Transcripts For CSPAN Hearing On NASA Workforce STEM Education 20240713

Im very pleased to im very pleased to see a hearing on stem and math and science and precision starting at precisely 2 30 and zero seconds. That is an auspicious way to begin this discussion. Earlier this year on one of the hottest nights of the summer, nearly half a Million People crowded on to the national mall. They were not there for a protest or to celebrate a National Holiday and they were not there for a concert or to watch a fireworks show. No, instead half a Million People went there drenched in sweat to watch the story of the apollo 11 mission as it was projected on to the washington monument, commemorating the moment 50 years ago when Neil Armstrong and buzz aldrin took that giant leap for mankind. As everyone in d. C. Knows, if there is half a Million People on the mall and it is not a protest, Something Big is going on. And landing the first humans on the moon and returning them safely to earth marks as one of the epical moments in the epochal moments in the history of mankind. As we look over out on our space landscape of today, what we see now is very different than the landscape of 1969. Indeed, not only did we succeed going to the moon and back again but we have gone on to put robotic rovers on distant planets, celestial observatories in orbits that can literally peer into the beginnings of the universe, and we have established a human presence in lower earth orbit. In the span of a single lifetime, we have seen space fundamentally transformed from an uninhabited void or a scientific novelty to an integral part of our daily lives and the world economy. Space is often referred to as the last frontier, and rightfully so. Much like the first frontiers of exploration, space is hard. It takes meticulous planning and extraordinary determination and even then nothing is guaranteed. It is dangerous. But the last frontier shares a critical aspect with the first frontiers, through its power now and tomorrow to inspire us. The space race of the 1960s inspired americans to aim higher, to dream bigger than they ever had before, to literally shoot for the moon. I believe the burgeoning space sector of today can do the same for a bigger and broader swath for the United States and the world. Just a few weeks ago, we witnessed the historic allfemale spacewalk on the International Space station. The first ever. And when the United States returns to the moon as part of the artemis program, artemis, of course, being the twin sister of apollo, nasa has committed that we will land the first woman ever on the surface of the moon, and it will be an american astronaut who steps forth on the moon. As the father of two young daughters, that makes me very proud indeed. As we return to bold Space Exploration, we do so not only with a much more diverse astronaut corps, but also with a much more diverse set of commercial and nongovernmental partners. As we move out on these plans, it is worth remembering the success of apollo 11 and the National Space program as a whole is due in no small part to the contributions of a workforce including countless women working behind the scenes whose stories have only recently become household names. One of those women, dr. Christine darden, testified before the subcommittee earlier this year. Dr. Darden was one of the famed Human Computers at nasa, and without her work and the work of many other socalled computers, many of them africanamerican women, we never could have sent astronauts into space, let alone brought them back safely. Unfortunately for far too long, dr. Darden and the other human dr. Darden and the other Human Computers contributions were hidden, relegated to the background for a time. Her story and the story of others like her serves as a reminder of the lessons we need to learn to ensure we are cultivating and elevating talent and leadership not based on race or gender but based on merit, hard work, skill and passion. Todays hearing is about building the kind of workforce that ensures nasa and the first the Diverse Group of partners we return to Space Exploration has the skilled base of people it needs to be successful now and in the future. That ensures the space economy can continue to grow, we will be successful in establishing the United States of america as the leader in a true space fairing nation. To accomplish this, we can and should leverage the inspiration of space and Space Exploration to get kids of all ages, backgrounds, resources, excited about science and technology and engineering and math. But that alone is not enough. Creating the space workforce for the future will require us to take a serious look at the road ahead, to explore unconventional partnerships and roles in of responsibility, and to take other decisive actions as needed to maintain u. S. Leadership in space. Getting it right will be a complex and challenging undertaking. After all, space is hard. But im reminded and encouraged by something the apollo 11 flight director said when he testified in front of this subcommittee in july of this year. What america will dare, america will do. I look forward to hearing from our Witnesses Today about their work in Stem Education and what suggestions they might have for how we in congress can act. I want to thank, in particular, the Ranking Member for her initiative for proposing that we hold this hearing, her leadership, bipartisan leadership that has strengthened this committee, and i look forward to continuing working alongside her for many years to come. With that i recognize the Ranking Member. Senator sinema thank you, chairman cruz, for holding this hearing. Im excited about today. Our stem workforce is at a critical juncture. The u. S. Space economy is booming, but if we dont build a strong Stem Education pipeline we will face a deficit of millions of workers over the next decade, putting our economy and National Security at risk. Congress, federal agencies like nasa, Industry Partners and most importantly educational institutions must Work Together to develop and prepare a 21st century workforce so we continue to lead in space and our economy remains innovative and strong. Thank you to our guests today for joining us to discuss this important issue. Since it was established in 1958, nasa has productive partnerships with universities across the country, including a few in arizona. As we develop more advanced space technologies, set large goals for the countrys space program, and grow our aerospace industry, we must ensure we have a strong workforce. This starts with educating students and giving them handson Research Opportunities to excel in stem fields. Universities and students across the country currently work with nasa on important projects such as mission monitoring, research and analysis. In my home state of arizona, Arizona State university, university of arizona and Northern Arizona university all work with nasa to further its missions big and small. The talented faculty across the state propose innovative ideas and bring new opportunities to students. When administrator bridenstein testified in front of the Commerce Committee earlier this year, he said, nasa has had amazing success with university partnerships. Arizona universities are leading the world when it comes to University Engagement with nasa and developing those programs and projects. For example, at a. S. U. , dr. Elkinstantons mission, psyche marks the first time a university has led a deep space nasa mission. She and her team will be the first scientists to study an asteroid, which is remarkably similar to a planetary core. University of arizona is also paving the way for future missions with its work on osiris rex. Dr. Loretta leads the science team and the Mission Science observations. The team is critical to this mission that will bring the first asteroid sample to earth. All three of arizonas public universities also participate in the arizona Space Grant Consortium, which is jointly funded by nasa and the three universities. This space grant works to attract and retain students. In arizona the Space Grant Consortium partners awarded 175 paid internships and fellowships to arizona students in 2018 alone, which allowed students to work alongside investigators on missions like psyche or osiris rex. These missions and Research Advancements offer us critical insights into space and spark an interest and passion in our next generation of scientists, mathematicians and engineers. But students are not the only ones benefiting. Because nasa gains innovative ideas, which when paired with their expertise and resources can push the boundaries of what we thought were possible. When the administrator testified, he said that University Projects typically meet costs and schedule. At an agency like nasa where money and time are limited and projects are sometimes overbudgeted and behind schedule, these partnerships are key to maximizing science and to discovery across the universe. As we look ahead, we must grow these partnerships, retain the knowledge that is gained from them and train the next generation. That is the only way we can ensure we have a workforce ready to keep america at the forefront of space. This week were introducing legislation to help address the stem workforce concerns that are raised today. The National Aeronautics act of 2019, which im looking forward to introducing with chairman cruz, wicker and cantwell to encourage students to pursue careers in Technical Education and give nasa the ability to establish and grow lasting partnerships between itself and universities through research centers. Im also proud to work with the senator on legislation which