The issue of the lack of funding for NASA has a strong connection to Earth Month. As I have mentioned before, many of the technologies developed out of NASA’s research have had advantageous effects on the environment, both on local and global scales. For my Earth Month Action Plan, I intend to spread awareness of NASA’s impacts on sustainability. As environment-friendly alternatives to everyday processes become increasingly prevalent, like using refillable water bottles in place of disposable ones and driving electric cars instead of ones that use gas, it is important to mention NASA’s spin-off technologies as to provide even more methods of “going green.” Through my actions, not only will people be exposed to new ways to live a more sustainable life, but they will learn where such possibilities come from, and therefore advocate for NASA’s improvement in its research through more funding.
In the first week of my plan, I will start with myself, and begin to use more sustainable systems, that have happened to be developed as a direct result of NASA’s research. For example, I will invest in a filter for my water, as to purify the tap water in Morrill Tower. This will help me to stop buying and drinking purified water from plastic water bottles. I have been wanting to do this for a while, but I think now is a better time than ever.
In the second week, I will extend my outreach to my friends and family. I will encourage them to use products like the tread-efficient car tires developed from NASA’s Mars expeditions, as they last longer than other tires, and increase fuel efficiency. I will also tell them about more efficient ways of using energy, like solar energy, for small devices like calculators, outdoor lights, and small appliances for cooking. Along with this, I will mention to them that we would not have solar power without NASA’s research, as well as emphasize how easily they can save money just by using solar power for small devices.
In the third week, I intend to contact the future president of the Astronomical Society, a club in which I am involved. I want to ask her if she would be interested in creating an event with me for the club, where we teach the other members about, new, sustainable technologies developed by NASA, how they came to fruition, and how they work. I think this would be both fun and educational, and possibly foster a more sustainable community of students on campus.
In the fourth week, I intend to reach out to the SUSTAINS learning community on campus to ask if they would be interested in learning about NASA’s impact on sustainability sometime during the end of this semester, or during the next fall semester. I think this would be a great opportunity to create a link between two different sciences, and encourage students outside of the physics and astronomy community to take notice of NASA’s impacts, and even advocate for NASA’s prosperity. To organize such an informational seminar, I would either volunteer to present the information myself, or contact either a “green” engineer in the area who could support NASA’s research and environmental spin-offs.
Some challenges I predict in this process include getting people to listen to me when I talk about NASA. As I am passionate about NASA’s work, I tend to talk about it a lot, and some people do not care about it as much as I do, so they do not care to listen to me talk about it. In order to prepare for this, I will talk about the environmental impact first, then emphasize NASA last when I present this information. I want to discuss NASA in a fun and interesting way, as to show that the organization has ties to everything we do as humans on Earth.
My opinions and ideas of non-profit work with my issue are completely in line with those of the speakers, Max and Tara. From listening to their experiences, I learned that they focus on helping people by educating them. They believe that the best way to help people become more aware of the pressing issues around them is by teaching them about such issues, and how much better their lives will be if they are resolved. For example, Max teaches the residents of Linden, a low-income area in Columbus, about sustainable, affordable agriculture, and consequently their lives are positively impacted as they begin to adopt these farming techniques. Both Max and Tara’s actions in agriculture and employment services have proven that education is an effective way to alleviate modern issues. One new idea that I have considered after this class is possibly bringing education into public schools, as Max does in Linden. It is important to me that I teach the youth in my community about my issue, so that they have a personal connection to science, as well as NASA, and therefore have more incentive to take action on issues like inadequate funding for NASA. Perhaps, the best location for this learning experience is while these children are in school.
My biggest takeaway from this class session is that helping others does not come with a price tag, nor should it. Both Tara and Max do their jobs, not for the money, but because they want to help others in their community. They do not expect anything in return for their work, other than their beneficiaries having improved quality of life. For me, I want to teach people why it is important for NASA to get more funding, in hopes that they realize that their lives could be better as a result, and they will take action.
Personally, I would like to organize a group of scientists/ astronomers to go to local public schools and teach young students in elementary school about astronomy and space. I want kids today to learn about the interesting ideas that have come out of astronomy in which they may not have an education currently, like meteorology, the planets, the tides because of the moon, and the day and year length due to the Sun and Earth’s rotation.
For the issue that I have chosen to focus on, I believe that the central idea in both of my lenses is awareness. I think that if people are aware of simply the vast benefits that NASA provides, and the possibilities for the future if the organization were given more funding, they would feel an obligation to help the cause. Therefore, non-profits play a very large role in my issue. To me, “helping the cause” means getting children involved in science through interactive programs outside of school, like summer day camps. There is not enough emphasis put on the sciences in general. By getting the youth of my community interested in all types of science, they are more likely to pay attention to issues like insufficient funding for NASA when they grow older because they understand and appreciate what science has done for them. Currently, there are no non-profits that organize workshops or day-camps for the youth of Columbus to learn about the sciences. This is a problem for two reasons. First, it is important that children take an interest in subjects like biology, chemistry, and physics outside of class time. For kids to take time out of their summer vacations to learn more about the sciences is more beneficial to them because summer workshops will present the information in a fun, interactive way instead of in a classroom. Second, some of the city schools in this community cannot afford to take their students on field trips to COSI or the OSU Planetarium, so it is really up to non-profit organizations to get kids involved.
