January 19: Following months of prep and working through a curriculum concentrated on space and communications, Escola Secundária de Lagoa students at Lagoa in the Azores (autonomous region of Portugal) took part in a successful ARISS radio contact with Josh Cassada. He answered 16 of their questions. The school livestreamed the event to the public at https://youtu.be/R2Rd5Eku5lA; 6 days after the ARISS contact, viewers totaled 595. The ARISS telebridge radio station in Italy offered a livestream too, and within a week garnered 243 viewers. Reporters at the event consisted of two national TV stations, two national radio stations, two area radio stations, and two newspapers. As of now, six online outlets carried reports. A student quoted by the newspaper Correio dos Azores, said, “It was a fantastic experience and of course we would not have done it without the help of our teachers, our colleagues. This is an experience of a lifetime." A 12th grader quoted by the same news outlet, commented, “Talking to an astronaut who is in space does not seem real. It's hard to believe, but it was possible and we were able to accomplish it with work and dedication."
 
January 17: ARISS educator Micol Ivanci spoke virtually with two classes at Colegio Diocesano Santa María Nuestra Señora in Écija, Spain. Her presentation covered facts about the ISS and crew-carrying space vehicles and she described ARISS ham radio ground stations and how one will facilitate their school’s ARISS contact in mid-February.  50 students and a group of teachers attended Mic’s session. The school takes part in Europe’s Erasmus activities. At a news conference the school set up regarding the ARISS contact, administrators thanked ARISS, ESA, and NASA for the opportunity to host the ARISS contact. They also thanked the Unión de Radioaficionados Españoles (Spain’s national association of radio amateurs) for technical assistance, Edelvives (a publishing firm focused on STEM) for pedagogical innovation, and the Écija City Council for its help.  
 
January 24: An ARISS contact hosted by the MBU DO Center for Children's Technical Creativity, "Young Motorist" took place in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia. Mission Control Center-Moscow scheduled the event and 14 students talked with crew member Dimitri Petelin. The ARISS-Russia team supported the contact and led students in the About Gagarin in Space lesson series. 
 
January 4: ARISS-USA Education Director Kathy Lamont and ARISS Technical Mentor Fred Kemmerer hosted an ARISS Orientation Webinar; 20 people attended. This online development activity gave an assist to schools and education organizations recently selected for ARISS radio contacts to be scheduled in the future.  Educators from those selected groups took part in the webinar as did representatives of their area amateur radio clubs who will help the educators. Listeners heard a review of what is expected of them and got their questions answered. 
 
ARISS Upcoming Events
 Feb. 4:  Youth in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia-ARISS contact, ARISS-Russia Team                                                                     

January 17: The ARISS Team received a report on Montross (VA) Middle School students who enjoyed exciting preparations for their ARISS contact targeted for mid-April. The school’s science curriculum provides students with lessons on sound waves, our solar system, and aspects of the ISS, among other things.  Last semester the school sponsored a science fair with activities and exhibits for students and parents. Engineers from the Dahlgren Naval Surface Weapons Lab put on physical science demos such as what happens when freezing flowers down to -320 degrees Fahrenheit using liquid nitrogen and what generates static electricity. Deputy Superintendent Director Carole Alexander (a ham operator) exhibited her portable “Go-Kit” ham station and she reported, “Students were very interested!”  Last fall, Westmoreland Amateur Radio Club members taught students how to make amateur radio contacts so the school amateur radio group could compete in a bi-annual activity sponsored by the American Radio Relay League for US school ham clubs. Students learned many things about radio and radio operation during the event and made a lot of radio contacts, including one with an overseas group. The youths’ communications successes garnered their group 10th place among middle school clubs nationwide. 
 
January 18: Girls and boys in the Norwich (CT) Free Academy Amateur Radio and Engineering Club created a YouTube video as part of the preparation for the school’s upcoming ARISS radio contact. The two-minute video tied to the ARISS project features a number of students expounding on the ARISS contact, some of the club’s STEM activities, facts about the ISS and its focus, showing the school’s ham radio station, and more.  One goal the youth met by making and posting the video was to explain to the entire student body how to submit questions for the ARISS contact and why. Their ARISS contact happens on January 30.  330 viewers saw the YouTube video as of Monday; the URL is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJyGFWfzupk.

