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Voyages in Education and Public Outreach

An Office of Space Science Newsletter

January 2002 Issue 4

On the Inside

Updates 2

 Awards 3

 Exhibits & Planetarium Programs

 Chabot Space & Science Center 4

 Northern Lights / Explore the Universe 5

 Education Products

 Infrared: More than Your Eyes Can See 6

 Cosmic Journeys 6

 SEGWay /PUMAS 7

Education Programs

 SUNBEAMS 8

 Stars on Earth 9

 Exceptional Needs Workshop 10

 Mars 2001 10

 Mars Student Involvement Project 11

 Space Science Access 11

 SEU Education Workshop 12

 On the Horizon 12

Voyage: A Journey Through Our

Solar System

Jeff Goldstein, Challenger Center for Space Science

Education

On October 17, 2001, a new long term space

science exhibit Voyage: A Journey Through Our Solar

System opened on the National Mall in

Washington, DC. Created by Challenger Center

for Space Science Education, the Smithsonian

Institution, and NASA, Voyage is a one to 10-

billion scale model of the solar system that

provides visitors a dramatic understanding of

Earth’s place in space, and celebrates our ability

to reach beyond our tiny world and uncover the

breadth and majesty of the universe.

Comprised of 13 stations, Voyageis sited along

a 600-meter path from the National Air and Space

Museum to the Smithsonian’s Castle building, in

the shadow of the U.S. Capitol and the

Washington Monument. Designed to fit the

urban landscape of the National Mall, Voyage’s 8.5

foot high stainless steel stations convey a sense

of flight in both air and space. They are tall

enough so that a visitor at any station can see

adjacent stations, even with intervening crowds.

The stations appear as stakes driven into the

cosmic firmament to mark the location of the

planets. Thus at each station the visitor has

simultaneous access to the size of a world and a

distance between worlds.

Each of the planets, their largest moons, and

ring systems are seen as three-dimensional objects

laser-sculpted inside solid glass. Precise

orientations of the planetary systems are relative

to a model celestial sphere, where the horizontal

plane is the ecliptic and the model Sun is at the

vernal equinox.

The porcelain enamel graphic panels place the

visitor in a familiar context, such as standing on

a planetary surface looking up into the sky. But

these are not common views: Earth in a starry field

from the surface of Mercury, Jupiter from low

Ionian orbit, and a Venusian landscape under a

cloudy sky with Maxwell Montes in the distance,

Jeff Goldstein, Voyage project director, visits Uranus with

a class of Washington, DC middle school students.
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NASA OSS E/PO Brokers Selected

NASA OSS recently selected seven recipients

for grants to help space scientists become involved

in educational activities, build partnerships

between the space science and education

communities, and serve as the regional points-ofcontact for space scientists and educators seeking

information on and involvement in NASA’s Space

Science education and outreach program. These

institutions will continue and extend the work of

the first set of Brokers selected in 1997.

“This new selection will deepen connections

between NASA’s Office of Space Science and

educators across the country and improve our

ability to search out productive opportunities for

the space science community to participate in

education and public outreach,” said Dr. Jeffrey

Rosendhal, Director of Education and Public

Outreach for NASA’s Office of Space Science. “We

also expect this to provide an injection of fresh

ideas and new capabilities to our educational and

public outreach team.”

The individuals and institutions receiving the

awards are:

• Dr. Kathleen Johnson,

Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston

• Dr. Julie H. Lutz,

University of Washington, Seattle

• Dr. Cherilynn A. Morrow,

Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colorado

• Dr. Nitin Naik,

Wheeling Jesuit University, Wheeling, W. Va.

• Dr. Carolyn C. Narasimhan,

DePaul University, Chicago

• Dr. Cassandra Runyon,

College of Charleston, Charleston, S.C.

• Dr. Cary I. Sneider,

Museum of Science, Boston

these are meant to be voyages worth

remembering.

In addition to the exhibit on the Mall,

supplemental materials will be available at the

Voyage website (www.voyageonline.org). Voyage

K-12 educational materials are currently under

development and will be free to download as pdf

files. Visit the site for updates on all aspects of the

Voyage project.

