Mojave Expedition: March 19-23, 2012
Research topics:
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•Impact of elevation and soil water content on the microbial abundance and diversity of biological soil crusts.
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•Mathematical simulation of surface growth patterns of biological soil crusts.
program Tasks:
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•Developing standards-based lesson plans for astrobiology.
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•Building a real-time web-based expedition map.
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•Learn about planetary protection at NASA.
Background material
Biological Soil Crusts: Maestre 2006; Yeager 2007; Belnap 2004
Cholorphyll Extraction: Castle 2010; Bowker 2002
Quantitative PCR & Sequencing: Redfield 2002; Nagy 2005; Soule 2009
march 2012 Roster
Spaceward bound alumni:
Cal Poly Pomona: Geoffrey Payton, Carly Gott, Sneha Tharayil, Monica Santander, Sarah Saleemi, Ruben Hovanesian
San Francisco State University: Alixandria Torres-Vaughn, Norma Hernandez, Genn Pinnick
Cal Poly San Luis Obispo: Michaela Brant, Allison Scheppelmann, Kristin Symer, Raechel Harnoto
CSU Chico: Jason Belveal
CSU Research Students:
San Bernardino State University: Jane Curnutt
CSU Faculty:
Rakesh Mogul (Pomona), Keith Schubert (San Bernardino), Ernesto Gomez (San Bernardino)
IN-SERVICE TEACHERS
Juliana Capra, Natalie Jones, Anna Foutz, Crystal Sandoval
NASA and Affiliated Scientists and STUDENTS:
Chris McKay (NASA ARC), Liza Coe (NASA ARC), Heather Smith (NASA ARC), Parag Vaishampayan (JPL), and others TBD.
March 2011 roster
CSU Student Teachers:
Cal Poly Pomona: Ruben Hovanesian, Sarah Saleemi, Michael Grigsby, Geoffrey Payton, Kara Rotunno, Andrea Gonzalez, Gerardo Solis Trujilo, Carly Gott, George Kaladjian, Amina Razzak, Alexandria Olano
San Francisco State University: Alexander Nguyen, Margaret Dominguez, Elizabeth Stratmore, Alixandria Torres-Vaughn, Brian Finley
Cal Poly San Luis Obispo: Michaela Brant, Allison Scheppelmann, Jena Losch, Kristin Symer, Cassandra Guido, Raechel Harnoto
CSU Research Students:
San Bernardino State University: Jane Curnutt
CSU Faculty:
Rakesh Mogul (Pomona), Keith Schubert (San Bernardino), Ernesto Gomez (San Bernardino)
IN-SERVICE TEACHERS
Natalie Jones, Anna Foutz
NASA and Affiliated Scientists and STUDENTS:
Liza Coe (NASA ARC), Rosalba Bonaccorsi (NASA ARC), Parag Vaishampayan (JPL), Gustavo Ramirez (JPL), Arsh Chopra (JPL), Geoff Chu (NASA ARC), Mary Beth Wilhelm (NASA ARC), Nicolette Hilton (Australia), Bonnie Buratti (JPL), Jim Thompson, and others.
March 2011