ARISS Upcoming Events                                                                       
Jan 24:  Youth at Nizhny Novgorod, Russia-ARISS contact, ARISS-Russia Team
Jan 26:  Brentwood Elementary Sch of Engrg, Raleigh, NC-ARISS contact, ARISS-US Team
Jan 30:  Norwich Free Academy, Norwich, CT-ARISS contact, ARISS-US Team

January 3: ARISS educator Diane Warner and a teacher colleague received approval to present a class session to educators who’ll attend the Ohio Afterschool Network annual conference to be held in Powell, OH. The two plan to describe a variety of STEM curriculum that has been used in their after-school program at Tallmadge Community Learning Center in Lancaster OH. Listeners will learn about using Ozobots (small robots designed to introduce students to coding), Snap Circuits, Squishy Circuits, and more. Diane will describe a 2019 ARISS radio contact the Tallmadge center had hosted and STEM activities teachers led to help students prepare for their ARISS contact. Attendees will also hear how a learning center can write and submit an ARISS Education Proposal that could garner an ARISS contact.
 
January: ARISS leaders and educators have been mapping out what 2023 education conferences and outreach events to exhibit at and what forums the educators might propose to the conference committees. Some ARISS educators already have received acceptance for their proposed presentations.

ARISS Upcoming Events                                                                       
Jan 19: Escola Secundária de Lagoa, Lagoa, Azores, ARISS-Europe Team

Late December:  Last fall, the faculty at Brentwood Magnet Elementary School of Engineering in Raleigh, NC developed engineering challenges for the semester that tied into the school’s upcoming ARISS contact.  The 412 students focused on engineering related to space exploration and here are examples. Students experienced the engineering/design process as they created and tested prototypes of model rockets and designed parachutes to help the rockets land safely. ARISS Education Ambassador Martha Muir reported that the school’s STEM coordinator described this challenge: during the week of the Balloons Over Brentwood parade, students set up a mini-parade route in the gym, making boxes representing buildings and creating mini-floats that they attached to dash dot robots. Youth learned coding that would guide these robots in navigating the route. Also, third graders enjoyed a field trip to a planetarium “to learn about space and about where astronauts have trained.”
 
January 5: ARISS volunteer Jim Reed reported increased social media metrics in Q1FY23 for October through December.   He stated:  “ARISS social media grew by more than 1,200 followers (4.6%) over the previous quarter and generated close to 500,000 impressions of ARISS content, nearly a 5X increase.”
  
December 31: ARISS Director of Engineering Randy Berger built a multi-functional demo unit he refers to as an ARISS CubeSat. This educational demo item can be placed on ARISS exhibit tables at conferences and ham radio public events to aid ARISS volunteers in describing ARISS communications modes. The unit can be utilized for educational instruction in the classroom, too, to demonstrate multiple communication types, including ARISS Slow Scan TV.
 
ARISS Social Media
 
December's Top Posts and December’s total metrics are below. 
 
Top December 2022 Social Media Posts

• Top Tweet: (Impressions 17,188,  Interactions / Engagements 782)
• Top Facebook Post: (Reaches, Impressions 10,956,  Engagements 511)
• Top Instagram Post: (Reach 256,   Interactions / Engagements 54)

 
 
Total December 1-31 2022 Metrics on Social Media Platforms:

• ARISS Twitter - Total Impressions/Views 125,536,  Interactions/Engagements 4,167  
• ARISS Facebook - Total Impressions 84,826,  Interactions/Engagements 4,962
• ARISS Instagram - Total Reach 401,  Interactions/Engagements 277
• ARISS YouTube - Total Subscribers 1.73k

 
 
ARISS Upcoming Events  
Jan 18: Escola Secundária de Lagoa, Lagoa, Azores,
ARISS-Europe Team                                                                   