The Voyage exhibition was designed to be

replicated and permanently placed at dozens of

sites worldwide. Granted this is an idealistic view,

perhaps naive, but our hope is that Voyage can

change the way a significant percentage of the

human race view a place called home.

Visitors can walk through the model solar

system as if they were ‘cosmic giants’ walking

through the real thing. Visitor reactions to date

clearly show that regardless of age or schooling,

they seem overwhelmed as Earth is reduced to just

one of many tiny objects in a vast and seemingly

endless space.

NASA Office of Space Science(OSS)

Conference Rescheduled

The NASA OSS Education and Public

Outreach Conference, hosted by DePaul

University and originally scheduled for

September 2001, has been rescheduled to June

12-14, 2002, in Chicago. Participants at the

conference will include members of the NASA

space science education and outreach community,

scientists, educators in formal and informal

science, and others interested in space science

education and outreach.

The conference is limited to 270 participants.

First priority is being given to those who were

registered for the original conference dates. New

registrants will be taken on a first come basis.

Register on-line at

http://analyzer.depaul.edu/ossconference

Outcomes for the conference will include a set

of proceedings and opportunities to guide the

structure and focus of future OSS E/PO activities,

as well as conferences intended to help set the

overall direction of the OSS E/PO program.

Contact Victoria Simek at (773) 325-4790

vsimek@depaul.edu, or see the conference web

site for information on program, accommodations

and speakers.

Updates

OSS E/PO Evaluation Report Released

NASA OSS has been working with the

Program Evaluation and Research Group (PERG)

at Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts

to conduct an evaluation of how effectively OSS

is carrying out its E/PO program.

A report focusing on execution of the

Education and Public Outreach (E/PO) Strategic

and Implementation Plans has been completed

and is available through the NASA OSS website
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SSERD Version 2.0 was released October 1,

2001. Enhancements have been made over the

course of the past year, including the addition of

user-supplied product reviews, improved

methods of search, and easier navigation. A new

selection of products has been entered into the

SSERD, markedly increasing the total number to

nearly 200. Significant progress has also been

made toward providing CD-ROMs through

NASA CORE, and ultimately arriving at the “one

stop shopping” goal where all OSS education

products can be browsed and ordered through the

SSERD ( http://teachspacescience.stsci.edu)

The first annual Scala Worldwide Users

Conference took place September 2001 in

Minneapolis. Scala is an advanced multimedia

authoring software. An awards banquet was held

to recognize excellence in use of Scala in four

areas: cable television, school networks, public/

government and corporate/retail. View Space, a

multimedia astronomy display for museums and

planetariums, won the award in the Schools/

Government category. (For more information on

View Space see Voyages, September 2001, issue.

http://spacescience.nasa.gov/education/news)

at http://spacescience.nasa.gov/education/

resources/strategy/2001_Final_Report.PDF

Data were gathered between January 2000,

and May 2001, both from members of the OSS E/

PO community and from the communities it serves

directly (educators, scientists, the rest of NASA).

The report focuses on the actions that the OSS

E/PO Program is taking to meet the goals outlined

in the Implementation Plan, the successes of the

Program, and the challenges that it faces.

The next phase of evaluation, dealing with the

impact of the OSS E/PO program on the education

community, is now getting underway.

Awards

Dr. Carol Jo Crannell of NASA Goddard Space

Flight Center was honored with a NASA Exceptional

Service Medal this fall. The award states - “In

recognition of your pivotal role in creating and

advancing the highly successful NASA SUNBEAMS

program, which brings the excitement of NASA Space

Science to the District of Columbia Public Schools.” -

signed Daniel S. Goldin, Administator NASA, 8th

August, 2001. An article on the SUNBEAMS program

appears on page 8 of this newsletter.