will modernize the Space Grant Program for the First Time Since 1988. Our bill will streamline the program and ensure states have the resources to recruit and retrain the next generation of scientists, engineers and mathematicians. I look forward to hearing from our witnesses on ways we can address these issues. Thank you so much, mr. Chairman. I yield back. Senator cruz thank you. I now recognize the chairman of the full committee for his opening statement. Senator wicker well, i want to congratulate my two colleagues on their excellent opening statements. Senator cruz described the crowd witnessing the 50th anniversary in dramatic, vivid, almost poetic words. I could almost sense the pungent fragrance of that sweaty throng, gathered on the mall. Senator cruz almost like a senate hearing. [laughter] senator wicker and the clerk will note cross talk. Just say cross talk. [laughter] senator wicker in the 50 years since the apollo 11, nasa has continued to achieve incredible feats. None of these missions would have been possible without the support and partnership of americas education system, in particular the talent and expertise found at our universities. That is why im here today and why we are here today. University researchers continue to lead groundbreaking projects in Space Technology and scientific discovery. In doing so, they involve students, some of whom become scientists. Some of whom become engineers. Others mathematicians. For nasa and in the private sector. Maintaining this pipeline is vital to maintaining americas preeminence in outer space. Im glad to be a cosponsor of the legislation senator sinema mentioned. Todays panel represents a crosssection of the nasa Stem Education ecosystem. I would like to extend a particular welcome to dr. Josh gladden, vice chancellor for research from my alma mater, the university of mississippi. Ole miss worked with research on graphene, a material with transformative potential for many applications, including spaceflight. This past weekend nasa launched a graphene payload to the International Space station. Thank you all for being here today. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I look forward to a great discussion on stem engagement to help build the space force. Senator cruz thank you, mr. Chairman. I will say your remarks reminded me, growing up, both of my parents are mathematicians an old engineers joke about the washington monument. A mathematician, a physicist, and an engineer go to the washington monument. They are each discussing how to figure out how tall it is. The mathematician says it is very simple. All i need a length of string and a transit. I can measure the distance to the transit. I can measure the angle to the top of the monument. It is a simple matter of trigonometry. The physicist says it is much simpler than that. Ill take the elevator to the top. I will tie the string around the transit and lower it down and measure the length of the string. The engineer looks at both of ill take the elevator to the top. Them and looks at the tour guide and says how tall is the damn thing . [laughter] senator cruz with that, im happy to introduce our witnesses. Our first witness, dr. Linda tarbox elkinstanton is the managing director of the Interplanetary Initiative and the Principle Investigator of the Nasa Psyche Mission at Arizona State university. Her research revolves around terrestrial planetary formation, magma oceans, and subsequent planetary evolution including magnetism and interaction between rocky planets and their atmospheres. She also promotes and participates in education initiatives such as inquiry and exploration, teaching methodologies, and leadership and Team Building for scientists and engineers. Dr. Elkinstanton currently serves on the standing review board for the Europa Mission and served on the mars panel of the Planetary Decadal survey and on the mars 2020 rover science definition team. She received her ph. D. In geology and geophysics from m. I. T. Our second witness is dr. Jeffrey manber, who is the founder and c. E. O. Of nanoracks. Since 2009, nanoracks has created products and offered Research Services for the commercial utilization of space. Today nanoracks is the single largest private investor on the International Space station with over 40 million of private capital dedicated to commercial facilities and equipment. Nanoracks employees 70 people in texas and has launched 250 small satellites and over 800 experiments to the i. S. S. Mr. Manber is also chairman of dreamup, an educational Public Benefit corporation that lets students pursue opportunities in spacebased research and education. He is a graduate of northwestern university. Our third witness is dr. Josh gladden, who is the vice chancellor for research and sponsored programs at the university of mississippi. In this role, he works in research and Research Funding and provides support for all funded projects at the university. Prior to this role, he served as associate vice chancellor for research and is the director at the National Center for physical acoustics. He also served in elected National Positions as a member of the executive committee and chair of the physical Acoustics Technical Committee of the Acoustical Society of america. Dr. Gladen received a phd degree in physics from Pennsylvania State university. And finally ms. Shella condino is a physics teacher at Oakton High School in vienna, virginia. She is also the founder and still the advisor of the famed Rocketry Club at Presidio High School in presidio, texas. For those of you who dont know, presidio is located along the rio grande river, 240 miles south of el paso, and resides in one of the most remote parts of the continental United States. For most people in presidio, english is a second language. Many people face tough economic challenges, making it hard for students to focus solely on school. However, even under those circumstances, the Rocketry Club has consistently placed well in contests across the country and as a result they have become a well respected Rocketry Team. During her time at presidio, ms. Condino and her students excelled, qualifying for the National Finals at the Team America Rocketry challenge. In 2011, ms. Condino was chosen by the National Aviation hall of Fame Selection Committee to receive the Scott Crossfield Aerospace Education teacher of the year award. Ms. Condino received her bachelors degree in physics from Philippine Normal University in manila, philippines. With that, i welcome each of the witnesses and welcome dr. Elkinstanton to give her testimony. Dr. Elkinstanton chairman wicker, chairman cruz, Ranking Member cantwell, Ranking Member sinema, and members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to speak today. I am testifying on my own behalf. I am managing director and cochair with University President michael crow, of the Interplanetary Initiative which ill talk about today. Thank you. We have a vision for an optimistic human space future, we in this room, we have this vision. We want humans to be an interplanetary species, and we want a situation where our Space Exploration improves society on earth and our knowledge and care of earth itself. Those are the stakes that were talking about. These really are huge times for us, thinking about going interplanetary, taking these steps. Here are three Key University nasa partnership needs. First is workforce development. E growing aspirations of our country as the worlds in space. Therefore, education has to be futurefacing, and workforceoriented. I think this is a very important showing stress. Important thing to stress. Were in the Information Age now. The educational style of the industrial era should be behind us. We need to look forward. Second, returning to the moon, this time to stay, will require more than just engineers, scientists, and astronauts. We need everyone involved. Every aspect of society, we need artists and sociologists and psychologists and Business Leaders and philosophers. These are the kinds of connections that universities are really good at putting together for a push like to become interplanetary. Third, this full stake holder triangle of nasa, universities, private sector is required for our interplanetary future. Nonprofit universities are uniquely placed to communicate the needs, create rapid responsive teams, and transfer the research and Technology Intellectual Property produced at universities through partnership with nasa into the private sector, to the great benefit of both the space industry and the american taxpayer. This transfer has to speed up. Now is the time to grow our partnerships in these more fruitful more targeted ways. Now is the time to set up University Affiliated Research Centers and other such mechanisms to speed up the development of specific solutions, and accelerate the flow of knowledge and technology to nasa and to the private sector. Asu is here to meet this challenge with a student population over 100,000 and is the number one ranked school for university five years in a row. It astonishes me coming from the east coast to see what a big Public University can be. So many of us in this room understand the value of these amazing institutions and were lucky in arizona to have several. At asu, our space sector partners include over 70 private sector organizations, over 30 universities and 20 government agencies, labs and centers. We have been working very hard to develop new ways to put together Research Teams that are effective, interdisciplinary. And include all the sectors. Triangle ofgly this sectors, we have to figure out how the bring those together to speed up innovation and speed up our path