Clarkson University Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Research Professor Dana M. Barry, senior technical writer and editor at Clarkson’s Center for Advanced Materials Processing recently developed a creative teaching method known as the Space-Related/Space Exploration Teaching Approach.

Barry’s approach is described in her new book, coauthored with Deputy President Professor Hideyuki Kanematsu of the National Institute of Technology, Suzuka College, Japan.

The book, “STEM and ICT Education in Intelligent Environments,” is being published by Springer and should be available in August.

Barry has expanded and carried out a Mars/Space Education program for more than 16 years. Today, she continues her program in the United States and overseas with students of all ages, from youngsters to retired members of SOAR.

Clarkson was the site of the world’s first MoonLink mission Jan. 20, 1998. The mission was sponsored by Clarkson’s Space Grant Program, directed by Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering Professor Daniel Valentine and coordinated by Barry, who served as the Clarkson Space Grant Program Administrator.

MoonLink is an educational outreach program with NASA’s Lunar Prospector mission and Space Explorers Inc. It linked students via the Internet with NASA’s Lunar Prospector, a spacecraft launched to conduct a one-year mapping mission to obtain data about the Moon’s surface.

Barry also organized the World’s First NEARLink mission, which took place at Clarkson University Nov. 18, 1998.

NEARLink is the educational component of NASA’s Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous mission. Students were linked by Internet to the spacecraft NEAR.

Participating schools in the MoonLink and NEARLink missions were Clarkson University, Canton Central School, Potsdam Central School, Edwards-Knox Central School, and Norwood-Norfolk Central School.

The students communicated by conference phone with a mission controller and received and analyzed live data from the spacecraft.

They also learned about mission positions and duties, instruments, and a teamwork approach for solving problems.

In 2000, Barry organized the world’s first MarsLink mission, which again took place at Clarkson University.

This mission, carried out like the other two, was sponsored by the Northern New York Section of the American Chemical Society.

The participants, which included St. Mary’s School in Canton, as well as the other schools, accessed and analyzed the incoming data from Mars as part of the Mars Global Surveyor mission.

Barry has since expanded her team to the international level and continues to participate in other Mars and space- related missions and activities.

In 2001, she spoke about Mars and space exploration to an audience of students, instructors, and government officials at the National Planetarium in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.

While there, she recruited students and faculty to join her MarsLink mission team.

At a later date she visited the University of the Sciences in Malaysia to join her team members for star gazing activities and observations of the planets using telescopes equipped with cameras.

The coordinator for the Malaysian team members has been Professor Dr. Roger Haw, cofounder of Ansted University.

Barry, in the capacity of a visiting professor at the National Institute of Technology, Suzuka College, Japan, was invited in 2002 to speak about her Mars and other space mission activities. As a result, faculty and students joined her MarsLink team.

The coordinator for team members in Japan has been Deputy President Professor Hideyuki Kanematsu of the National Institute of Technology, Suzuka College.

Together Kanematsu and Barry have carried out space-related workshops and Mars Simulation Missions at various places in Japan.

Their teams also participated in NASA’s Lunar Greenhouse Engineering Design Project and in an education project involving the Space Shuttle Endeavour.

Barry’s MarsLink Space mission project won a certificate of excellence ChemPower Award in 2004 from the American Chemical Society.

Barry and her team members’ names are on the rovers Spirit and Opportunity, which were sent in search of geologic evidence of water in Mars’ past.

Hher name also appears on the rover Curiosity and on MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN spacecraft).

Barry says that she is grateful to Clarkson for hosting her three World First Space Education Missions. These missions were made possible by a combined effort of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and Space Explorers Inc., whom she said she also thanks.

Details on Barry's MarsLink Mission activities on a yearly basis from 2000 to 2015 are available at www.space-explorers.com/internal/events/clarkson2015.html.