees, and many hope to continue with a post-graduate program. For a scientific field historically lacking diverse voices, this is a promising step.
Among the high school students in the 2023 class, three went on to change their degree plans to oceanography after participating in the OCEANOS program, while others are finding ways to incorporate marine science into their studies.
Francisco Méndez Negrón, a 2023 OCEANOS graduate, is now a computer science student at the University of Puerto Rico at Rio Piedras and wants to apply robotics to marine ecology. “My goal is to integrate computer science and oceanography to make something that can contribute to the problems marine ecosystems are facing, mostly originated by us humans,” Méndez Negrón said. He returned to the OCEANOS program to serve as a mentor for the 2024 class.
As for Tainaliz Marie Rodriguez Lugo, she managed to overcome her swim anxiety while discovering a love of the ocean. She credited the instructors who were patient, encouraging, and never left her side in the water.
“I was really scared going into this internship,” Rodríguez Lugo said. “I didn’t know how to swim, and I was starting a program literally called ‘Oceans.’ But now I love it: I could spend all day in the ocean.”
I was really scared going into this internship. I didn’t know how to swim, and I was starting a program literally called ‘Oceans.’ But now I love it: I could spend all day in the ocean.
Tainaliz Marie Rodríguez Lugo
OCEANOS 2024 Intern
When asked how she would describe coral to someone who has never seen one, Rodríguez Lugo just laughed. “I can’t. There are no words for it. I would just take them to the reefs.”
For more information about OCEANOS, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/oceanos
The OCEANOS program’s final session will take place next year. Applications for the 2025 OCEANOS program will open in March. To apply, visit:
https://nasa.gov/oceanos-application
Photographs and story by Milan Loiacono, NASA’s Ames Research Center
About the Author
Milan Loiacono
Science Communication SpecialistMilan Loiacono is a science communication specialist for the Earth Science Division at NASA Ames Research Center.
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By NASA
On Aug. 27, 1984, President Ronald W. Reagan announced the Teacher in Space project as part of NASA’s Space Flight Participant Program to expand the space shuttle experience to a wider set of private citizens who would communicate the experience to the public. From 11,000 teacher applicants, each of the 50 states and territories selected two nominees for a total of 114. After meeting with each candidate, a review panel narrowed the field down to 10 finalists. These 10 underwent interviews and medical examinations. A senior review panel recommended S. Christa McAuliffe as the prime Teacher in Space to fly with the STS-51L crew, with Barbara R. Morgan as her backup. Tragically, the Jan. 28, 1986, Challenger accident prevented McAuliffe from realizing her dreams of teaching from space.
Left: President Ronald W. Reagan announces the Teacher in Space project in 1984.Middle: NASA Administrator James M. Beggs. Right: Official emblem of the Teacher in Space project.
During a ceremony at the Department of Education recognizing outstanding public secondary schools, President Reagan announced the Teacher in Space project, saying,
It’s long been a goal of our space shuttle to someday carry private citizens in space. Until now, we hadn’t decided who the first citizen passenger would be. But today, I’m directing NASA to begin a search in all of our elementary and secondary schools, and to choose as the first citizen passenger in the history of our space program, one of America’s finest – a teacher. When that shuttle takes off, all of America will be reminded of the crucial role that teachers and education play in the life of our nation.
Later that day, NASA Administrator James M. Beggs held a news conference at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., and provided more details, saying that although a teacher would lead off the Space Flight Participant Program, future selections would include journalists, poets, and artists. NASA released an Announcement of Opportunity on Nov. 8 detailing the requirements for teacher applicants and setting the target launch date of early 1986. From the approximately 11,000 applications received by the Feb. 1, 1985, deadline, the Council of Chief State School Officers coordinated the selection process, working with state, territorial, and agency review panels. On May 3, they announced the 114 nominees, two from each U.S. state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, Departments of Defense and State overseas schools, and Bureau of Indian Affairs schools. The nominees attended a workshop in Washington, D.C., June 22-27 focused on space education, because even those not selected planned to serve as space ambassadors for NASA. Each nominee met with the National Review Panel that selected the 10 finalists, announced on July 1.
Left: The 10 Teacher in Space finalists during their visit to NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston in July 1985. Middle: As part of their orientation, the 10 finalists toured JSC’s space shuttle mockups. Right: The 10 finalists experienced brief periods of weightlessness aboard NASA’s KC-135 aircraft.
The 10 finalists spent the week of July 7 at NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston. During the week, the finalists underwent medical and psychological examinations, toured JSC’s facilities, and experienced episodes of weightlessness on the KC-135 aircraft. Following a brief stop at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, the finalists spent July 15-17 in Washington, D.C., undergoing a series of interviews with the NASA Space Flight Participant Committee, who recommended the Teacher in Space candidate and a backup to NASA Administrator Beggs.
Left: Vice President George H.W. Bush announces the prime, S. Christa McAuliffe, and backup, Barbara R. Morgan, Teacher in Space candidates. Right: McAuliffe addresses the assembled crowd.