to space. We have identified many of the Big Questions we have to answer to achieve our space future and we have begun to answer those questions. On the Psyche Mission, we were challenged by nasa to make a bigger student collaboration with bigger impact. We pioneered ways to create interdisciplinary capstone teams where students learn real Team Collaborative skills working on real nasa mission challenges. We have student graphic designers and project managers and marketers working with mechanic a. M. Engineers. This is where they get to help manage a project. We have student artists producing inspiration and outreach. Even though we are two years into this mission, we have a total of 500 students who have worked with psyche already. A total of 27 universities from 15 states and i say this particularly to underscore my personal commitment that this is not just about my university or arizona. This is about our society at large and our nation and i believe very strongly in bringing all sectors together. Thats what im trying to work at in my career in every way. The age of this presentation style compliant industrial workforce is over. You know what im talking about. We dont need to train better test takers. We need to change the education from a fixation on the memorization of a specific content, something i call sacred content, something that you feel you need to teach the next person. We need to teach the ability to problem solve and assess data and work effectively in teams while sharing information and criticizing and understanding information and giving and receiving feedback. Things we often dont practice until were in the workforce. This is the education of the future. The future is filled with jobs that dont exist today. We have to teach the process skills. In fall of 2020, the asu Planetary Initiative will launch the most forwardlooking workforcefacing program to date. It is part of our answer to education in the Information Age. The bachelor of science in tech technological leadership is a scalable threeyear program having students spend every summer in the workforce in internships. Every student will learn the fundamental content for the future of programming, statistics, calculus, collaborative problem solving, communication, positive Team Psychology and they will also learn team communication, Ethical Leadership and Critical Thinking via a special methodology that we have been working on for years. We can accelerate Space Development by connecting universities, nasa and the private sector for knowledgesharing and rapidly targeted innovation. We can be system ingrators and integrators but even more importantly we can create and employee the team to solve the greatest challenges. Together with my sister universities who are ready to create our future. Lets go to space together. Senator cruz thank you. Mr. Manber. Mr. Manber thank you chairman cruz, Ranking Member sinema, senator wicker and other distinguished members of the aviation and space subcommittee. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to return to this room to testify. Im going to talk about something a little different. About how we can use and we are using the commercial pathway to space to ensure we have a workforce for the next generation and beyond to keep us in the lead as a space faring nation. When we opened the doors of nanoracks in 2009, we were met with a pleasant surprise. Our First Commerce were schools. Customers were schools. Something we never predicted. Our first experiments on space station were on small nanolabs that were developed by middle School Students. The parents literally held bake sales, not for their soccer team, but to send their very own science experiments to the i. S. S. Via the nanoracks space act agreement with nasa. This is something that could never be imagined before the commercial pathway. There was no direct nasa funding. But there was the Publicprivate Partnership with nasa that has only taken off since. One of our major Educational Partners is the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program run by dr. Jeff goldstein which has been a Flagship Program for us in nanoracks. They are now on their 15th mission to the International Space station. They have found over 100,000 students and learn about all aspects of the process from designing the payloads to the curriculums to launching to sending it to space and the return. And again, nearly all of this has been done with no direct nasa funding. And just this weekend, than practices flew the first ever oven to the International Space station and you may have heard that the first customer is the doubletree, which is baking cookies and before you laugh and say this has no place in an educational hearing, let me a say that doubletree and hilton are working with scholastic and they have put a program in place in 50,000 schools across the country involving one Million Students with curriculum to show them how baking is different on the earth than in microgravity. This is how we capture the hearts and minds of the young people. Let me say these are the students that will one day bring humans to mars and yes, they are going to want dessert when they get there. These are just two significant of hundreds of payloads that i can reference. The commercially funded experiments that we have flown to the i. S. S. Include plant growth chambers, fluid chambers all paid for by the parents and students and sponsors but not direct nasa funding. Of course we heed the them. We need nasa. We need the Publicprivate Partnership. This is a new model. One model for ensuring education of our workforce. Let me add chairman cruz that nanoracks has flown almost 60 educational payloads from texas schools from hawkins, houston, burlison, el paso, san antonio, austin and i hope my new york twang didnt destroy anything there. And senator sinema, we have flown four experiments to the space station from arizona and just this weekend we had 15 students from Arizona State and they deployed commercially a satellite and it was wonderful to meet all of the students. It gives us all optimism. Im happy to provide the committee with a full list of statistics for all of the districts in which weve flown payloads and what were doing in the future. But we can do better. First off, dreamup and nanoracks know that we can do more to bring out underrepresented communities to space. We have begun a dedicated effort to involve historically black colleges and universities and i should have some good news in signing our first university, black college and university in the next several weeks and secondly, we must do more than have just engineers. Space is more than satellites and rockets. We have to engage agricultural colleges like texas a m or prairieview a m. We need to involve geology Biology Department and pharmaceutical students to help find the cure for cancer in the microgravity of space that we have long thought was possible. Finally by 2025 as our nation is focused on a return to moon, we are driven to meet an exciting goal. Nanoracks are working to ensure by 2025 we have sent at least one Student Research project from every Congressional District to the International Space station. This is how we make sure we have opened the eyes of all of the students from all sectors of our society. We need the excitement, the cost First Quarter sis and the responsiveness of the private sector. It is part of this Publicprivate Partnership that my colleagues are talking about today. We need to assure the workforce tomorrow is ready to keep us on the moon, move us on to mars and just as importantly unlock the new discoveries and unique environment of space. Thank you. Senator cruz thank you. Dr. Gladden. Dr. Gladden mr. Chairman, members of the subcommittee. Let me first thank you for the opportunity to provide my perspective on the role that universities can and should play in the development of the nations stem workforce to provide nasa with the engineers and scientists needed to keep accomplishing its mission into the next generation. Chairman cruz, you did a fantastic job introducing me. If you go back a little deeper, i was a physics teacher for about five years. You and i can talk shop afterwards. As with many technical objectives and challenges we will face in the next generation, the complexity of the missions at nasa will only increase. It is incumbent on Higher Education to prepare a workforce ready to meet those challenges. One critical element in preparing this unique workforce is the necessity to ingrain in them the predilection and passion for lifelong learning. Transformative technologies are no longer coming once in a generation. They are coming once a decade. We have several programs and initiatives at the university of mississippi to address these educational challenges. We have designed and are in the process of building a unique 200,000 square foot Stem Education facility. What makes this space unique is that it is designed from the ground up around collaboration across disciplines and activelearning teaching methods that focus on smallgroup project work and interactive technologies. These instruction methods have been shown to both improve comprehension of science and engineering principles and promote group problemsolving skills. Another unique program at u. M. Is our center for manufacturing excellence. All cme students major in engineering, business or accounting, but also share coursework across each of the disciplines. Cme students focus on group projects, Communications Skills and understanding a holistic view of a particular problem from technical to financial aspects. We cannot predict the technologies these graduates will