December 8: Youth enrolled in Junior School Leidschenveen (JSL), part of The British School (BSN) in The Hague, Netherlands spoke to Josh Cassada during their ARISS radio contact; he answered 16 questions. The girls and boys were thrilled and he took particular care to speak slowly and clearly to the youngest ones. BSN offered the livestream to all 5 of The British School campuses (2,400 students); the URL is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLngfbL6h6s.  Other ham operators streamed the audio and some space images (562 views). The BSN CEO said, "I can't think of a more exciting opportunity for a young person than being able to talk live to an astronaut on the International Space Station! Events like this can help spark a lifelong love of learning in our students."  All 470 JSL students explored STEM through the “JSL in Space” curriculum. Older students researched technology law and space rubbish among other things, and enjoyed a satellite engineer’s presentation on ESA’s current projects.  Younger students liked their field trip to Space Expo and researched the solar system and Andre Kuipers’ missions.
 
December 15: ARISS engineer Kerry Banke completed a series of NASA flight recertification and integration tests of the ARISS HamTV video unit with Johnson Space Center (JSC) test engineers.  Results were good, including the RF Spectrum Analysis process that was performed. The next day, Banke and ARISS team member Kenneth Ransom tested the HamTV set-up with the ARISS camera and then a newer HDMI camera, interface, and an ID generator/HDMI converter.   
 
Last fall Kayser-Italia (K-I), the original manufacturer (in Italy) of the HamTV box, had repaired the unit after its in-flight failure. K-I shipped it to JSC, whose staff sent it in November to Banke. For several weeks he performed testing and verification of the unit in his professional lab at his home before flying with the unit to JSC.  Now, next steps are to find a launch and determine the final plan to get HamTV video operational once again on the ISS.
 
December 9: ARISS Educator Melissa Pore spoke to teachers and students from 30 states at the You Belong in STEM National Coordinating Conference in Washington DC.  She talked about STEM educational opportunities such as ARISS, NASA STEM, and ISS National Lab’s Space Station Explorers.  The conference was hosted by the US Department of Education as a key initiative for the Biden-Harris Administration. 
 
December 16: Maitland Air Cadet Association located in Goderich, ON, Canada supported their cadet squadron in hosting an ARISS contact with Josh Cassada, who answered 21 questions. The Royal Air Cadet Squadron website offered the livestream as did two other groups. Students from nearby St. Mary’s School attended the event. The squadron training officer, quoted in the Goderich Signal Star, said: “After the completion of the event, the squadron will set up a permanent radio training station for cadets to enjoy radio communications and [on the air] contests.”  The article is at https://www.goderichsignalstar.com/news/goderich-air-cadets-speak-with-astronaut-aboard-the-international-space-station.  Cadets’ lessons prior to the ARISS contact included designing VHF radio antennas, learning to track the ISS, and lessons tied to earning a ham radio license.
 
Dec 3:  ARISS Educator Charamie Dunlop gave a presentation on ARISS at an annual banquet in Orlando, FL of the First Class Operators. She talked about her school's ARISS contact and the STEM activities her students had engaged in. She told one specific story on an unexpected long-term impact of the ARISS contact, which brought a few individuals in the audience to tears and earned her a standing ovation.  At the social time after the banquet, many people found Charamie to ask about ARISS and compliment her on the talk, and a few wanted advice on how to reach out to their communities’ schools
 
December 3: ARISS Educator Melissa Pore gave a presentation at the quarterly meeting of the leaders of the Virginia state Air & Space Forces (AFA). At the meeting, held in Reston, VA, she described current STEM opportunities, including ARISS, to 31 of the AFA leaders attending. 
 
December 10: A successful ARISS contact was supported by Sergey Prokopyev and held for students at Dubenskaya Secondary School in Dubenki Village, Republic of Mordovia, Russia.  ARISS-Russia volunteers presented a talk at the event and helped with the radio contact, which was scheduled by Mission Control Center-Moscow. Students had engaged in a series of lessons called “About Gagarin from Space.” 
 
November 3: ARISS Educator Melissa Pore helped staff an exhibit table set up by AIAA (American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics) for an awards event, Aviation Week Network’s Laureates. Attendees included college students, mentors, and aviation and space industry people. Those stopping at the AIAA table heard about ARISS and other NASA STEM activities.  Melissa had helped mentor a young lady who was honored as one of Aviation Week’s “20 Twenties.”
 
