By Tom Mead

Doing anything 66,666 times a day would seem excessive. Not this.

Students around the world are learning about real NASA science by logging onto NASA's Quest Project on the Internet. And they're doing it at the rate of two million times a month. A primary reason is the Quest Project, NeurOn, which, by providing access to the people involved in the Neurolab Space Shuttle mission, offers access to real science in real-time.

The NeurOn project, one of a suite of Internet offerings from NASA's Quest Project, is funded in part by the Learning Technologies Project of the High-Performance Computing and Communications Program.

Quest specializes in long-term, online, interactive projects that connect students with the people and projects of NASA. It has conducted 140 live chats with NASA experts this school year, engaging from five to 60 (or more) participants in each. There are five current Sharing NASA projects. Participation ranges from 300 for Aero Design Team Online to more than 4,000 for Mars Team Online. NeurOn currently has about 500 subscribers.

For those 500 curious students, "NASA's Neurolab mission, launched aboard the space shuttle on April 18 and landed on May 3, is expected to answer many questions about the way the nervous system reacts to the weightlessness of space flight. NASA is also encouraging students to interact with Neurolab researchers via the Internet and NeurOn," said Linda Conrad, NeurOn (Neurolab Online) Project Manager at NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. "About 50 scientists, engineers and the Shuttle and ground crews are working with students and educators through the Internet project."

These interactive projects connect students with NASA professionals at three NASA research sites to inspire young people to pursue careers in high technology. The NASA employees will upload field journals and will also answer students' e-mail questions and participate in webchats. Marc Siegel, Manager of the Quest Team, noted that webchats and e-mail exchange are vital components of the team's effort to make connections—student to student, teacher to teacher, public with NASA, the creative and imaginative with science and technology.

"Quest is all about making connections," Siegel stressed, "and the Internet may be the greatest connector of all time. Our NASA website provides innovative ways to use the Internet to increase teachers' use of NASA data, proving that there is more than one way to go into space. One way is to study math, science and technology and become one of the many people who work at NASA: the kind of people without whom the astronauts would be stuck on the ground."

"Web-based learning is important because it is the primary way for students to tie into real science and real people," said Karen Traicoff, Quest project manager at ARC. "The kids get a taste of reality, not just words in a book. With the web, they read about it and then they get to communicate directly with scientists. They follow along as the researchers discover something or as the wind-tunnel tests are happening. The students get the data as the scientists get it. It's access to real science in real-time for real curious kids."

That seems a good thing, even at 66K+ times a day.

For more information, see the NeurOn web page.

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