On July 19, the 10 finalists assembled in the Roosevelt Room at the White House. Following Administrator Beggs’ introductory remarks, Vice President George H.W. Bush announced the Teacher in Space winners – S. Christa McAuliffe, a high school social studies teacher from Concord, New Hampshire, and her backup, Barbara R. Morgan, a second-grade teacher from McCall, Idaho. The other eight finalists continued to participate in the project by helping to develop McAuliffe’s lesson plans.
Left: Barbara R. Morgan, second from left, and S. Christa McAuliffe, fourth from left, meet the STS-51L crew at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Middle: McAuliffe, left, and Morgan get their first taste of space food. Right: Morgan, left, and McAuliffe receive a briefing on the space shuttle galley.
McAuliffe and Morgan reported to JSC on Sept. 9, 1985, to begin training for their space shuttle mission. Assigned to STS-51L scheduled for January 1986, they met their fellow crewmates Commander Francis R. “Dick” Scobee, Pilot Michael J. Smith, and Mission Specialists Ellison S. Onizuka, Judith A. Resnik, and Ronald E. McNair. Gregory B. Jarvis, a Hughes Aircraft engineer, joined the crew as a second payload specialist in October. Their first week, McAuliffe and Morgan received basic orientation, including fitting for their flight suits and tasting space food. For the next four months, they trained with the rest of the crew on shuttle systems, emergency evacuation drills, and completed flights aboard T-38 jets and the KC-135 weightless aircraft.
Left: The STS-51L crew receives a briefing on crew escape procedures. Middle: The STS-51L crew receives a briefing on water evacuation. Right: Barbara R. Morgan, left, and S. Christa McAuliffe pose in front of the space shuttle crew compartment trainer.
Left: At Houston’s Ellington Air Force Base, Barbara R. Morgan, Michael J. Smith, a photographer, S. Christa McAuliffe, and Francis R. “Dick” Scobee walk onto the tarmac toward T-38 jet trainers. Right: McAuliffe in the backseat of a T-38 prior to takeoff.
Left: Teacher in Space designee S. Christa McAuliffe in the backseat of a T-38 jet trainer during a right turn, with part of Galveston Island visible at left. Right: Michael J. Smith, left, Barbara R. Morgan, McAuliffe, and Francis R. “Dick” Scobee following training flights aboard T-38 jets.
Left: Backup Teacher in Space Barbara R. Morgan, left, prime Teacher in Space S. Christa McAuliffe, Payload Specialist Gregory B. Jarvis, and Mission Specialist Ronald E. McNair in the middeck of the Shuttle Mission Simulator. Right: Teacher in Space McAuliffe, second from left, and her backup Morgan, get a taste of weightlessness aboard NASA’s KC-135, along with STS-61C Payload Specialist Congressman C. William “Bill” Nelson, now serving as NASA’s 14th administrator.
Training aboard the KC-135 for Teacher in Space demonstrations. Left: Hydroponics in Microgravity. Middle left: Molecular Mixing Experiment. Middle right: Magnetic Effects. Right: Leapfrog in Microgravity – not an actual experiment.
During her flight, McAuliffe planned to conduct two live lessons from space and record film for six demonstrations. The first lesson, “The Ultimate Field Trip,” sought to allow students to compare daily life aboard the shuttle versus on Earth. The second lesson, “Where We’ve Been, Where We’re Going, Why?” would explain the reasons for exploring space and making use of its unique environment for manufacturing certain products. The six filmed demonstrations included topics such as magnetism, Newton’s Laws, effervescence, simple machines and tools, hydroponics, and chromatographic separation, and how each of these behaves in weightlessness. Since McAuliffe could not complete these activities, many years later astronauts aboard the space station completed her mission by filming the demonstrations and preparing classroom lessons.
Left: At NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Teacher in Space S. Christa McAuliffe watches the launch of space shuttle Challenger on the STS-61A Spacelab D1 mission. Middle: The STS-51L crew answer reporters’ questions following the Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test (TCDT). Right: During the TCDT, the crew practices emergency evacuation procedures.
To prepare for the upcoming launch, McAuliffe and Morgan traveled to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida to witness the liftoff of the STS-61A Spacelab D1 mission, the last flight of space shuttle Challenger before STS-51L, on Oct. 30. The entire STS-51L crew returned to Florida for the Jan. 8, 1986, Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test (TCDT), essentially a dress rehearsal for the actual countdown to launch, planned for two weeks later. As part of the TCDT, the astronauts practiced evacuations drills from the shuttle in case of a fire or other emergency. After the test, they returned to Houston to complete last-minute training.
Left: The STS-51L crew arrives at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida a few days before launch. Middle: The STS-51L crew at the traditional prelaunch breakfast. Right: The STS-51L astronauts leave crew quarters on their way to Launch Pad 39B.
On Jan. 23, the STS-51L crew arrived at KSC for the launch set for Jan. 26. Bad weather caused a one-day delay, and the crew suited up, rode out to the pad, and boarded Challenger. A problem closing the hatch followed by poor weather caused a scrub of the launch attempt. On Jan. 28, the crew went back out to the pad in unusually cold weather for Florida and took their places aboard Challenger. This time, the launch took place on time.