engage with during their careers, but we do know they will always need to work in teams and understand the bigger picture. Universities also play a key role in developing and disseminating nextgeneration engineering principles. Lean engineering, design thinking, Additive Manufacturing and additive construction are important examples. Design thinking helps break down complex, multidimensional design problems into a manageable framework while lean engineering realizes those designs through highly efficient production and manufacturing. A challenge here, however, is not to sacrifice the technical foundations upon which all of these concepts are built. Additive manufacturing and additive construction will play vital roles in any longterm space missions. Whether the mission is a base on the moon or a manned mission to mars, replacements parts cannot be stocked. They will need to be printed as they are needed. Any largerscale structures on the surface of a moon or planet will require using native materials and reliable additive construction technologies. The role of advanced materials will also be increasingly important in the next generation of Space Systems design. Nanophase materials such as graphene have been studied for several decades, but are now emerging as useful technologies. Our center for Graphene Research and innovation designed a graphemeenhanced polymer material that was Just Launched this saturday from wallops flight facility in virginia to be tested on the International Space station for protection and will spend about a year in space and is designed to protect against hypervelocity impacts. In a year we can bring that down and see how the experiment went. We and others are exploring graphene enhancements of many technologies relevant to Nasa Missions from microfiltration to highefficiency solar panels. Let me be clear. Undergraduate and graduate students play a key role in the research experiments. Perhaps a less obvious, but increasingly important, skill set around space activities are legal and regulatory issues. U. M. Is home to the National Center of air and Space Law Center along with journal of space law since 1973. As space activities in the private sector continually grow, appropriate lighttouch legal frameworks need to be developed and studied to best inform decision makers. U. M. Is preparing this workforce with the first air and space law Masters Program in the nation. Let me also take a moment to emphasize the importance of the nasa Space Grant Program which provides incredible Space Science and engineering Research Opportunities to graduate and undergraduate students across a wide swath of the country. I can tell you from personal experience that nothing can hook a Young College student into a nasa career faster than working with a team on a realworld problem with nasa engineers. I thank the subcommittee for your attention and would welcome any questions. Senator cruz thank you, ms. Condino. Ms. Condino first, i thank god for allowing me to be part of this stem endeavor. Second, thanks to all of you for giving me this opportunity today to share and give my testimony about the impact of stem engagement especially to the underserved, underrepresented, minorities, women and rural communities. I have been a physics educator for 27 years, and i hope it does not show my age. I have been an advocate of interdisciplinary and applied approach to learning even before ive heard of the acronym stem in the late 1990s. I strongly believe in practical and experiential learning, as i myself learn best by doing. Who does not enjoy handson and minds on activities . Or the adventure of putting theory into practice . Or bringing knowledge to life . Much more solving realworld problems . The power of this method of learning gives students a sense of responsibility, accountability and ownership in their own learning. Every day before i start teaching, i always try reminding myself of this quote. Tell me and i forget, teach me and i may remember, involve me and i learn. Honestly, ive always wanted to tell my former teachers about that quote, so that they can have a better understanding of what kind of a student i was when i was young. But i never got the courage to tell them anyway. Now, as a teacher, this became my quote, a daily reminder that as a teacher i need to create a learning environment that is transformative, engaging, fun and where learning remains implicitly. Teaching in Presidio High School in texas, which is a border town, rural, geographically isolated and economically disadvantaged school, is one of the highlights of my teaching career. Ive had my most meaningful and fulfilling experiences as an educator in that School District. It is the most challenging yet, it is the most rewarding. With more than 60 of the students identified as english language learners, 95 hispanic, it truly challenged my creativity in teaching. Thus what i did is i used my passion for aviation and aerospace and began incorporating basic rocketry in my physics teaching. I also created a free Summer Enrichment Program in rocketry and robotics to provide students activities that will make their minds engaged. This idea came to mind when i attended the first graduation i had in that school where there were four empty seats placed in remembrance of the four students who died due to drug related events, drag racing accident and suicide. I felt the urgent need for my intervention, a sense of responsibility to the community by keeping these children away from bad elements such drugs, alcohol, teenage pregnancy, and street racing. Hence, i founded the presidio rocketry and Robotics Club in 2007 and created teams competing at the american rocketry challenge, a stem initiative, the Worlds Largest model rocketry contest. The program grew. Membership starting from three young girls to more than 30 students. With the support of my cosponsor ms. Adelina portillo, who is an e. S. L. Teacher. I dont speak spanish. That was the hardest thing for me to be able to do to be able to speak to a group of kids. We do not have any communication that would be common for both of us, but we tried english. We tried. The administrators, staff and teachers, community of presidio and companies who helped sponsor our program it became popular amongst high school and middle School Students. Even our neighboring rural schools were encouraged and inspired to do the same initiative for their students. Presidio gained National Recognition because of its consistent placement in the top 100 in the nation at tarc since 2009 to present. In 2012, we got invited to the whitehouse science fair and our Team Presented their rockets to president obama. Because we mostly finished in the top 25 in the National Finals, presidio team got the chance to participate at the nasa Student Launch Initiative project, an advancedhighpower Rocketry Program where students design, build, and launch a rocket which carries scientific and engineering payloads. These aerospace stem initiatives allowed our students to enhance their Critical Thinking, analytical and metacognition skills; conduct scientific research, improve their communication skills both oral and written, develop time management and organization, utilize technology through software and simulations, problemsolve and trouble shoot, and collaborate to make wise decisions. Through these programs, my students developed stem skills and soft skills employers are looking for in the future workplace. Our students also became involved in the nasa Texas High School Aerospace Scholars program, Texas Alliance for minorities in engineering stem statewide contest, texas tech stem academic competition botball robotics in state and world championships, tcea robotics, vex robotics, even in the prestigious zero robotics virtual contest held at mit. It sounds impossible to believe. This is the record of what my students at presidio have done. Dr. Manber also participated in the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program ssep mission 2 to the iss, where we sent a microgravity flight experiment to the International Space station on spacex1 falcon 9 rocket and dragon spacecraft and compared results of our own ground earth experimentations. This achievement is truly special because students collaborated and communicated with the astronauts onboard the iss, and the community of presidio developed an awareness and exposure to stem literacy. I left presidio in 2014 and relocated in northern virginia. However, i continue to mentor the presidio Rocketry Team and communicate with them virtually through skype every friday from 3 00 to 5 00 p. M. Eastern time. I review their rocket simulations and give them feedback on their designs. I also virtually demonstrate strategies and techniques on how to build stable and robust rockets. I currently teach ap physics courses at Oakton High School in vienna. I continued my goal of encouraging student participation and interest in stem. I am one of the teacher sponsors of the cougar robotics, rocketry and physics clubs. Our Rocketry Team won first place at the battle of the rockets last year. Became National Finalist at tarc, and currently working with nasa on our sli project. Our robotics frc team made it to the first robotics world finals in detroit, michigan last year. Last monday our physics club members participated at the Stem Outreach Program of the association of old crows in the International Symposium and convention on Electronic Warfare and we won the cybersecurity codebreaking challenge. Last friday, i took my students to the projet aviation Career Education and expo in leesburg, virginia, and we bagged 22500 worth of scholarships on flight