Future Venues for Space Science Exhibits

Hubble Space Telescope - New Views of the

Universe

Large Exhibit (http://www.si.edu/sites/

exhibit/hubble.htm)

October 6, 2001 to April 28, 2002

Kennedy Space Center, FL

June 1, 2002 to August 25, 2002

Union Station Kansas City, MO

Small Exhibit (http://www.si.edu/sites/

exhibit/hubble2.htm)

December 15, 2001 to February 24, 2002

Discovery Museum Bridgeport, CT

MarsQuest (http://www.astc.org/exhibitions/

mars/imars.htm)

February 1, 2002 - April 30, 2002

Virginia Air & Space Center, Hampton, VA

June 1, 2002 - August 31, 2002

Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, Chicago

October 1, 2002 - December 31, 2002

Natural History Museum, Lafayette, LA

Space Weather (http://www.spacescience.org/

SWOP/Exhibits/Mini_Exhibit/1.html)

February 1, 2002 - April 30, 2002

Insights El Paso Science Museum, El Paso,TX

Information on exhibits and tour schedules

may be obtained from these links.

Dr. Cranell with Alphonso V. Diaz, Director of GSFC and

Dr. Ghassem Asrar, NASA Associate Administrator.

View Space Takes Award

Space Science Education Resource Directory

(SSERD) Update
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Chabot Space & Science Center

Chabot Space & Science Center in Oakland,

California offers a celebration of science at its stateof-the-art facility which includes a world-class

planetarium, a dome-screen theater, hands-on

exhibits and an observatory complex. NASA OSS

funded two new interactive exhibits - Shadow

Dance, which opened in June 2001, and Touch the

Sun, which opens this winter. Other NASA

funded exhibits include the newly restored 8”

refractor telescope, the meridian transit telescope

exhibit and the meteorite mural and exhibit.

Through its partnership with NASA, Chabot was

able to deliver a live satellite feed of the June 2001

solar eclipse to an audience of over 250 guests.

NASA scientists are regularly featured in the

Distinguished Lecturer series.

Shadow Dance is a multimedia exhibit where

visitors learn about the Sun and the Moon, myths

and rituals and celebrations relating to eclipses.

They can step on floor sensors to create different

types of solar and lunar eclipses and take a solar

quiz. The Solar Telescope Exhibit, Touch the Sun,

is a major addition to the Center’s compliment of

exhibits and public-access telescopes. The

centerpiece is a world-class solar research

telescope (formerly used by the Royal Swedish

Academy of Sciences) which projects real-time

images of the Sun. Visitors can make tracings of

sunspots on the solar surface and capture their

own digital images of the Sun to email as solar

postcards. The exhibit explores the Sun’s structure

and atmosphere, the spectrum of its light, and the

uses of solar power on Earth. Above the exhibit,

a mural of solar icons and art from cultures around

the world connect current scientific images of the

Sun from the telescope with views of the Sun as

seen through the eyes of different people across

the reaches of history on Earth.

Additionally, funding from NASA enables

students and visitors to interact with the Science

Center by accessing Chabot’s Virtual Science

Center (VSC) online at www.chabotspace.org/vsc

Exhibits & Planetarium Exhibits & Planetarium

Shows

The VSC includes in-depth information on the

natural, scientific and technological content of

select exhibits, a virtual planetarium and access

to educational programs. These programs include

teacher workshops and student classes that utilize

many NASA materials.

Dr. Michael D. Reynolds, Executive Director/

CEO of Chabot, described the potential for

shaping the future of science and technology:

“The beauty of the new Chabot Space &

Science Center is that its emphasis — astronomy

and space exploration — is something children

and adults alike find fascinating. The universe

does indeed touch our soul. To give students an

opportunity to learn about space in a hands-on,

discovery way will hopefully stimulate them to

consider science. We don’t expect to make an

astronaut or astronomer out of every student who

comes through here, we just want to let them know

they can do it if they want to.”

Historic 8" Alvan Clark refractor telescope is the original

1883 instrument donated by founder Anthony Chabot.
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Hubble Space Telescope backup mirror on display at

the National Air and Space Museum’s “Explore the

Universe Gallery”.

(photo - Eric Long, Smithsonian)

For information on Northern Lights contact

Alan Gould, Planetarium Director, University of

California, Lawrence Hall of Science, Berkeley, CA.

