NASA Quest Celebrates Black History

In honor of Black History Month, NASA Quest presents a series of online interactive events featuring African American men and women who contribute their work in support of NASA's mission and goals. Be sure to check our schedule of events to learn about other upcoming live events with NASA experts during Black History Month.

February 2001 featured events include:

Featured Expert	Date	Event	Background / Additional Resources
Janis Davis-Street	Thursday 2/8/2001 Time: 10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. Pacific Standard Time	Event: Webcast	Astronauts who explore space are restricted to food items they can take with them. They do not have ports to call upon for fresh provisions nor do they have opportunities to cultivate or hunt their own foods. Tune in to learn about the foods astronauts eat in space to maintain proper nutrition. Guest expert Janis Davis Street will share her insight. Prepare by reading her online profile and chat archives. View the archive
Dionne Jackson	Tuesday, 2/13/01 9:00 a.m.-10:00 a.m. PT Noon - 1:00 p.m. ET	Webchat	Dionne is a chemist in the Materials Science Laboratory (MSL) at Kennedy Space Center. She evaluates materials and processes associated with flight hardware and ground support equipment. Dionne's profile includes a short video explaining her work by one of our young reporters, as well an many archived chats. Archived chat
Aprille Ericsson-Jackson, Ph.D	Tuesday, 2/13/01 11:00 a.m. - Noon PT 2:00 - 3:00 p.m. ET	Webchat	Aprille is an aerospace engineer at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center working in the Guidance and Navigation Control Center. She feels obligated to help spur the interest of minorities and female in the math, science and engineering disciplines. "Without diversity in all fields the United States will not remain technically competitive." Don't miss her inspirational profile Join the chat.
Donald James	Tuesday 2/20/01 10AM-11AM PST	Webcast	Branch Chief - NASA Ames Education Office Donald has been with NASA since 1982, when he participated in a NASA-sponsored internship program at Goddard Space Flight Center. Since then, he has served in different roles at GSFC and NASA Headquarters. His responsibilities in these roles have included significant involvement in or management of public affairs. Since March 1999, Donald has been the education director at Ames Research Center. As education director, Donald is responsible for the center's education programs, including K-12, college and graduate.
Kim Hubbard	Tuesday, 2/20/01 11:00 a.m.- Noon PT 2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. ET	Webcast	Kim is a Computer Engineer and works on the ScienceOrganizer application, which is a tool to help scientists share data with each other. It runs in a web browser to make it easy for any registerd user to access this tool. She has been an Air Force officer for seven years and worked on the development and installation of satellite command and control systems. Kim has a Career Fact Sheet and Astroventure Trading card linked from her profile. She says of this, "One of the developers of the AstroVenture project asked if I was interested in participating. Since I'm not a professional sports person, I thought this would be the only way I'd ever be on a trading card." Join the Webcast!
Patricia Cowings, Ph.D.	Tuesday, 2/20/01 11:00 a.m.- Noon PT 2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. ET	Webcast	Dr. Pat is a research psychologist and the principal investigator of Psychophysiological Research Laboratories at NASA Ames Research Center. She conducts training in human neurophysiology, statistics, performance assessment and psychology. Most of her work is on how people adapt to space and try to develop methods to help them adapt faster. She has a excellent short video of her work: Autogenic Feedback Training Exercise and Telemedicine linked from her profile. Join the Webcast!
Michelle Amos	Thursday, 2/22/01 8:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m. PT 11:00 a.m. - noon ET	Webchat	Michelle is an Electronics Engineer at the Kennedy Space Center in the Center of Excellence for Launch and Payload Processing. She uses the properties of electricity to advance Human Exploration and the Development of Space. One of the most exciting things for Michelle about being an Electronics Engineer is that she has the opportunity to work on projects that require the use of these different technologies and sciences. Because today's technology is constantly changing, she is constantly taking training courses to keep her skills current. Let Michelle inspire you in her profile. Join the chat.
Kimberly Jenkins	Thursday, 2/22/01 8:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.PT 11:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. ET	Day Long Forum	Kimberly began as a Software Engineer, then became a Payload Integration Engineer, an Electrical/Software Systems Lead, moved into Project Management, and is now in Technical Management. Kimberly has a video interview by one of our Young Women of NASA reporters that is linked from her profile. Join the Forum!

Educational Links

• The Faces of Science: African American Science Lesson
• Education Planet's Educator's Guide to Martin Luther King, Jr.
  
• Career Fact Sheets for many of our experts.

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  Some Special Words

  Thoughts from Jim Lovell.	"I Have a Dream"

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  Help and Information

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  Some Special Words | African American Astronauts | Educational Links

   

  During our January 15, 1998 celebration, the NASA Quest hosted a live event. The event featured the video "Follow The Drinking Gourd" a web chat and several classroom activities demonstrating how the Big Dipper was used to help guide slaves to freedom. Click here to see the archive of these materials.