What is the NCCN Project ?
NASA Community College Network
The SETI Institute’s NASA Community College Network (NCCN) is a major initiative to bring NASA Subject Matter Experts (SME), research findings, and science resources into the nation’s community college system. NCCN is a constituent team of the Science Activation program, part of NASA’s Science Mission Directive (SMD).
Guided by needs assessments of both community college instructors (CCIs) and SMEs to engage in outreach, NCCN will consist of three key engagement deliverables:
1) To broker direct partnerships between NASA science subject matter experts and community college instructors teaching astronomy, space science and related courses.
2) To provide a set of high-quality, curated, audience-appropriate NASA resources created with or by NASA scientists to support their outreach and engagement and implemented by the community college instructor.
3) To provide professional development and training for both groups:
a) Community college instructors: we want to support or extend their knowledge of NASA science or research topics and help them communicate new or more engaging concepts to their students.
b) NASA subject matter experts: we want to help them engage effectively with the instructors and students at community colleges. For scientists new to outreach, we want to help them understand community college audiences and how best to work with them.
NCCN is funded by NASA SMD Cooperative Agreement 80NSSC21M0009
News & Events
Wed, Dec 25, 2024
NCCN Meeting & Events Calendar
View upcoming NCCN Meetings & Industry Events on our NCCN Calendar of Events
American Astronomical Society - AAS 245 - Jan 12-16th 2025
REU Applications are being accepted until Feb 1st, 2025 - Apply Now!
Upcoming Webinars in 2025, look for zoom registration links in your email:
Jan 23rd, 12pm PST: Cosmic Data Stories, presented by Patricia Udomprasert
Jan 30th, 2pm PST: Space Education for the Future, presented by Zaheer Ali
Feb 26th, 1pm PST: OpenSpace Data Visualization, presented by AMNH team
Mar 4th, 12pm PST: NASA Psyche Mission, presented by Doug Williams
Mon, Dec 16, 2024
NASA’s Webb Finds Planet-Forming Disks Lived Longer in Early Universe
In 2003, Hubble provided evidence of a massive planet around a very old star, almost as old as the universe. Such stars possess only small amounts of heavier elements that are the building blocks of planets. This implied that some planet formation happened when our universe was very young, and those planets had time to form and grow big inside their primordial disks, even bigger than Jupiter. But how? This was puzzling.
For more information, click here for the NASA article.
Mon, Oct 14, 2024
Europa Clipper Launch - Signal Acquired !!
NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft — designed to explore its namesake, Jupiter’s moon Europa — launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket Monday at 12:06 p.m. ET from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The event streamed live on NASA’s website.
Mon, Jul 01, 2024
NCCN Community College Receives NASA MUREP Project Funding
NASA has selected 23 minority-serving institutions to receive $1.2 million to grow their research and technology capabilities, collaborate on research projects, and contribute to the agency’s missions for the benefit of humanity.
While most of the funding is usually awarded to four-year universities, this cohort includes one of NCCN's community colleges - Delgado Community College, New Orleans, Louisiana, which will use their funding to provide education and access to learning about CubeSat projects.
Congratulations !!
Thu, Jun 13, 2024
NASA planned spacewalk
NASA astronauts Tracy C. Dyson and Matt Dominick will exit the station’s Quest airlock to begin their spacewalk outside of the International Space Station (ISS) scheduled at 8am, Thursday, June 13, 2024. NASA coverage begins at 6 am EDT on NASA+, NASA app, and YouTube .
Click here for NASA mission updates.
Mon, Apr 08, 2024
NASA Solar Eclipse Events 2024
On April 8, 2024, a total solar eclipse moved across North America, passing over parts of Mexico, cutting through the United States, and the edge of Canada.
View the official NASA Solar Eclipse website
Thu, Feb 22, 2024
NASA Science Returns to the Moon with Intuitive Machines-1 Lunar Landing
Intuitive Machines’ IM-1 mission made history on Feb. 22, with the first successful Moon landing by a company.
Carrying NASA science and technology to the Moon, Intuitive Machines’ uncrewed lunar lander touched down at 5:23 p.m. CST on Thursday. The instruments aboard Odysseus will prepare NASA for future human exploration of the Moon under Artemis.
Updates here: blogs.NASA.gov/Artemis
Fri, Oct 13, 2023
2023 Annular Eclipse: Where and When
The Saturday, Oct. 14, 2023, annular solar eclipse will cross North, Central, and South America. It will be visible in parts of the United States, Mexico, and many countries in South and Central America.
https://science.nasa.gov/eclipses/future-eclipses/eclipse-2023/where-when/
Thu, Oct 12, 2023
Psyche! Countdown to a Metal World