(agould@uclink4.berkeley.edu)

Northern Lights Planetarium Show

Lawrence Hall of Science

With support from NASA’s Sun-Earth

Connection Education Forum, the Lawrence Hall

of Science (LHS) is about to release Northern Lights

- a new addition to the audience participatory

program series, Planetarium Activities for Student

Success (PASS) - http://www.lhs.berkeley.edu/

pass/. The show brings together images, video

and activities that demonstrate the connectivity

between our Sun and Earth. The show was field

tested during the winter of 1999-2000, and will be

available for general release to planetariums across

the county in early 2002.

The first activity in this interactive show

concerns seasons, sunrise, and sunsets. Each

audience member uses a horizon pointer to predict

where sunsets will be at their local latitude (e.g.

38° N in Berkeley) and at latitude 70° N (Tromso,

Norway). They see an image of a midnight Sun

from Tromso. In another activity the audience uses

Earth globes to model a midnight Sun, with the

Sun being a bare lamp in the middle of the

planetarium. Then there is a video or series of

slides depicting an auroral substorm as seen from

the far north in Alaska or Norway, which is

narrated by Franck Pettersen of Nordlys

Planetariat in Tromso. Visitors use fluorescent

chalk to sketch aurora which they have just seen

and view the drawings under black lights to see

the sketches glow. Other program elements

include historical views of aurora; recent scientific

views on the causes of aurora; including images

and movie clips of the Sun, granules, corona, holes

in UV, solar mass ejections.

An eskimo mythology for

the Northern Lights show is

illustrated in this work by

Rose Craig, LHS artist. It

shows aurora and spirits of

people who died violent

deaths feasting and playing

football with a walrus skull.

Smithsonian’s National Air and Space

Museum Opens Explore the Universe

Exhibition

The Smithsonian Institution’s National Air

and Space Museum (NASM) opened Explore the

Universe September 21, 2001. This permanent

exhibition presents the major discoveries that have

given us our current scientific view of the universe,

illustrates how the universe is taking shape and

probes the mysteries that remain.

Encompassing an unprecedented array of

artifacts representing the state of the art over the

past 400 years, the exhibition lays out the world’s

astronomical progress within its historical and

technological context. Explore the Universeis made

up of five major sections covering the evolution

of man’s tools for searching the heavens.

As part of NASA’s contribution to this exhibit,

NASA OSS arranged for the Hubble Space

Telescope (HST) backup mirror to be turned over

to the museum. As noted in Voyages, May 2001,

(http://spacescience.nasa.gov/education/news),

the mirror was delivered in January 2001, in

addition to other HST hardware. Other pieces of

NASA space astronomy hardware, such as the

Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope which twice flew

on the Space Shuttle are also featured. The mirror

and these other historic pieces of astronomy

hardware will now be seen by millions of visitors

each year.
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 Educational Products Educational Products Educational Products

E/PO materials highlight Cosmic Journeys

Sonoma State University (SSU)

At national science and mathematics teachers’

conferences, affiliates of the Structure and

Evolution of the Universe (SEU) Forum have been

distributing a folder of educational flyers that

highlight eleven SEU missions and their E/PO

programs. The

folders invite

teachers and their

students to take a

Cosmic Journey to

the Edge of Gravity,

Space and Time by

engaging in

exciting and fun,

science and math

oriented activities

that connect to

each mission and

are also aligned

with national

standards.

SIRTF Releases First Education Module -

Infrared: More Than Your Eyes Can See

California Institute of Technology

Although launch of the Space Infrared

Telescope (SIRTF) is not until December 2002, a

host of educational materials are ready for

students and educators now. The materials draw

on the unique aspects of the mission and focus on

what infrared light has to offer in revealing a

unique perspective on the universe. The first

educational module released, entitled Infrared:

More Than Your Eyes Can See, addresses infrared

light from many different perspectives. There is

a classroom activity that recreates the original

detection of non-visible light by William Herschel

in 1800, a short video about infrared light and the

many uses of infrared technology, and an

introduction to multi-wavelength astronomy. You

can also participate in a build-your-own space

observatory interactive game, as well as explore

Earth science (volcanoes and geysers) through the

infrared. All of these resources can be accessed

from the SIRTF educational page, http://

sirtf.caltech.edu/SSC_EPO.html 

In addition, SIRTF is working closely with

other infrared and astronomy missions to develop

a well-rounded public education program that

goes outside the primary mission of the

observatory. Partnerships with groups that deal

directly with standards-based curriculum

development have also been formed. The CAPSI

(Caltech Pre-College Science Initiative) has been

funded by SIRTF to develop a series of basic

physics activities to be included in Whyville,

(http://www.whyville.net), their popular webbased science education site intended to support

both home and classroom-based learning through

scientific inquiry.

