New Mexico Space Grant Consortium

Community college administrators look for strategies to help students. GRASP (Gaining Retention and Achievement for Students Program) is a semester-long faculty development program that coaches community college instructors about simple, effective teaching strategies that promote student academic achievement. GRASP is founded on the belief that academic achievement is based on good teaching, which begins with faculty development. The major assumption for GRASP is that faculty are the single most important factor for student success. GRASP was offered at Doña Ana Community College (DACC). Located in Las Cruces, New Mexico, just 40 miles from the border of Mexico, DACC has a student population that is 70% minority. Results for GRASP indicate that overall student success improved by 7.9%, and that overall student retention improved by 4.0% for students participating in GRASP.

We present phase-resolved low-resolution infrared spectra of AM Her and ST LMi, two low-field polars that we observed with SPEX on the IRTF. Optical/NIR light curves are also published to help constrain the viewing geometry and brightness of the objects at the time they were observed. Currently, only limited IR spectra have been published for these objects, and none with the phase-coverage presented here. In both cases, the resulting spectra are dominated by emission from the secondary star in the NIR. However, the emission regions are also self-eclipsed, allowing us to isolate the cyclotron emission through subtraction of the dim-phase spectrum. We use a constant-lambda prescription to model the changing cyclotron features seen in the resulting data. For AM Her, we find a best-fit model of B = 13.6 MG, kT = 4.0 keV, and log Λ = 5.0. The cyclotron derived accretion geometry is consistent with i = 50° and β = 85°. For ST LMi, B = 12.1 MG, kT = 3.3 keV, and log Λ = 5.7, with i = 55° and β = 128°.

We present phase-resolved low resolution infrared spectra of AM Her and ST LMi, two low-field polars that we observed with SPEX on the IRTF. Optical/NIR lightcurves are also published to help constrain the viewing geometry and brightness of the objects at the time they were observed. Currently, only limited IR spectra have been published for these objects, and none with the phase-coverage presented here. In both cases, the resulting spectra are dominated by emission from the secondary star in the NIR. However, the emission regions are also self-eclipsed, allowing us to isolate the cyclotron emission through subtraction of the dim-phase spectrum. We use a ``Constant Lambda'' prescription to model the changing cyclotron features seen in the resulting data. For AM Her, we find a best fit model of: B = 13.6 MG, kT = 4.0 keV, and logLambda = 5.0. The cyclotron derived accretion geometry is consistent with an orbital inclination of 50 degrees and a magnetic co-latitude of 85 degrees. For ST LMi, B = 12.1 MG, kT = 3.3 keV, and logLambda = 5.7 with an orbital inclination of 55 degrees and a magnetic co-latitude of 128 degrees.

Faculty are often frustrated by students' poor academic performance and experience high student withdrawal and low student retention. Faculty present good lectures, assign appropriate homework, answer students' questions, and believe students understand the material. In spite of the time and effort faculty spend in preparation, faculty are often surprised to see students' poor performance on assignments and exams. After the excitement of getting to know a new group of promising students, faculty are disappointed when students drop their classes. Faculty blame poor performance on students' lack of academic preparedness and often believe they can do little about student success. The reality is, faculty are able to take actions to improve student academic performance and increase student retention. Teaching is more enjoyable when faculty see student success. This paper discusses how making small changes in faculty teaching can make big differences in student retention and academic performance.

The culture of a science classroom favors a particular speech community. Thus membership requires students to become bilingual and bicultural at the same time. The complexity of learning science rests in that it not only possesses a unique lexicon and discourse, but it ultimately entails a particular way of knowing. This study examines the academic engagement and perceptions of a group of high school students (N = 30) regarding their science-literate practices. These students were participating in an Engaging Latino Communities for Education (ENLACE) program whose purpose is to increase Latino high school graduation rates and assist them with college entrance requirements. At the time of the study, 19 students were enrolled in different science classes to fulfill the science requirements for graduation. The primary research question: What kind of science classroom learning environment supports science-literate identities for Latino/a students? was addressed through a convergent parallel mixed research design.

Abstract Commercial spaceport activities have been under study for more than a dozen years by governments and industry. For clarity in this article, the terms spaceport and launch site are interchangeable. Although the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issues a license for a launch site that covers safety of the launch operation, other safety activities such as 14 CFR Section 420.53 Control of public access, Section 420.59 Part c, Launch site accident investigation response plan, Section 420.55 Scheduling of launch site operations, and International Traffic in Arms Regulations Requirements and International Coordination Among Spaceports are left to the spaceport to manage. This study culminated a collection of publicly available policies, regulations, and procedures pertaining to commercial launch operations (which may be conducted at a joint air and spaceport). It is also a collection of other publicly published information from nongovernment sources. Principle Investigator Hynes and the author assembled a working group of colleagues and New Mexico State University (NMSU) graduate students who developed a listing of commercial spaceport activities and a taxonomy to structure that information. The PI interviewed all spaceport executives and the Range Commanders executives before developing the final taxonomy. A draft of this taxonomy was provided to all current spaceport managers and the Range Commanders Council, which consists of Army, Navy, Air Force, and NASA representatives, for review and comment to refine and improve the categorization. Once the taxonomy was finalized and named the Framework for Spaceport Operations, the working group began the collection of documents that could be used by commercial spaceports to establish their own procedures, standards and regulations. When there were limited number of documents available, appropriate aviation documents and standards were included as an aid. In order for the thousands of pages of documents to be searchable online by users, and to enable constant additions to the framework, and to assure the collection of websites remains active, the NMSU Library was selected to create a searchable digital collection. The working group collaborated with the digital librarians at NMSU Library to organize the documents within a content management system. The body of knowledge (BoK) for spaceport practices, accessible on the web through the NMSU Library Digital Collections ( http://contentdm.nmsu.edu ) by the public, is a tool to increase spaceport safety and reduce the duplication of implementing spaceport operational activities. The BoK is organized according to the framework, which has 12 categories (major areas) and >125 subcategories to enable a better understanding of the activities and responsibilities of a commercial spaceport. The working group has supplemented this list with appropriate procedures, standards, and regulations for many commercial spaceport activities. In 2015, definitions were created for all subcategories and included in the document management system. In 2016, two additional categories were included based on FAA Accident Threat Categories and Accident Groupings.

General education reform is on-going at many universities to, in part, make undergraduate students more technically literate. The space program provides an area of study that is still exciting to students, provides technical content, and can incorporate the other goals. Additionally, human space activity contains international and interdisciplinary dimensions that can reach students outside of the technical disciplines. The development and contents of a space education course to become part of the university's general education program open to all students is presented. Included in the presentation is a listing of the course materials to be used by the students.