Video Description:  In this close-up video, Julie Williams-Byrd, Center Chief Technologist at NASA's Langley Research Center, shares her love for identifying technologies that support NASA missions.  Video Length:  2:03.NASA eClipsTM is a suite of online student-centered, standards-based resources that support instruction by increasing STEM literacy in formal and nonformal settings.  These free digital and downloadable resources inform and engage students through NASA-inspired, real-world connections.NASA eClips Ask SME: Close-up with a NASA Subject Matter Expert videos are professionally developed to capture a glimpse of NASA SME's personal interests and career journeys. Each can be used to spark student interest and broaden their ideas of the STEM workforce. Additional videos in this series can be found by searching GoOpenVA using "NASA eClips Ask SME".       

"The Prairie Preacher" follows Dr. Dwayne Estes, a botanist who earned his nickname for his passionate advocacy of grassland conservation. Once a child who found solace in nature, Estes now dedicates his life to saving America’s most endangered ecosystem—Southeastern grasslands. Through the Southeastern Grasslands Institute (SGI), he works tirelessly to protect and restore these vital landscapes.

Today's science standards encourage inquiry based activities and the best inquiry based activities result when an scientist and teacher collaborate. This activity was created by Dr. Alex Hastings, one of the scientists who helped discover Titanoboa, a large snake that existed 60 million years ago in South America. In this activity students will use the measurement of a Titanoboa vertebrae to estimate the size of the snake and the temperature that must have existed back then to allow the snake to get to such a large size.