10/15/12 jb

HAYS, Kan. -- Wind can carry dust all over the world, and Fort Hays State University's Paul Adams, professor of physics and Anschutz professor of education, has contracted with Hampton University, Hampton, Va., and NASA to study how it affects the rest of the world. Through all of their research they created the Vodcast, and informational video for students and instructors.

For the last year, Adams has worked with NASA's Institute for Global Environmental Strategies, Earth System Science Education Alliance and Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Goddard Institute for Space Studies, the University of Nabraska at Lincoln and Hampton University to study how dust has traveled from the Sahel Desert in central Africa to Florida, Texas or South America.

"The Vodcast talks about African dust impacting the United States," said Adams. "The dust tells us about what is happening in Africa. Some dust from Africa has even traveled as far north as Kansas."

The Vodcast includes five researchers speaking about their research on how the dust travels and what they find out through it: Adams; Chip Trepte, project scientist and deputy principal investigator for NASA; Rich Ferare, science directorate for NASA; Olga Kalashnikova, member of the technical staff at the JPL; and Paul Jones, science teacher at the Academy of International Studies at Rosemont University and an adjunct professor at Regent University.

In June 2013, Adams will host workshops in Syria, Va., to give teachers at Portsmouth Public Schools more information about this research and how to teach it. FHSU has created the hands-on instruction and investigations in the workshops.

To watch the vodcast go to http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/podcasting/nasaedge/NE00082712_42_DUST.html.