Explore the uses of visible and infrared images

at the SIRTF Website.

The folder features current missions such as

Chandra, Microwave Anisotropy Probe (MAP),

and XMM-Newton, as well as many in the

pipeline, such as Gravity Probe B (GP-B), Swift,

and the Gamma-Ray large Area Space Telescope

(GLAST). Colorful flyers describe each mission,

and also provide important URL links to the

educational activities for each. Many of the flyers

also highlight an activity connected to the Cosmic

Journeysidea. For example, the MAP flyer features

an activity that students can use to understand

the geometry of space. A powerful math activity

appearing on the Swift flyer uses gamma-ray

bursts to teach the mathematics of scientific

notation. What it takes to be a black hole and the

gravitational effects of space-time are the focus of

the activities on the GLAST and GP-B flyers. Rossi

X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) data are used to

teach coordinate systems and plotting skills by

illustrating the distribution and time variability

of a collection of galactic X-ray sources.

Flyers can be downloaded from

http://universe.sonoma.edu/flyers/
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Space Science Mission Discoveries Engage

Teachers and Students

Center for Science Education @ Space Science

Laboratory, UC Berkeley

The Science Education Gateway (SEGWay)

brings together the expertise of NASA scientists,

science museums, and K-12 educators to produce

NASA Earth and space science-based curricula for

access via the Internet. It captures seven years of

innovation and advances in Education and Public

Outreach (E/PO) from many Earth and space

science missions. The SEGway website (http://

cse.ssl.berkeley.edu/segway) provides resources

for three target audiences: the general public,

scientists, and educators.

Public users can access self-guided space

science articles, obtain information on recent

celestial events, and locate E/PO sites for missions

such as the High Energy Solar Spectroscopic

Imager (HESSI) and the Cosmic Hot Interstellar

Plasma Spectrometer (CHIPS).

Scientists can find tools for developing E/PO

proposals, sample E/PO plans, introductions to

partner institutions, and easy ways to get involved

in education.

The educators’ section has been designed with

teachers and improved by years of feedback from

educators nationwide. Educators find tables of

lessons organized by topic or grade level. Teacher

resource pages offer lesson plans, assessment

worksheets and answer keys, step-by-step

procedures, and many other supporting materials.

SEGway’s on-line activities give students and

teachers an exciting look at research with access

to recent NASA Space Science data. The Sunspots

activity challenges students to determine if visible

and x-ray Yohkoh images show evidence of

correlation. In the newly released activity X-ray

Candles: Solar Flares on Your Birthday, students use

satellite data to graph the ups and downs of the

solar cycle from the rate of solar x-ray flares.

A number of lessons have won awards,

including PacBell’s Blue Web’n and the Griffith

Observatory Star. The Sunspotslesson is included

in the National Science Teacher Association

initiative, sciLINKS (http://www.scilinks.org),

which links science textbooks to the Internet.

The PUMAS Connection

Solar System Exploration Forum

PUMAS is an on-line

journal for teachers. It

provides short examples

of how math and science

topics taught in K-12

classes can be used in

interesting settings,

including everyday life.

PUMAS, or Practical Uses

of Math And Science, was founded and is edited

by NASA JPL scientist Ralph Kahn. Dr. Kahn is

Lead Scientist for the Earth and Planetary

Atmospheres Research Element at JPL. Founding

PUMAS was, for him, “the answer to the question

of what most scientists can do to contribute to precollege science and math education.” PUMAS

examples are submitted by scientists and

engineers, and then peer-reviewed by at least one

scientist with a relevant background and at least

one teacher at an appropriate grade level.