trainings. Because of my experiences in teaching in the third poorest School District in the state of texas and in the one of the richest counties in the entire country, i became more certain, determined and passionate about contributing to the future workforce. This is my way of giving back to this country. I hope that you too will continue to invest in our youths education for it will surely guarantee great returns. Thank you very much and may god continue to bless us all and may god bless the United States of america. Senator cruz thank you very much for that powerful testimony. Let me say to each of you, thank you for your testimony. It was important and particularly for those of you who are an educator, thank you for the time you have spent helping to inspire and shape the next generation of scientists and innovators and leaders. Let me say that typing every school esidio high please convey for me to the student at the presidio Rocketry Club how proud we are for the hard work they are doing. And in fact the one story that i wanted to ask you to elaborate on is the story that a spokesman for the arrows Industry Association talked about in an article. Which is at the presidio team to be able to afford their first trip to virginia for the rocketry challenge had to auction off a go. Goat. Apparently you auctioned off a goat every year for the next five years. In 2014, a place the highest yet, fourthplace. Can you elaborate on that . Economical disadvantaged school. We do not have much of a budget, but it is very difficult to convince the school board to allow us to go out side of proceeding. Was that together with my cosponsor, we had to raise funds in order for us to show that we wanted these kids forward. One of the initiatives that we did was a suggestion from a parent to auction a goat. Top 100. T to the we had to go to the airport first. It is a transportation that was the most difficult. I always tell the kids, we cannot waste money or time. Through simulation first. We decided, lets show the school board that we are willing to put in the time and effort. Time, we learn that we made it to the national and we were already told that we had to move on because not have the budget. , he feltntioned it like she wanted to help, so he was able to gather about 3000 and he said put pressure on the board and tell them we are willing to support this initiative, but we have to do it every year. We cannot just rely on other peoples we have to show them that we are putting in our own. Goat. St wrestled the in that particular area, goats are a common, so they would pay money to eat the goat. Auction it at night because we have this art festival. Goat, we can make 2000, but it is all about your initiative. We sell doughnut. I burned my fingers by barbecuing church every sunday because i wanted to show the unity that we are not just traveling out of town pleasure. And ringbackpete that gloried that little town. You for your thank creativity and your passion. In honor of that story, at our have served, we may tacos. You mentioned that they have loan the educational payload ,rom texas and hawkins antonio,. What is the impact on those and how can we ban so that have that have that . It is incredible, the impact. We have students coming to, ask for help on their thesis, phd thesis. They started five, or seven years ago and teachers tell us every week that student never forget participating in a project that actually goes be. We see how many live that we have changed by having these side to go into then, engineering or biology because of space. It had an extraordinary impact student, teachers and the parents when they see that this doneal, something that can within almost an academic year. How do we and it . We are invest to expand, to reach out to those disadvantaged. We are working senator cruz what does it cost . The smallest we have is thousand dollars. I will be honest with you. We do not make money on that. We also work with nasa and others. At 15,000, you can do a test that goes up. Senator cruz let me repeat that. 15,000 and up for 30 days on the station. You can see the research has been done. We work with partners to provide a curriculum. We are handing. That program is going back and it is rallying into more disadvantaged locations. We have trouble because we do not we are picking up the first of our nasa funding disadvantaged communities and we are also going overseas now. We have done work at the uae on contest and in germany. This is a great story about everybody working together. It is a good story. Senator cruz 15,000. That is about complete five goat 7. 5 goats. I can think of alternative that we could auction off. Thank you all for being here today. And weom West Virginia had a great relationship with nasa. Named center that we just. I would like to ask anybody on the panel in my observation, one of the most enlightening things that i have, the way to how do youts see that spending . You might be more involved with that years. How do you see that bending . Thosere any pushback internships and availability . You for the question. I certainly do not any pushback from nasa. It has been a very partner to the Higher Education, providing internships and opportunities for our students. As we talked about before, the Research Project. Students are always involved in every Research Project. Those are golden opportunities to get involved. To also engage with professionals at nasa. , even over and above the technical part, it is quite valuable. I certainly do not pushback. I think that all of us in Higher Education are looking more experiencebased opportunities for our students. It is a great example of a vehicle to make those kinds of happened. You talked about your robotics team. We live in a world. Rural state. One of the things that is lost it is an, whether elementary, middle or high ruled the skill set by developing are not just science and Technology Skill set. You are learning how to present and work collaboratively. You are working to share knowledge with other teams, other state and school. States and schools. For the person that might not have the highest technological skills why cannot work the controller as good as someone else, to have teamwork is something that i think is doubly important. How do you see that with your as a teacher . We divide our group into subcommittees or little committees. Right now we have a business committee. We have kids that are involved in documentation alone. So its important for them to have good relationships with the opponents so that in the and if dont make it to the top finals, the top team will get a chance to select you so having a relationship with them. Its not all just the build and or the coding skill the programming skill. Types of its all skills thats actually being enhanced. That fleshes it out. Its great that rosen is here with us today. Joke that were the stem times just recently got passed. Part of our mission has been to stem at a omen into young age. What is your experience with think we cando you increase the participation . Not just women but other minority groups that are not represented in the stem field . Thank you for this question. This is something im so passionate about. For anyone who feels their voice cant be her either because of their gender their socioeconomic background, race, or any reason a implicit bias against person. Key step in advancing equity is culture. You need a culture of the rganization where people can rise on their merits. Where they are not bullied out harassed out. So until there are about 30 of you on the team you feel alone. The most you feel like vulnerable person. I would just add to in a also experimental learning, things that were working on, you can create any kind of one fabulous teacher and 30 kids or with a perfect internship. To be able to do this with skill. Thats the purpose of so much of what ive been working on trying to make sure these experiences can be done at skill. I think its critical to equity and dwrsty as well. You. You. Hank thank you, senator rosen . Thank you. I have to tell you that all of inspiring. Goodness. I have so many teachers who find creative ways to inspire their music, through physics, all kinds of things. It is the art of passion of really move will our country forward because when young minds e youve grabbed me. Im ready to take your class. Thank you. Ll of your passion is infectious. You need to go around the ountry talking about this. Infectious. You i did introduce a bill to get stem involved in education. It should be hopefully passing get some ouse and things moving but in nevada we wonderful woman, dr. Half of the states r d ive only 10 of federal funding. A Program Designed to allow more to participate, upon what the kids learn in the younger grades. We received a hundred thousand to study Minerals Found on mars. Said, geoscience professor dr. Elizabeth shes a role model for so many. This Research Project and she was selected by who as one of 10 scientists will choose which rock and soil be les from mars that will brought back to earth. Its going to cut nasa enscore so we know were to do building blocks. Were going to provide grants and help for teachers and this up to bring we hope around the country. But what do we do if we project . This do we go from here . One very practical thing that as the p. I. Of admissions by the way, i believe gender, im the second woman to ever win completed deep space mission. I feel strongly about that. Congratulations. Many of us know the first one, my friend and take a were allowed to percentage of our Mission Money undergraduate education outreach so that was something that i mentioned in my but that could be