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Santa Clarita Valley International Charter School Teacher Selected As NASA Astronomy Ambassador

Dustin Lengning, an eighth-grade math, science, writing and robotics facilitator at the Santa Clarita Valley International Charter School, has been named a 2022 National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Airborne Astronomy Ambassador. 

Alongside Castaic High School teacher Cody Kennedy, Lengning is scheduled to fly along the stratosphere in the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) sometime this year– a mission that is expected to further fuel the science curriculum at SCVi. 

“Over its history, our NASA-funded AAA program has impacted tens of thousands of high school students through the immersive and inspirational experience of their teachers,” said Bill Diamond, CEO of the Search For Intelligent Life Institute (SETI). “The powerful STEM program will allow the SETI Institute to help bring NASA science into classrooms across the country.”

Expected to play a part in conducting research submitted from scientists at the world’s leading universities, Lengning  is a great fit for the job, according to Matt Watson, SCVi Director of Maker Outreach.

“(Lengning ) has been with our organization for well over a decade now and he’s one of those teachers that families look forward to having and that kids remember throughout their schooling and after,” Watson said. “He teaches the eighth grade and parlays his students to figure out what they’re passionate about and gets every one of them deeply engaged.”

With the current SCVi science curriculum abiding by national standards for science, Lengning is planning to bring back his knowledge from the stratosphere into his classroom. 

“In my curriculum now, we learn about infrared waves, really the whole electromagnetic spectrum, and this experience with infrared astronomy will provide more tools to bring back to the kids,” Lengning said. “Science is all about application and people study this throughout their lifetimes about how infrared astronomy changes our lives and the universe.”

See Related: Castaic High Teacher To Become NASA Astronomy Ambassador

While Lengning and Kennedy have yet to know when experience on the SOFIA should take place, they are in the process of attending webinars and classes in a masters course in preparation to make the flight. 

“It’s not simply going to be a spectator experience,” Lengning said. “We are going to be conducting research alongside professional NASA scientists and that’s why we need to gather as much knowledge as possible beforehand.”

The eighth-grade science teacher is well-loved at SCVi for creating school work that students anticipate working on both inside and outside the classroom, and the SOFIA mission has become a project that Lengning himself can look forward to. 

“(Lengning) develops these projects that kids just get so fired up about,” Watson said. “I’ve heard of kids working on science projects over the weekend when they didn’t have any homework and I’ve seen kids who have graduated work really hard in high school so they can come back to campus and keep working on their projects. I’ve seen it happen every single year.”

Once the SOFIA mission is completed, NASA provides the teachers with a physical science curriculum module created by the SETI Institute to share with their classes and students and past evaluations show that students whose teachers participated in the program have shown increased STEM performance, according to SETI officials.

“I’m just excited about the opportunity,” Lengning said. “It is going to build knowledge and experience for me that I can bring back to the classroom.”

To read more about the AAA program, click here.


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Santa Clarita Valley International Charter School Teacher Selected As NASA Astronomy Ambassador

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About Rachel Matta

Born and raised in Santa Clarita, Rachel Matta has always had a love for writing and media. The first time she ever smiled was actually while she was laying next to her mom as she flipped through the pages of a magazine. Upon graduating from high school in 2019, she chose to major in both journalism and political science at College of the Canyons with the intention of concentrating in news reporting. She began her journey at KHTS as a news intern in the summer of 2020 and officially joined the newsroom in the spring of 2021, intending to move forward with compassion and inquisition.