Submissions are evaluated on originality, accuracy,

clarity, and grade-level appropriateness. The

examples are identified by subject keywords,

grade groupings, and curriculum topic

benchmarks from McREL (Mid-continent

Research for Education and Learninghttp://www.mcrel.org). Examples have

intriguing titles like

• Automatic Windshield Wipers

• Determining the Altitude of Iridium Flares

• Ice Sheets and Sea Level Rise

• Length of the Day

• Particle Man and the Photon

• The Shadow of the Dog

Nearly 50 authors have made one or more

submissions to date. Several hundred people have

served as reviewers, and many others have

contributed comments on specific examples,

assessments of the site and its contents, and

suggestions. PUMAS receives about 3,000 visits

per week from users all over the world.

As Kahn notes, “Teachers need nuggets of

enrichment ideas that they can grab, understand,

and apply to their lesson plans.” Visit PUMAS at

http://pumas.jpl.nasa.gov. To join the pool of

reviewers, go to the Reviewers’ page, and select

the link to the Volunteer/Participant Update page.
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SUNBEAMS

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

SUNBEAMS is beginning its fourth year as a

partnership between NASA Goddard Space Flight

Center and the District of Columbia Public Schools

(DCPS). The program continues to evolve as a

model urban intervention technique for sixth

grade teachers and students by empowering the

teachers and inspiring the students through

participation in the process and excitement of

science and technology. Each spring, fifteen

teachers of 6th-grade math and science from the

DCPS are invited to Goddard for a five-week paid

internship. During the summer, each teacher is

paired with a mentor from the scientific and

technical staff. The teachers participate in the

mentors’ current scientific and technical research

and partner with the mentors to develop lessons

for middle school students which they

subsequently pilot in their own schools and post

on the SUNBEAMS web site.

During the school year, each teacher brings a

class of up to 30 students to Goddard for a week

of total immersion in math and science activities.

The activities are standards-based and designed

to give the students an understanding of the actual

methods used by Goddard scientists, engineers,

and technicians to do space science and

technology. Following their week at Goddard,

 Educational Programs Educational Programs Educational Programs

the teacher and students work together to plan a

Family Night at their school to provide the school

community and their Goddard partners an

opportunity to share in the students’ impressions

and reactions to their experiences. SUNBEAMS

is unique among the current crop of educational

programs because it addresses issues in science

education from a multitude of perspectives,

involving all those who contribute to the students’

education.

SUNBEAMS provides teachers with the time

and resources to develop curriculum materials

based on NASA research and national education

standards, fosters a positive attitude towards math

and science in participating students, and

establishes meaningful, long-term partnerships

between NASA Goddard technical personnel and

local teachers. For additional information about

SUNBEAMS contact Dr. Carol Jo Crannell, at

crannell@gsfc.nasa.gov or Ms. Sarah E. Brown

at sbrown@stars.gsfc.nasa.gov.

The SUNBEAMS webpage is

http://space.gsfc.nasa.gov/sunbeams/

SUNBEAMS students touring the thermal blanket

assembly room at NASA GSFC.

Students in computer lab putting up web pages describing

their week at NASA GSFC.
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NASA OSS program provides hands-on field experience

for SIPI geology students.

Stars on Earth

Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute

Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute

(SIPI), located in Albuquerque, New Mexico is a

national Indian community college. Its

geographical location, in the heart of Indian

country, as well as the center of New Mexico’s

technology corridor, affords its students a myriad

of cultural and scientific resources. Last winter

SIPI was one of 15 institutions selected by NASA

OSS to participate in a major effort to develop

space science capabilities at minority universities.

(For in-depth coverage see Voyages, May 2001,

http://spacescience.nasa.gov/education/news)

SIPI President Dr. Carolyn Elgin notes that “Stars

on Earth has definitely impacted the SIPI academic

program through the development and

implementation of the geology and astronomy

courses, which are transferable to a four-year

institution.”

Stars on Earth is a year-round academic and

research based program opportunity for

underrepresented students to build a solid

foundation in Earth and planetary sciences,

mathematics, technology and communications.