Left: The official photograph of the STS-51L crew. Right: The STS-51L crew patch, with an apple representing S. Christa McAuliffe and the Teacher in Space project.
Following the Challenger accident, the Teacher in Space project remained active for a time as NASA reevaluated the entire Space Flight Participant Program. Morgan assumed the role of Teacher in Space designee for a few months, returning to Idaho in the fall of 1986 to resume her teaching duties, yet maintained her contact with NASA. In 1990, NASA canceled the Teacher in Space project.
Left: Official portrait of Barbara R. Morgan following her selection as a NASA astronaut in 1998. Middle: In 2004, NASA selected Educator Astronauts Dorothy “Dottie” M. Metcalf-Lindenburger, left, Richard “Ricky” R. Arnold, and Joseph “Joe” M. Acaba as members of the Group 19 astronauts. Right: Emblem of the Year of Education on Station.
In 1998, NASA invited Morgan to join the next astronaut selection group, not as a teacher but as a full-fledged mission specialist, eligible for multiple flights. That same year, NASA initiated its Educator Astronaut program, in which the agency selected qualified teachers as full-time astronauts instead of payload specialists. Morgan reported for training with the rest of the Group 17 astronauts in August 1998. In 2002, NASA assigned her to the STS-118 space station assembly mission that, following delays caused by the Columbia accident, flew in August 2007 aboard Endeavour, Challenger’s replacement. In 2004, NASA selected its first Educator Astronauts as part of Group 19 – Joseph “Joe” M. Acaba, Richard R. “Rickey” Arnold, and Dorothy “Dottie” M. Metcalf-Lindenburger. Metcalf-Lindenburger flew as a mission specialist aboard the STS-131 space station assembly flight in April 2010. Acaba and Arnold flew together on STS-119 in March 2009. Acaba went on to spend 125 days aboard the space station as an Expedition 31 and 32 flight engineer between May and September 2012, and another 168 days during Expedition 53 and 54 between September 2017 and February 2018. He has served as chief of the astronaut office since February 2023. Arnold made his second flight as a flight engineer during Expedition 55 and 56 from March to October 2018. Between their nearly back-to-back missions, Acaba and Arnold spent the 2017-18 school year aboard the space station for A Year of Education on Station. As a tribute to McAuliffe and her legacy, they completed her mission, filming her demonstrations and developing corresponding lessons for classrooms.
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The base tour included visits to the intelligence training squadrons and Guardian development flight dorms, a Guardian all-call and concluded with a 9S100 briefing.
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NASA Technical Group Supervisor for Sequence Planning and Execution and Tactical Mission Lead for the Mars Perseverance rover, Diana Trujillo, speaks to students at Rolling Terrace Elementary School, Monday, March 13, 2023, in Takoma Park, Maryland. Photo Credit: (NASA/Aubrey Gemignani)NASA/Aubrey Gemignani With a new school year on the horizon, NASA is introducing a platform to connect communities with agency experts to share their experiences working on agency missions and programs for the benefit of humanity.
Continuing a long-standing tradition of connecting the public with science, technology, engineering, and math, NASA Engages augments the agency’s speaker’s bureau program to inspire the Artemis Generation. The platform includes a database of agency employees of various expertise, skillsets, and backgrounds. The public may request a NASA expert to participate in educational, professional, and civic events, either virtually or in person, by submitting a request through the NASA Engages page:
https://my.nasa.gov/engages/s
“With NASA Engages, the agency is creating new avenues for communities to learn about STEM, while making genuine connections with the diverse, talented experts within our agency,” said Mike Kincaid, associate administrator, Office of STEM Engagement at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Representation is key – our ability to meet people where they are is enhanced when our experts reflect the communities they are speaking to. Whether it’s a heliophysics panel in Denver or an elementary school in Florida, anyone can bring NASA to their neighborhood with Engages.”
Managed by NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement in coordination with the agency’s Office of Diversity and Equal Opportunity and Office of Communications, NASA Engages is open to all types of public speaking engagements. Audiences include preschool to college, libraries and museums, youth organizations, professional and technical organizations, community groups and other non-profit organizations. Engages also is not just limited to speaking engagements – the public may request science fair judges, emcees at award ceremonies, and more.
Requests should be submitted at least seven weeks in advance for U.S. events to allow adequate lead time for representatives to coordinate support and ensure minimal disruption to their work schedules. Preference will be given to virtual events. International requests can be submitted via email and will soon be available through NASA Engages. In the meantime, submit those requests via email to: HQ-NASAEngages@mail.nasa.gov.
Participation is voluntary, and while every effort will be made to accommodate requests, there is no guarantee of fulfillment.
Learn more about NASA and agency programs, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov
-end-
Abbey Donaldson / Gerelle Dodson
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
abbey.a.donaldson@nasa.gov / gerelle.q.dodson@nasa.gov
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