Audience
Educators, Students
Grade Levels
Grades 5-8, Grades 9-12, Informal Education
Subject
Careers, Engineering Design
Type
Hands-on Activities, Videos
NASA Role Model: Nithin Abraham
NASA Center: Goddard Space Flight Research Center
Topic: Thermal Coatings
Original Air Date: Oct. 7, 2020
Explore the career of a chemical engineer who works as coatings engineer. Learn how Nithin Abraham leads research and development efforts on spaceflight coatings and materials at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Her work helps protect spacecraft from extreme temperatures and contamination. She performs thermal and optical property and performance tests on coatings, as well as inspects critical thermal coating surfaces through integration and test activities.
STEM Short Activity Title: Build a Heat Shield
Objective: As a team, design and build a heat shield that will protect the contents (candy) of a crew module (paper cup) from a simulated atmospheric re-entry (hair dryer).
Duration: 1 hour
Materials Needed: Student guide (downloadable), various materials (see list in student guide)
Difficulty: Moderate
Next Generation Science Standards: MS-PS3-3, MS-PS3-4, MS-ETS1-1, MS-ETS1-3
“NASA STEM Stars” is a webchat series. Each chat introduces a science, technology, engineering or math career, addresses a STEM topic and highlights a NASA mission. The chat includes a STEM activity that students can do at home. After the interviews, experts answer students’ questions.