December 28:  @ISS_Research posted on Twitter its 2022 Highlights video touting the “Best Space Station Science Imagery of 2022.”  The video included an image of Kjell Lindgren at the ARISS radio on the ISS. The accompanying description mentioned his accomplishment of contacting ham radio operators in all seven continents during his stay on the ISS. The post is at https://twitter.com/ISS_Research/status/1608151284682731520?s=20.  Within four days’ time, the Tweet’s video had collected 80.9K views and the Tweet itself garnered 367.5K views.  ARISS thanks the @ISS_Research team.
 
December 28: ISS National Lab staff posted a photo story on its website about best scientific experiments performed on the ISS in 2022.  The second photo featured Kjell Lindgren operating the ARISS ham radio station on the ISS. ARISS thanks the ISS National Lab staff for this post.  The web page is https://www.issnationallab.org/iss360/2022-issnationallab-science-highlights/?utm_source=edm&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=pe&utm_content=2022
 
 
ARISS Upcoming Events                                                                       
 TBD

November 30: On a celebratory note, ARISS has now achieved the significant milestone of supporting and completing 1,500 ARISS school contacts around the world!  Our report last week described the 1,500th ARISS contact, which was hosted by the Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University in Kaliningrad, Russia.  The ARISS Team is proud of this major achievement!
 
December 8: The screenshot below captures the thrilled girls and boys at the Junior School Leidschenveen, part of the British School in the Netherlands in The Hague, Netherlands, after talking to Josh Cassada during an ARISS contact. More details will be received in time for next week’s report. 
 
Last half of November: AIAA—American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics—had accepted ARISS educator Linda Nowicki in early October to judge proposals for the AIAA 2022-2023 Classroom Grants program that awards funding for groups with top applications. She judged 10 proposals and got this email from AIAA’s K-12 Programs Manager: “Thank you for taking the time to volunteer to judge the AIAA Classroom Grants! There were over 200 applications submitted … if you would like to review and judge additional applications, let me know.” Linda enjoyed reading and judging applications and asked AIAA for 10 more to review! 
 
December 4: Seven- and eight-year-old youths and some students with disabilities in the community of Aznakayevo, located in the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia participated in a successful ARISS contact with Anna Kikina.  The youth had studied the series of About Gagarin from Space lessons.
 
November 9: ARISS educator Micol Ivancic in Italy presented at a meeting for teachers in Naples to train them about ESA’s Mission X education program and ARISS.  She described the hands-on Mission X lessons she had her students doing in her classroom. She talked about the ARISS program and how teachers could write a proposal to be considered for an ARISS radio contact. She shared the hands-on lessons related to ARISS that her students engaged in. Mic’s audience included 12 primary school teachers, a school psychologist, and 2 staffers from the European Space Agency Education Resource Office.  
 
December 2: Dignitaries along with residents and other guests gathering for the 13th International Festival of Films and TV Programs in Vologda, Russia under the title “Rendezvous with Russia” participated in a successful ARISS contact with Dmitry Petelin. ARISS-Russia’s Sergey Samburov attended as well, assisting ARISS-Russia volunteers. Youth had engaged in the Gagarin from Space lessons. More than 100 people were present for the event including the Governor of the Vologda Region and the Mayor of Vologda.   
 
November 26: A reporter from Rai Radio 1, the national radio service in Italy, interviewed ARISS educator Micol Ivanic and two of her students from Milan about ARISS.  Mic and the students talked for 10 minutes about their ARISS contact with Astronaut Luca Parmitano a few years ago, and the ARISS-related STEM activities the class had engaged in. The journalist created a podcast from the interview, which was widely advertised on social media platforms.      
ARISS Upcoming Events                                                                       
Dec 16  ARISS Contact: Maitand Air Cadet Assn, Goderich ON Canada, ARISS-Canada Team