Ideally, I would like to contact a non-profit organization to create a summer science program that targets kids in the school districts that have the highest dropout rates in high school. Not only will this encourage kids to stay involved with science throughout their daily lives, but it may also make the kids want to stay in school so that they can learn more about physics, astronomy, chemistry, and biology. Essentially, I want science to be a larger part of kids’ lives so that they are more aware of issues within the science community and that they will be advocates for protecting research like the kind that NASA conducts. One challenge I see with this, however, is finding a non-profit that will be willing to organize such a camp. Science equipment is very costly and I would have a hard time finding someone who would be willing to donate such equipment, especially for an event with children. Another challenge I see is with getting people interested in the event. If the kids are already uninterested in science because they did not find it to be fun in school, they may be less inclined to participate in a workshop about science when they could be doing other summer activities. The most important thing I can do to ensure the success of an event like this is making it seem fun, and not like another school session for kids. I want them to see that this subject is something that leaves school with them, and it is bigger than any textbook. Unfortunately, as of right now, there is no work being done on the three levels of the Justice-Oriented Citizen model for this issue. I am sure that people research the root causes for why there is insufficient funding for NASA, because an answer to this question is that people in general are not aware of the benefits that NASA, and science as a whole, offers them. However, there is no action through non-profits that helps the people of this community who cannot afford to go to science centers or expensive summer events. On the first and second levels, however, individuals may donate science equipment to schools that cannot afford it, or they may come in as speakers in younger classrooms to talk about their own careers in science and how fun working in science is. For there to be action on the third level, there needs to be an organized, non-profit that brings forth an interactive way for people to get involved in science at a young age and stick with science as a motivation through the upper levels of schooling.
I found a video related to my idea of a non-profit working to bring awareness and education of the sciences to young students. Here is the video:
In New York city schools that do not have the resources, a non-profit called ScriptED is bringing classes on coding to young students. The goal is to bring more students from low income neighborhoods of New York city into the world of computer science. The founder states that if more of these students care about computer science education and application, they will be more likely to foster that kind of education in other schools, and eventually have more minority groups, like blacks and latinos, interested in the field (as the founder says that less than 10% of people in coding are of these ethnicities). The biggest issue in this field is that there are not enough people interested in getting jobs in coding, so many businesses struggle with websites and programs they need because they do not have anyone trained to work with them to improve these aspects of their business. Therefore, by exposing children to the opportunities of coding through ScriptED, these issues can hopefully be resolved in the future. My goal is exactly the same; in order to improve NASA’s research as well as the products that it brings to us as the human race, it is imperative that I bring awareness of what the organization offers to us now to young children who have large imaginations. The future is centered on these young minds, and by exposing them to their option of being NASA scientists, we have to expose them to science in general first.
After listening to Kenny, one of the founders of the social enterprise, Roosevelt Coffee House, I learned a few ideas to keep in mind as I am considering the social enterprise lens of my issue. Kenny seemed to emphasize the importance of his team that helped him set up and operate the Coffee House to truly convey the non-profit’s mission and purpose. This was through his employees, who are not working at the shop for high paychecks, as well as his friends, who went the extra mile to be resourceful to build the interior of the shop at a low cost. I agree that if I am to take action on my issue, I cannot do it alone in order to have an impact on the members of my community. I need colleagues and friends that share my vision, and are going to help me spread it into the community effectively and efficiently. With this said, I am considering now that I should connect with others that care about taking action on my issue, and are willing to work with me.
From this class session, my biggest takeaway was that a certain experience or encounter with other people can affect someone’s life so much that they change their career or life path. My hope is that by spreading awareness to people in my community and eventually across bigger scales, someone will be impacted by it enough that they will want to take action as well.
Personally, I would like to take action on this issue by bringing in speakers, like Kenny, who can advocate for both social enterprise and the issue of inadequate funding for NASA. I am a member of the Astronomical Society on campus, a group of people who value not only NASA but the progression of science in general. If I can bring in a business owner who uses NASA spin-off technology to talk about how NASA’s discoveries have positively impacted their business socially and economically, maybe more people will become aware of NASA’s financial struggles. I believe this would be the right group to call attention to this issue, as they may be as passionate as I am about taking action.
A social enterprise is an organization, for profit or non-profit, that aims to maximize social, cultural, community, or environmental impact. The main goal is to implement positive community change, as most social enterprises are non-profit. However, some organizations can generate revenue from their efforts. NASA is a revenue-generating social enterprise. This is because of its idea of spin-off technologies. By applying their research from outer space to private companies that focus on the average consumer, NASA has positively impacted people globally by fostering more sustainable technologies through spin-offs.