expanded beyond the undergraduate. Could also then reach k through 12, could reach out to communities with that that money was just allowed to be used in a broader be e that would immediately perhaps a simple way that we could help with the potential tightening of the nasa budget. Internshipsoffering and scholarships, people who are going to graduate school or undergraduate, that they can cut down and help teachers like this do some great things in the classroom. Give them those extra skills. Thats right. Our 550 undergraduates that in two years lved hat could have been 550 undergraduates and 550 high school or middle School Students that. Would begin to make a difference. I guess what i want to ask you, and all the different areas that you work we here in Congress Help you get the next generation for the stars,ch if you will, right . Because thats what nasa is all about. About that using that imagination, and so were the policymakers. Lawmakers. Not everything you cant legislate everything but what do to help you inspire those that next generation. Thank you for your enthusiasm. Im a former Computer Programmer. Stem stuff. We have found that, opens doors. Sa i have unfortunate news, not all the American Public likes all okay . Erican government, this is news for you, but nasa nasa musts doors, and be there. Its a wonderful brand. Nos a wonderful history, and matter where we are, when we say, were working with nasa to to the International Space station people smile. There is just this trust of what nasa has been, is, and will be. O what i would say from your Vantage Point is, i dont want to see nasa go away in stem. Mean, so many governmental organizations have stem outreaches which is wonderful. But nasa is a special part of our government, and they have history. Oud contests found that inspire, when its something real, of going to space, this is just from my Vantage Point. I watched the moon landing so i know what it inspires. When students can be part of something that involves the launch of a rocket, whatever, whatever it is, thats inspiring, and we need history of nasa to be there make them to motivated. So i just wanted to key off that. I think thats really truly important. Positioned, of, really, any federal agency, to you know, hearts and minds of students at a very age. G i think this also connects back to the gender gap discussion we having a few minutes ago, even before the students get reaching back into the middle you begin ts where to see some differentiation happening based on gender. Back k trying to reach into the middle school or even elementary school, you know, nasa and the lure of powerful might be a thing for our country. Think . Do you of allink its reduction of those tests. Instead of focusing so much in teach to the to test because its mandated by the state or the government, why teachers to create all of those stem initiatives the kids ts and have put their minds in participating and doing activities that are like that. Experiencedbased learning. I like it. Thank you. Back. Ld thank you. Senator thune . Thank you, mr. Chairman. As the demand for jobs in stem fields continues to grow its we have students from regardless of where they choose to receive their education, nasas established program to stimulate Competitive Research provides, as you know, funding from all over the country who have those skills and are ompetitive upon graduation. To areas of the country that are typically underrepresented in aeronautics funding. Regardless of where they choose outh Dakota University continues to produce high quality students. Essential in making a broader base of stem expertise available to nasa. O could you just, as a general question, sort of speak to the importance of building a nationwide stem work force that across om every state the country . Thank you for that question. Effects of the tightening of our stem work orce every day working on this mission. I see it at jet propulsion laboratory, our industry feeling everything is it. Its a real problem on the ground right now, which i can relate to. Me, showing students early that youre not a special kind of person if you go into stem that anyone who is can do it. There is not this differentiator between the ontinues stem people and the nonstem people. You can love art and philosophy and you can love sports and you math and you can work with people who love all of those things. F we could make it more of a connector instead of necessarily differentiator, if we could work on the culture of not judging girls in fifth grade and not good em they are at math, work on that culture, give teachers the freedom to not just stem but all the fields together, to me that ould be a great impetus for bringing people into this world of stem. Houston, we just hired our first in company recruiter, and because were having trouble fulfilling jobs. To find y, very hungry the right level of young engineers that have space and weve picked up some new programs lately, and my engineering is frantically, you know, where do we find the people . This is a serious problem for us, and in the Space Community we cant do non u. S. Citizens. Do the visas. So we have a problem in this country today. Growing 30 to 40 a year, and im worried about getting right people. Trouble with it. I think all of that is right. Y i might touch on one element of hat question that i think was, n your question, senator enthusiasm, about the demographic diversity across the country. Make sure were drawing talent not just from he east coast and the west coast but all through the country. I think its critically important. Culturally different. We have different experiences as you know,dren and so, that little girl who grew up on her farm actor could make an amazing engineer but shes got to have the to see that path forward. So i think thats where programs score, mississippi and everywhere in between, can see that path forward because out there. Lent dont have the talent. Pipeline problem. Ms. Cadino, you mentioned in testimony some of your experience teaching in a Rural Community in texas. Yes, sir. Curious, you know, we in south dakota. Weve got some exceptional students, and thats thanks to dedication of the faculty, administrators, and state hard to who work very make sure they have the tools they need but one of the recruitingwe face is teachers and retaining stem teachers. Im just wondering based on your texas if you could share any ideas that might help schools in south dakota and and rural states recruit retain teachers who are equipped courses . Stemrelated i remember moving from texas g in el paso to where my salary was cut more than 10,000, but, you know, i thats one thing that attract u know, teachers in those rural areas because there are gems in the kids could and the they have ause nothing to lose. Would present the students something thats new to them they will grab it in a heartbeat. Would present the want. Difficult, one the be the pay scales and lack of training. I try to use technology and all the other resources inside and and thats what i every day. Students if i cant get the resource right here ill bring it to you. I remember, er day we have a career day in november. He first career day that i attended we only had plumbers and i have nothing against those of jobs. The most popular were the Border Patrol and military, but i felt like this kid has to exposed, and i told teachers to doministrators, i want a virtual career. From ould have professors outside that i know, even those in other countries, former tudents of mine that are professionals, have the kids get and answering , what you asked about keeping the the individual. I can only speak for myself. I go. Snt matter where it doesnt matter how much i get for teaching. This is my passion. So i would just give a hundred i cent of what i have, and really hope those other teachers would stay in that teaching were losing ause the majority of them. In im proud to tell them, high school or even elementary, now has faculty members that were my former students. They are going back and thats what i told the students. You haveleave presidio to come back and help your community to flourish. Handle ve to be able to the 40 below wind chills in south dakota, too, on top of iat, but one last question if can, mr. Chairman. In days to the achievements of and its partners, maintaining American Leadership n space will also depend on continued improvements in cybersecurity capabilities. South Dakota State University has been a real leader in cybersecurityfied professionals. Ow important are sophisticated cybersecurity capabilities in a arge network of cybersecurity professionals to maintaining american scientific and technological leadership in say . , would you question, u for the senator. Growing up in so the wear capabilities and cybersecurity more an more money, and i think its well spent, on protecting our external nd communications. Its something none of us here know the moment its going to be a crisis or whether it will be a risis, but its a threat, and so even a Small Company like mine is investing more and more confidentiality and in our communications systems. Were hit all the time. Ditto for universities. Just to add briefly to that, working on people the Psyche Mission thats now above 800, with so Many Organizations, the opening for cyberattacks through those Many Organizations is vast. Project like this, the catastrophe could only be imagined. Critical to eyond add to everything thats said at the table. To hear. Ad dakota state is very much on the right track there. Thank you, thank you, mr. Chairman. You, senator thune. Mr. You spoke compellingly challenge of finding are fied employees who trained