The multifaceted program addresses the needs of

both high school and community college student

participants. Area high school students, SIPI

students and graduate students at the University

of New Mexico work cooperatively to expand their

knowledge of earth and planetary sciences under

the auspices of the NASA Space Science grant. The

program is under the direction of Principal

Investigator, Ms. Catherine L. Abeita, Special

Programs Coordinator at SIPI, and Co-Principal

Investigator, Dr. Horton Newsom, Institute of

Meteoritics and Earth and Planetary Sciences,

University of New Mexico Research Professor

Significant accomplishments during 2001

include:

• Saturday Academies during which high

school students were actively engaged in projects

that integrate Earth and space science,

mathematics and English. Students participated

in NASA’s Student Involvement Program.

• A six-week residential program during

which students attended Earth and space, life, and

environmental science classes and labs, developed

research projects, and interacted with

professionals in the field.

• Development and implementation of

physical geology 101 and 101 lab courses for

students attending SIPI.

• Development of an introductory astronomy

course in collaboration with the University of New

Mexico. The course will be offered at SIPI during

the Spring 2002 trimester.

• In collaboration with the Institute of

Meteoritics at University of New Mexico (UNM),

the establishment of a meteorite identification

laboratory at SIPI that provides internship/

research experience for college and high school

students.

The establishment of the SIPI Meteorite

Identification laboratory has given high school

and college students a chance to learn more about

Earth and planetary sciences, to participate in

meaningful research, and to interact with

professionals in the field. UNM’s Institute of

Meteoritics receives some 200 rock samples a year

from the public who send them in thinking that

they might be meteorites. According to

Dr. Newsom, one or two meteorites are identified

at the Institute annually. SIPI students now help

in identification based upon characteristics of

density, mineral content, shape, and texture. The

relationships established through the collaborative

may well influence the career choices of the

participants. Meteorite Lab interns are very

excited because within the last month, a meteorite

may have been identified here at SIPI!

Contact Cathy Abeita (cabeita@sipi.bia.edu)

for more information about Stars on Earth.
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hear or see the

presenter, their

partner did

their best to

communicate

the lesson and

instructions to

them. Partners

helped to record

comments. As

most did not

know sign language and were not used to having

a hearing or vision loss, there was much confusion,

laughter and some frustration at the beginning.

In the end however, there was a much more

complete awareness of the environment in which

both the special needs student learns and the

conditions for which the exceptional needs

teachers must plan and design their lesson plans

and activities.

By the end of the workshop, all had learned a

great deal about their own learning styles and how

to better prepare teaching materials. They had also

developed a much deeper appreciation for the

truly exceptional students and educators.

Summary recommendations for those creating E/

PO Outreach materials are available from SERCH.

Contact Dr. Cassandra Runyon or Kathryn

Guimond at 1-888-873-9475.

Watch the SERCH website (http://

serch.cofc.edu/serch) for information regarding

the next workshop Exceptional Technology for

Exceptional Space Science Materials planned for late

Spring 2002.

Exceptional Space Science Materials for

Exceptional Students

Southeast Regional Clearing House (SERCH)

This past June, SERCH hosted a workshop for

special needs teachers and NASA personnel who

develop educational materials and exhibit

resources. The purpose of the workshop was to

(1) familiarize developers of NASA OSS education

materials with the diversity of exceptional

classroom and audience needs; (2) familiarize

educators of exceptional students with the wide

variety of standards-based space science

educational support materials available from

NASA; (3) evaluate several popular classroom

materials from the different OSS themes for use

in exceptional classrooms; and (4) build a

communication and support network of

exceptional teachers and NASA mission-related

personnel.

The workshop included training by special

needs teachers to expose participants to what it is

like to be blind, deaf, and/or physically

challenged.

W orkshop

participants

experienced visual

impairment by

donning goggles

and blindfolds that

simulated

impairments

ranging from total blindness to cataract growth

and hearing impairment through a variety of

earplugs that caused partial to total hearing loss.

To better understand the learning environment of

special needs students, each member of the

audience was asked to assume a different

impairment and/or disability for each of the

E/PO activities presented.