November 28: Students at West Ferris Intermediate Secondary School in North Bay, ON, Canada will never forget their ARISS radio contact where they asked questions of Koichi Wakata. He answered 14 questions that had been selected out of 160 submitted by students who were in the audience. The ARISS contact was covered by Bay Today online news, Canada Today online news, Northern Ontario CTV news, and CBC radio. During the Northern Ontario CTV news interview, grade 8 science teacher Jason Henstridge said, "There are always students who get inspired by things like this, so we’re really excited to give them the opportunity to do that." He had led them in lessons on gravity, velocity, and microgravity.  Students also learned about radio communications, researching wave propagation, wavelength and frequency during Near Space programs where students planned and executed stratospheric balloon launches. They used the radio Automatic Packet Reporting System for tracking balloons’ payloads. 
 
November 28: Escola Naval (Brazil Navy Academy) located on Ilha de Villegagnon near Rio de Janeiro, Brazil hosted an ARISS contact for midshipmen. Eight from among those who will graduate this year were selected to ask questions during the contact with Josh Cassada and he answered 16.  After the contact an attendee said there was a “feeling of accomplishment and everything ended in celebration, joy, photos, and an unforgettable experience for everyone, and especially for the aspirants!”  70 people attended the event. Two livestreams were available for the general public and the total number of viewers for both was 279. An article about the event is at https://qtc.ecra.club/2022/11/escola-naval-rj-faz-contato-com-astronauta-a-bordo-da-ISS.html. The academy, a higher education military school, aims to train candidates as officers for the navy.    
 
November 23: Students (620 of them) at Five Bridges Junior High School in Stillwater Lake, NS, Canada gathered for an ARISS contact with Josh Cassada who answered 14 students’ questions. Before talking to him they listened to a young man and young lady who are engineering students at Dalhousie University in Halifax who described a CubeSat called Low Orbit Reconnaissance & Imaging Satellite that they had developed.  The presentation and the ARISS contact were livestreamed on two platforms garnering over 225 views, and within 5 days, total views climbed to 692 views.  Students had engaged in a curriculum that prepared them for their ARISS contact; some projects included constructing models of planets in our solar system, tracking the health of tomato plants grown from seeds flown on the ISS, and researching black holes. The youth learned about the Artemis and Gateway programs, and area amateur radio operators provided students with a series of lessons on radio communications.
 
November 28: Following a curriculum of space science and studying space careers, students at Amur State University in Blagoveshchensk, Russia took part in an ARISS radio contact with Sergey Prokopyev. 20 people were on hand for the event, which was coordinated by ARISS-Russia’s Sergey Samburov.
 
November 30: Students engaged in the About Gagarin From Space lessons, which were followed by an ARISS contact event at GBOU Secondary Educational School No. 491 in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Participants included 30 students and they spoke with Anna Kikina.
 
November 30: Another school with students engaging in the About Gagarin From Space lessons was Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University in Kaliningrad, Russia. 10 students talked with Anna Kikina. As with other ARISS-Russian sponsored ARISS contacts, this one was scheduled by Russia’s Mission Control Center-Moscow.
 
ARISS Social Media
 
ARISS’s new volunteer on the social media team has begun posting on Mastodon and will begin tracking the metrics. Next month, ARISS will report on those. 
 
November’s top posts and November’s total metrics are below. 
 
Top November 2022 Social Media Posts

• Top Tweet: (13,555 Impressions, 788 Interactions / Engagements)
• Top Facebook Post: (8,383 Reaches, 8,773 Impressions, 286 Engagements)
• Top Instagram Post: (291 Reach,  71 Interactions / Engagements)

 
 
Total November 2022 Metrics on each Social Media Platform:

• ARISS Twitter - Total Impressions / Views 140,622,  Interactions / Engagements 4,319
• ARISS Facebook - Total Impressions 27,089,  Interactions / Engagements 3,454
• ARISS Instagram - Total Reach 424,  Interactions / Engagements 422
• ARISS YouTube - Total Subscribers 1,720
  

 ARISS Upcoming Events  
                                                                    
Dec 2 ARISS Contact: 13th International Film & TV Festival, Vologda, Russia, ARISS-Russia Team
Dec 8 ARISS Contact: British School in the Netherlands, The Hague, Netherlands, ARISS-Europe Team