engineers and able to fill the demands of the modern work force. A question i want to ask all our of the panel members, in your opinion, how important is space . The mission . Is i think back to when john f. Kennedy came to houston, and came to rice university. That id out a vision within a decade, well take man moon and bring him home. Fact ve always liked the that president kennedy said at he was at rice and he rice play texas . Easy, because s its hard. That inspired a whole generation. Y question is how important is space for inspiring a new generation of students and teachers . How important is going back to moon . How important is building a sustainable habitat for ongoing moon . Rch on the to mars . Tant is going and perhaps finding the first life in the universe . That for ant is noble ng the next laureate in physics . Of n our world today a lot narratives we hear are guilt but of fear and the only way you get people to stand up and do the miracles you capable of is when have a narrative of optimism and thats ive of hope and what space is. Space is the opportunity to be who kick be as humankind that. We dont always see ourselves as being everyday here. Its the inspiration if we can these things that youre listing, these beautiful ideas we have, then we can be bolder in our lives here at home. Its the inspiration for fields, to go into stem for something that they find could make them a bigger and a being, so i think its incumbent upon us. A failure away its of our species. We have to do this. We just opened an office in uae, in abudhabi, and weve been educational ere, payloads. Pretty cool. Why are they looking at space open an office in abudhabi . Ts funny how we take things for granted in this country and we dont realize. They have studied the last 5,800 years and they have said the best way to ensure that we as a uae Stay Together as the Oil Revenue Goes down is to them, o space, and they have announced a program to go to mars. So they have looked at and studied us and they said what era id during this apollo and what you continue to do in space is the best way that we as our ernment can inspire kids not to leave our country, you know, and to get meaningful jobs. The same in australia. The same in mexico. The same in the uk. All have opened Space Programs in the last two to three years. All looking to the United States the role model, and here we dont even see it. Reminded onlyo be when someone gets in front of us for a brief period of time, and just it frustrates me kids e see every day how are encouraged and motivated by space, and of course, there are strategic advantages, commercial advantages, but to answer the question, the world has looked round and said, you know, what you guys did during apollo, thats the best way to motivate generation. So space is important for a whole bunch of reasons but one already. E know it inspires. Well said. All very the only thing i would add to just i think, is if you look from a straight up return on investment, direct return on not a ent, its probably great thing to do. Tangential, the power of the Space Exploration is, its intangible. Immeasurable. Think about i dont think i can pinpoint any single in this e or program countrys history that we could be more proud y of and more inspired by than the apollo program. Really kind of took this country to a whole level, and inspiration that it delivered to the country then got leveraged into all other technical advances. So thats when you sort of look return on investment, youve got to pull all of that into it as well. So i think that the power of exploration is it goes the direct ust dollars in return. Reminder that a we really are not alone, and we have to go out there. To protect ourselves in the future and explore whats can we use that better. Our planet even so its a testimony where, this all the we could put skills that we have developed. Be ablenot inspiring to to be the first person to mars . I myself wanted to travel and go space. Thats my lifelong dream. Of the things weve heard as well as the enormous demands n the stem fields and that these are only going to keep growing, whether cybersecurity, space, whether computers, whether programming, the world is getting more and complicated, more and more technological, and people stem skills have a chance of being locked out of their best chances of the future. Time, were facing a shortage of graduates with the kills necessary and one of the things that all of you have testified to, is to address to expand the pool. Weve got to expand the out, ates who are coming and, in particular, minorities, africanamericans, and hispanics continue to be underrepresented in stem fields and women underrepresented in stem fields. Realities. Ose are i personally have considerable familiarity with. My mom ones of those Human Computers. She came out of rice in 1956 and hired at shell as a Computer Programmer at the dawn of the age, and my dad was a cuban immigrant who came out of 1961 and became a computerer Computer Programmer at ibm, with heavy spanish accent and amazed to be in america. How do we sk you, expand the ability of minorities, the ability of they can see that achieve in the stem fields . The skill they need, and to get the tools to pursue if thats their passion and their aptitude and their dreams . Open that up to anyone. Well, especially the women, when i used to teach in very difficult at the beginning to have them speak up for themselves. So i always saw the kids selffocusing as very important. When they pursue, you know, they already gain the skill and exposure that we provided for them, they need in the end as rt well. To continue. Young girl that i mentored all the way, until they me and say, ms. Condino, help me to decide, hould i accept a job at Lockheedmartin Corporation or should i go to aurora flight sciences, which is owned by boeing . Things like that. Mentor thetinuing to kids, whether they are male or female, and continuing to exposure. Em that i am very happy, you know, where im at right now, at fairfax ounty public schools, because, especially in my school, they were pioneering this capstone where, en lieu of having this final exam, the kids are developing projects from grade all the way to senior, and the capstone amazing, where they conduct research. They do presentations at, you know, even at the departments of education, we have students who have published a book. Here is a student who actually about her tory struggle, i believe, in siberia, filmed. Nded up being she was invited to this film festival. So things like that is already again, its d experiential learning. Kids are being exposed at a young age. These are the skills that well our future work force. And i think we have to start really early, and as a teacher, be there and continue mentorship, even if they have already graduated. Thanksgiving, one of my former students that just graduated with a degree in working at theow Missile Division of lockheedmartin and hes told home at oming thanksgiving and i want to invite youhe told me, im cominr thanksgiving. Things like that. You give everything you have. It is not about me anymore. , the futuremy kids of my children. And, their childrens children. I want to be able to contribute now. The choice you describe your former student facing, i want to see a lot more kids facing choices like that. I think the only extra point i would add to that, as i stated earlier, reaching further back into the grade levels, if we are thinking about trying to grow, which we need to do, grow the underrepresented groups, i do think we will get more bedding for the bunk if we more bank for the buck if we reach back as early as we can. Live, i think we need to start early. A lot of those preconceived notions, and some of them are cart role, some of them are our cultural, some of them are implicit bias, they start pretty early. Once they start, it is hard to get them back on track. Andhe High School Level certainly at the university level. A few moments ago, i talked about the extraordinary brand of nasa. It is almost a disadvantage. How do we reach out to more disadvantaged communities . We have made a conscious effort to reach out to not only africanamerican and hispanic communities also first people. When you say, you can go to the International Space station, i will use a new york analogy. They say, are you selling us the new york bridge the Brooklyn Bridge . Lovehate relationship with commercial. The more they hear a smallcompany scented oven to the space station and the more times comes out instead of just being nasa when we do things, it is under nasa. There are a lot of first people who are not going to think they can go to the space station. To answer you practically, we started to go to some of these conferences and say, either we want to train you or okd something in your community or train you for we want to locate something in your community. We cannot wait for the government to do it. We could have a little bit of emphasis put on nasa that sometimes, it is not nasa. Sometimes, it is the commercial sector. Something goes wrong suddenly, it is us. When it goes right, it is massive. It is a joke. It is nasa. It is a joke. Trying to get over the brand that is nasa. So many students are drawn in to stem fields through the Team Experience of building something together. If you get away from the hero model where it is that smart boy who answers the question, if instead, you have everyone working together to solve something, that is where you get diversity. We can do that in middle school and elementary school. That is what the degree is. We can do it at scale. We can solve the problem of numbers. The thing you can do