Math Matters

AUTHOR: RACHEL FROST

Region 10 ESC Director of Communications Services

IT WAS A SURREAL MOMENT when Elaine Keim, a Robotics and Engineering teacher at Community High School, noticed an email from her NASA mentor. In that email, she learned that the research she had done four years earlier as an intern at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland was used to inspire an article published by NASA scientists in the American Meteorological Society journal.

“Honestly, my reaction was delayed. At the time, I thought it was pretty cool, but then two days later I was like, ‘Wow this is crazy! My name is in a published scientific paper,’” Keim shared. “It was pretty amazing to know that my research helped lay the groundwork for NASA to do more research in this area and write a full paper on the topic. It’s a real accomplishment.”

During Keim’s internship at NASA in the summer and fall of 2016, she looked at data from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) tool aboard the Aqua satellite which collects infrared measurements of the earth’s surface and air temperatures. What she noticed was that because clouds can interfere with infrared measurements, not every location was gathering the same amount of measurements in any given month. This caused the monthly averages that NASA processed in some places to be weighted heavier - some locations gave a clearer picture of the temperature than in other locations. She realized that over time this method of averaging might impact the climate outlook.

“I wanted to figure out if there was another mathematically valid way to average the data, and then determine if the results produced would be significantly different enough to also regard when considering climate outlooks,” Keim explained.

Keim chose an averaging approach which calculated monthly averages based on daily averages instead of the number of total measurements in a month. This did in fact show significantly different averages in different regions. NASA scientists built upon this finding in the article published in American Meteorological Society titled “Assessing the Impacts of Two Averaging Methods on AIRS Level 3 Monthly Products and Multiyear Monthly Means” where you can find Keim’s contributions as a NASA intern included in the acknowledgements.

“I hope my work inspires students,” Keim said. “When I tell them about the work I did at NASA, they always want to learn more, and it opens the door for a great conversation about all the job opportunities available at NASA.”

Next year, in addition to teaching Robotics and Engineering, Keim will also teach Precalculus. She plans to use the connections she made during her internship to invite guest speakers from NASA to talk to her students and expose them to the wide variety of jobs available at NASA.

“One of the things I learned during my internship is that if you want to work at NASA, there is a job for you at NASA,” Keim said. “You don’t have to be in love with science or math to work at NASA.” Keim’s long-term goals include writing math curriculum, and eventually working in the education department at NASA.

While she hopes her students will love math, she knows that some students aren’t particularly inspired by the subject. “I want to make math less overwhelming for students so that it becomes something they really enjoy,” Keim explained. “It would be awesome to work for NASA’s education department and do outreach with schools to work on incorporating more space science into the curriculum.”

For now, Keim has found a good launching pad at Community ISD, and the future looks bright for her and the Braves.