| 1. NASA Ames Research Center provided three folks to set up the fast
Internet connections for the exhibit hall. In addition to wiring the IITA
booth, they also connected the entire NASA exhibit area and selected
other exhibitors (like the GLOBE project). This was a big job to
accomplish in a short time. So we called the folks that did it "The
Network Heroes". The heroes are: Tom Dyson (front), Dan Bock (back
left),Robert Kearin (back right). They all work for a company called I-NET.
|  |
 | 2. Here is Dan working on the hub for the network. Notice the wire coming
from his ear. This is a cool system of wireless communications that
always kept Dan and Robert in touch. We joked that they needed to dress
in dark suits if they really wanted to pretend they were Secret Service.
But the Network Heroes found the communication system to be very helpful in debugging network problems. |
| 3 This is Andrea McCurdy. She works at Ames for the K-12 Internet
Initiative. Her main project now is to finish a public-domain video
which will describe how teachers have successfully incorporated the
Internet into their curriculum. She is also starting a project to make
sure that the Passport to Knowledge summer workshop about Mars is
available over the Internet. For this conference, she helped tell
teachers about what we do.
|  |
 | 4.This is a picture of the Passport to Knowledge side of the booth They
shared the IITA space. Notice the computers available for giving hands-on
demonstrations. On the left is Jan Wee (our Outreach Coordinator) and
next to her is Geoff Haines-Stiles (the Project Director for Passport to
Knowledge). |
| 5. Here is Geoff in the booth sharing his thoughts with a teacher. |
 |
 | 6. Jan loved to get teachers to fill out a form to be put on our mailing
list (snailmail, not Email). |
| 7. In the center is Pat Haddon, a middle school teacher from Summit, NJ.
She has helped develop Live From Hubble and skipped school to staff the
booth with us. On the right is Peggy Gebhardt who has been along on
previous Passport to Knowledge adventures; she and her son Jackie (left)
dropped by the booth for a visit |
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 | 8. During the show, we had Frank Owens, the top dog of NASA's Education
Organization from Headquarters (in Washington) visit. Here Frank (left)
is shown speaking with Mark Leon (right). Mark is in charge of the IITA
K-12 program for all the NASA centers. It was his job to pull together
the IITA presence at the NSTA convention....good show. Andrea is in the
middle. |
| 9. Two things made our booth the envy of all the other NASA people.
One was the food. Each day at lunch we had sandwiches delivered. I
don't know if that has ever been done before at a NASA booth. We had
Christiy Budenbender to thank for the food and all of the other
logistical details. Christiy is in the front (with her head cut
off...oops, I'm not a very good photographer). Behind Christiy is Erna
Akuginow, who manages many aspects of Passport to Knowledge project,
including television production. |
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 | 10. Also we had a communication center behind our booth where you could
make private telephone calls or Email. We've pulled back the curtain on
Dan to show off our secret. |