to help would be to relieve some of the structures on k12 to relieve teaching to the test so teachers have more freedom to teach in the ways we know work. I want to thank each of the witnesses for your hard work, your passion, your testimony here today. I am extending because i am being told senator sinema is a minute away. Try to waxdy to eloquent and instead, lets ask another question. Universities. Universities be doing better to expand Stem Education . Space grants, how much of a difference are they making as a practical matter . Hugelyspace program is impactful. Faculty to funds the do exciting work and partner with nasa to solve a particular problem, as i said earlier, there are always students involved in those problems. Beyond the nasa space grant higher ad as a whole is looking pretty deeply. A whole isd as looking pretty deeply at the Stem Education experience. We have this cookiecutter traditional mold. Have this department in the school. The real problems do not fall like that. You have to be able to work with folks who do not have an engineering background, but they have an accounting degree or a biology degree or whatever it is. Layer youexample of a put on top of those majors that then that blends and builds teams of those students. Some are accounting majors, some are engineers, but they are all working on a yearlong problem. They understand each others world. Do, get of that we can creative about and teaching to the test, im fully on board with trying to move away from that and get creative at the secondary level. That is the same at university. We teach a lot to the way we have always taught. Can i get an amen on that . Seeink i am beginning to more willingness in the university and higher ed to think a little more broader. I will say, i think that is the First Response we have had in a subcommittee hearing. The first call and response we have had in a Sub Committee hearing. Thank you very much, mr. Chairman. I am glad to be back here. Thank you for testifying on such an important issue. Written testimony, you discussed a difference between nasa Flight Missions and the Principal Investigator led missions like psyche. Testifying, there was a point made that University Missions are more likely to come under budget. As a Principal Investigator, what do you see as the differences between how pi missions are managed comparative Flagship Missions and what lessons could nasa learn . Thank you for the question. I very much hope not to disappoint you. We are going to try to be on budget. During our best. The doing our best. The pi missions are conceived of as a whole and the team built from the beginning. The schedule and the budget and the instruments needed and the plan for the mission are built up as a single unit. The Flagship Missions come from the survey. They are trying to answer the really big, tough space challenges we have. They are put together by a competition so the instruments are put together by a pool. Place,e leadership is in they have a whole bunch of separate city states they need to blend into a functional government. That is a big challenge. It is not that i think this is wrong. The aspirations of the Flagship Mission and the new Technology Developments they drive, which makes budgeting harder, are what we should be doing. If there is a possibility to united team, i think that will help with the challenges. My next question is also for you, but i welcome all of our panelists to respond. I am proud of arizonas universities, that we have taken advantage of nasa programs. Concerned about what happens when one of these missions ends. After nasa and the university make investments in focus field funding to, the support. The research disappears afterwards this can. Support the research disappears. What opportunities currently exist or should exist to help nasa an universities make investments in Research Fields and what more can we do to help nasa universities, the private sector and individual universities feel decades of research . It is a constant problem both on the science and engineering side, that you build up an incredible expertise and the funding and emphasis goes away. We saw this happen after the apollo era with lunar science. Our Institutional Knowledge began to drain away because the funding was severely cut. I envision a world where we are so lucky as we have been in arizona to get these tremendous teams together. I would love to see the opportunity for these people waiting for the next possible Mission Opportunity rather than vanishing into a different industry, that is a moment where we can bring together University Private sector nasa to do these triangle efforts to hit the next big target we made. And then, we do not lose the people. They are still educating new members. They are connecting better with the private sector. They are filling in a gap in artemis. I would love to see nasa create partnerships like that that would strengthen and grow workforce. You are absolutely right that when those specific projects end wee funding stopped, must put a lot of money into developing a skill set, and then it is gone. One of the things we do at the university of mississippi and other universities do this also, work on the relationship of the program. When that funding ends, we have a trusting relationship between the scientists and engineers on the federal side and our faculty members and research staff. What that tends to do is the funding may have dried or shifted in other directions, but once you have the relationship and you have some flexibility in your skill set, that is another key element. As we are talking about changing the way we think about developing on the education side a more flexible curriculum, that is going to lead to a more flexible faculty in the future. If it does not fit into this box, i am not involved or i cannot be involved. I think those sort of things, having that flexibility and having that relationship is key to extending the time we are collaboratively working. The other point i will make is we have some models with other federal agencies. We have scientists from the federal side stay on our campus for an extended period of time. Our faculty members also go there for extended periods of time. With a go so far particular age and see where we have scientists embedded faculty inith our one of our facilities. That is the kind of thing that builds relationships that lasts decades. Thank you. I haveestion another question for you. Since 2015, we avert as the Principal Mission on the Psyche Mission. Apparently, it resembles the core of a nearly formed planet. As you have developed this mission, how have you worked with undergraduate and graduate students as well as other researchers at Arizona State university what you believe students gain from being able to work on a mission like psyche and what more can we do to ensure researchers have the opportunity to precipitate in missions to participate in missions . We have been hitting this topic beautifully. I want to focus on a couple of key parts that we have tried to do in psyche. That is, giving students at all levels the opportunity to work on Interdisciplinary Teams towards goals. Dr. Kathy bone is the kathy on the research faculty. Figuring out how to run capstone teams. We would like them to not be capstone teams. We would like them to be every semester, every year of your education. There is an engineer, a User Experience designer, a marketer, a student project manager on the team just like there will be when they hit the workforce, trying to solve problems from the project. Challengesrs share they are facing and give them to these teams. Capstones thatf competed for a flight on the blue origin launch. Was a virtualwon team. We had someone in the villa terry, in the military, someone on the east coast. They won. That is the workforce of the future. I think we should do as much of this as we can. Mr. Chairman, i just want to take a moment again to thank all of our witnesses, and i want to thank you for hosting this committee hearing. This is something i am very interested in. It is important to my state. It is also important to our country. Thank you for the work you all do. Thank you, in particular, for the folks you are teetering and folks who are teaching and mentoring across the country. Thank you, senator sinema. I want to thank each of the witnesses. Thank you for your terrific testimony, your passion, and the difference you are making. The record for this hearing will remain open for the next two weeks. Submitators are asked to questions for the record. On receipt, the when it says are asked to submit answers as soon as possible. With that, this hearing is adjourned. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] here is a look at our live coverage tuesday. At 10 15 a. M. Eastern on cspan, the u. S. Institute of peace looks at the governing challenges facing fragile states around the world. Then at 2 p. M. , the house meets for legislative business. The first vote of the new year will be to establish a quorum for the second session of the 116th congress. Also on cspan, former state department and National Security Council Officials discussed u. S. Policy toward iran including the recent u. S. Air strike that killed a top Iranian Military official. The senate is considering the nomination of businessof the small administration. At 9 30 a. M. Eastern, the Senate Finance Committee Meets to consider provisions within the u. S. Mexicocanada trade agreement before it is sent to the full senate for a final vote. In the afternoon, a discussion on how opioid addiction is affecting the Appalachian Region of the u. S. We will discuss congress and its war power