NASA utilizes the fact that it is a social enterprise to bring awareness to the public that it has a direct impact on the well-being of the community. By informing the public in this way, NASA encourages people to advocate for its adequate funding, as the organization has proven to be advantageous to the life of the average consumer. On its public Facebook page, NASA posted fact list of its impact in the improvement of sports equipment through spin-offs. The list also goes into detail about how athletes have benefited from the new advancements in their equipment. Here is an image of the advertisement:
Many people are unaware of the fact that NASA is a social enterprise and has provided countless benefits for the global community. Because of this lack of knowledge, less active members in the US government’s fiscal policies care about the funding for NASA, as they do not see how it has helped the well-being of the nation in social, environmental, and economic senses. As I am passionate about NASA and the sheer multitude of benefits it has brought to people, the economy, and the planet through spin-offs, I believe that I can make efforts to bring the same awareness to the public about the exact impacts that which spin-offs have had. Specifically, I want to inform my peers at my university about how NASA has fostered improvements in sustainable living. As climate change is a pertinent issue for the voting population, I want to make the public aware that many of the methods people use to be more sustainable are implemented because of NASA’s research. I would take action to inform the public in a few ways. I could make similar advertisements like the one NASA posted on Facebook and post them around campus- specifically in places where student environmental organizations meet. I could also bring in a speaker that has created a sustainable spin-off with NASA to inform a group of students in organizations that advocate for sustainable living, or the general public by way of the weekly public space-talks that the Astronomical society facilitates on campus. A speaker that has created a spin-off with NASA would have topics that intersect between interests in the environment and space, so a public talk like by such a speaker could be interesting to both groups of people. A challenge that I see in this is not that it would be hard to find a company-head or an environmentalist that has implemented spin-off technology, it is that I may not find a person who would be willing to speak about his or her work if he or she does not speak in front of groups on a regular basis.
I believe that the most important idea to consider in the issue of inadequate funding for NASA is that the organization functions as a social enterprise over everything else. Its research has always had the goal of improving the commonwealth of the people of this planet. When people think of NASA, they view it as an entity beyond their thought-therefore separate from their own lives. Even more, they think that because NASA involves people of such high mental caliber that those individuals working for NASA care about space exploration for the sake of knowledge rather than exploration for the sake of helping ourselves as humankind. However, if we look at everything NASA has done as far as exploration and research, we find that our lives on Earth are better as a direct consequence of the organization’s efforts. For just a few examples: because of the International Space Station, we now have GPS systems (that means Google Maps); because of the extensive exploration on Mars, we now have more sustainable tires, panoramic cameras, and better car efficiency; because of research with the Sun and energy, we have sunscreen and solar panels. If we did not have any of this technology, our lives would be a lot harder and significantly slower. In conclusion, it is best to keep in mind that we would not be living our fast-paced lives without NASA- and perhaps it is the greatest social enterprise we have come to know.
In consideration of the Justice-Oriented Citizen model, there is not enough work being done on the three levels to fight for adequate funding for NASA. A lot of the work being done is on the third level, which is a Social-Justice Oriented citizen. This includes research in why there is not enough funding for the association (which is public unawareness) and actions like informative articles and advertisements posted on social media and news sites. However, this work is being done by NASA employees rather than the average consumer. If more citizens reach the level of effort that NASA is putting into this issue, then it is more likely that it will be resolved. NASA impacts only the group of people that are interested with current events in science and space exploration. If more people who are affiliated by the NASA community (via a spin-off) but are still viewed as average consumers (i.e. a small business owner) make an effort to bring awareness to the public then more people will care about NASA and what it has done for humankind. They may even encourage the government to provide more funding. On the first level of the model, the only work that is done is that people use the spin-off technologies that NASA has created. On the second level, an increasing amount of business owners adopt NASA technologies to make spin-offs. Both of these efforts generate extra revenue for future expeditions. However, this is not much money and the only real way for NASA to have the ability to advance in more groundbreaking research is through more funding from the government.
I found a video that discussed a specific example of how NASA has made life on Earth more sustainable. This example was that the Pratt Energy Industry took an engine that NASA used in a space expedition and applied it to solar technology. The result was a 110 megawatt solar plant that powers 75,000 homes alone to this day in Nevada. Even more, this specific plant inspired others to use the same technology of super heated materials in engines to make use of more solar energy. Today, energy costs have been decreased significantly in the west and energy in the US is becoming more sustainable as more neighborhoods utilize the Sun rather than fossil fuels. From this video, the biggest idea that I took away was that NASA, as a social enterprise, has a domino effect in the positive impacts it has on citizens across the nation. Once NASA’s super heated material technology was brought into the lives of the average consumers in the US through solar plants that power their homes, the idea spread like wildfire and hundreds of thousands of lives were benefited. However, the other, contrasting notion that I took away is that NASA does not seem to receive enough recognition for such a profound impact. The Pratt Industry was known for the solar plants, not NASA. If more people knew that NASA acted as the mastermind behind such prevalent technological and environmental improvements like this one, perhaps they would care more about how much money NASA has to conduct further research to foster it, and how much money it actually needs.
