High-Level Project Summary
We will design a platform, called Happy Atoms, to share our findings of the fundamental connections among NASA diverse disciplines; encourage more people to be passionate about science and its real-life applications; and make NASA publications more accessible to the general public in a dynamic way. The connections will be shown in the form of a 3D artificial neuronal network and curious questions. Also, it will give users the opportunity to connect with diverse scientific disseminators, play original science games created by us, and the option to leave questions of their own. With our platform, more people will understand science and the importance of NASA on common knowledge.
Link to Final Project
Detailed Project Description
Our project is Happy Atoms, the platform where science learning and not just students but persons, engage each other as a whole. Our mission is to share science connections in an interactive, interesting, and funny way to all the public. In this sense, we strongly believe that diverse publics need diverse content, and this applies to every corner of our platform. Our project is quite ambitious, but we know exactly how everything will work. What Happy Atoms exactly do is to proportionate interactive tools to the user in order to motivate them as its full and sow passion. Thus, we can help to solve the issue of losing motivation for science study. In our context, we’ve never known something before that can motivate us to study, no more than a single disseminator or a videogame with a fantastic topic. Furthermore the “motivation” factor never has been took serious by educational systems. What makes us unique is that we’re connecting everything, from disseminators around the whole world with very different backgrounds and skills, to unique games and 3D simulations that captivate the inner flower of curiosity. What we hope to achieve is to have a higher number of people involved in science and who are passionate about it. Also, to let people know what the role of NASA is and how important it is to understand our daily reality. We would like more people to understand sciences and NASA publications while having some fun and actually learn how to apply them in real life. In order to achieve it, we utilized our personal computers, the designing program of Canva, and some NASA data in order to have inspiration regarding what to investigate and in which topics establish the connections. Three physical books were used, mainly from the IB Diploma Program, from Pearson, which has very understandable and has reliable and well-explained information. Some E-books were also used, like for instance, El Tejido del Cosmos. Youtube videos of reliable scientific disseminators and some web pages were used as well, including Nasa Space Place, which has very dynamic, understandable, videos with relevant information.
Space Agency Data
Provide specific details about what space agency data you used in your project, how you used it, or how it inspired your project.
The data that I used from NASA, included news and real-life situations that have important relevance in the context. For instance, the influence of lockdowns due to the pandemic, and its effect on nitrogen dioxide reductions. This inspired me to find a relationship between Earth Sciences and Heliophysics to explain why this news was important. In the same way, other NASA publications inspired me to get new ideas regarding what to connect.
Remember: You are welcome to use any open data in your project, however, you must use at least some data from NASA and/or open source-space based data from Space Apps partner space agencies to be eligible for Global Judging.
Hackathon Journey
As a team, we consider that we all gave our best and had the golden opportunity to have close contact with our passion for science, and with our creative side. When forming the team, we feel we have met amazing people with similar interests, who presented a common desire for a revolution in the scientific world, involving much more people in it and awakening the passion for science in others. With the passage of time, we have worked with lots of efficiencies, and in a very relaxed manner, which is because we have been actually enjoying the process. Leia has divided the roles very well according to our abilities, and we were always able to give suggestions to each other with our creative ideas. Since the beginning, we established the principal team rule of showing lots of commitment, which was very useful during the process.
References
Space Station-Bound CubeSat to Study Sun’s X-Rays. (2017, August 6). NASA.
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/minxss-cubesat-launches-to-iss-to-study-sun-s-soft-x-rays/
Gray, E. (2021, August 16). NASA at Your Table: Where Food Meets Methane. NASA.
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2021/esnt/nasa-at-your-table-where-food-meets-methane/
Gray, E. (2021a, June 24). NASA Helps Map Impact of COVID-19 Lockdowns on Harmful Air
Pollution. NASA. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/esnt/2021/nasa-helps-map-impact-of-covid-19-lockdowns-on-harmful-air-pollution/
Messer, T. C. R. (2004, August 4). Animals in Space. NASA.
https://history.nasa.gov/animals.html
Dean, L. (2021, October 1). NASA Readies for Future Artemis Moon Missions with Rocket
Engine Test. NASA. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/stennis/news/releases/2021/NASA-Readies-for-Future-Artemis-Moon-Missions-with-Rocket-Engine-Test-Series/
Books and videos
Allott, A., & Mindorff, D. (2014). IB Biology Print and Online Course Book Pack: 2014 edition:
Oxford IB Diploma Program (Pck Pap/Ps ed.). Oxford University Press.
Essentials: Environmental Systems and Societies (Ess) (Student Book and Etext), for the Ib
Diploma (Pearson Baccalaureate). (2018). Pearson Education ESL.
Where Does the Sun’s Energy Come From? (2017, April 13). [Video]. YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAGFC8-wn1g
Do Cow Farts Really Significantly Contribute to Global Warming? (2016, August 20). [Video].
YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Md2M2SKExmI
D. (2014, 5 abril). BIONUTRIENTES. Ensayos y Trabajos - deiverjosetorres.
https://www.clubensayos.com/Temas-Variados/BIONUTRIENTES/1602243.html
Greene, B. (2017). El tejido del cosmos. Ediciones Culturales Paidós
Freynman, R. P., Leighton, R. B., & Sands, M. (2011). The Feyman lectures on Physics, juego en caja (boxset): Edición The New Millennium (New Millennium ed.). Basic Books.
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Global Judging
This project has been submitted for consideration during the Judging process.