The participants were paired with a colleague

with a different ‘condition’ to facilitate lesson

completion and to share their thoughts as they

executed the exercises. OSS activities presented

included posters, CD ROMs, web sites, music,

hands-on activities from each of the four OSS

education themes and the contents of the

Multisensory Space Science Kit (See Voyages,

January 2001, http://spacescience.nasa.gov/

education/news/ for information on the

Multisensory Kit.) In instances where the

participant could not manipulate a keyboard, or

Live From Mars 2001

Passport To Knowledge

On October 23, 2001, Mars Odyssey entered

Mars orbit. One week later, LIVE FROM MARS

2001, a TV special created and distributed by

PASSPORT TO KNOWLEDGE (P2K), originated

from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), to take

students and teachers behind the scenes to interact

directly with the men and women who wrote this

latest chapter in solar system exploration.

(http://passporttoknowledge.com)

The broadcast was carried live by over 130

participating PBS stations and NASA-TV, and was

webcast by JPL and NASA’s “Classroom of the

Future.” Guests at JPL included Odyssey deputy

Blindfolds make glider flying a

challenge!
11

Mars Student Imaging Project (MSIP)

Arizona State University

Arizona State University, NASA, and the Jet

Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) have partnered to

create the Mars Student Imaging Project (MSIP).

MSIP offers students the ability to be involved in

authentic Mars research - teams in grades 5

through the junior college level can image a site

using ASU’s Thermal Emission Imaging System

(THEMIS) camera onboard the Mars Odyssey

spacecraft and conduct image analysis research

that will contribute to exploring Mars. Student

teams will be able to participate in four different

types of MSIP missions : 5-day and 3-day on-site

missions at ASU, distance-learning missions, and

archived data missions. A downloadable

educator guide will be available on-line to help

educators incorporate these standards-aligned

activities into their existing curriculum. MSIP

will provide educators with an engaging,

innovative, exciting educational activity that is

fun for students and also addresses national

science educational standards. For additional

information, please check the MSIP website at

http://msip.asu.edu/

New on the Web: Enhanced Space Science

Access for Museums and Planetariums

Structure and Evolution of the Universe Forum

Every year millions of students, teachers, and

family groups get their astronomy education at

science centers, museums and planetariums.

These are vital venues for astronomy and space

science education. To help make the rich resources

of NASA’s Space Science research efforts more

available to these institutions, Space Science Access

( http://mo-www .harvar d.edu/

spacescienceaccess) has been created. Space Science

Access has three main sections:

• NASA’s Space Science Resources provides a

single portal with annotated links to access images,

data, education programs and human resources

of particular interest to planetariums and science

centers. The growing list of exhibits developed in

partnership with NASA OSS E/PO projects

appears here, along with links to the best sources

of high-resolution space science images.

• Project Sharing supports ongoing

communication by providing a bulletin board

where those working on developing informal

project manager, Roger Gibbs, updating the status

of the spacecraft from the Mission Support Area

(MSA), surrounded by the navigators and other

team members who had gotten Odyssey to Mars.

On-camera were Dr. Vicky Hamilton, a member

of Dr. Phil Christensen’s team from Arizona State

and Dr. John Callas, Mars 2003 Exploration Rover

science manager. Video questions came in from

schools in Maryland, Michigan, Idaho and

Montreal, Canada. Through P2K’s unique webbased resource “ON-AIR”, more than 200 e-mail

questions poured in. Some were literally

answered “on-air,” but all received personal

replies from teams of volunteers at the JPL MSA

and the Mars

Imaging Facility

at Arizona State.

In addition to the

latest Mars

Odyssey

information,

background

reports covered

past “Mysteries

and Marvels,

Water and Life”,

“Missions to Mars”, and “Odyssey’s Long

Journey”—including assembly scenes at Lockheed

Martin Astronautics in Denver, and pre-launch

activities at NASA Kennedy Space Center.

Wrote one teacher from Michigan, “I know my

seventh graders were thrilled with the opportunity

to participate in this broadcast. We are in the

middle of a unit about the solar system, and this

was a fantastic way to expose them to the absolute

latest developments in science. I know that

providing the opportunity for the students to

e-mail their questions really got them involved in

the entire process, and they were really amazed

to get replies back so soon.”

A follow-up broadcast, Live From Mars 2002

on March 19, 2002, will update viewers on new

results “just in” from Mars Odyssey. Students will

see how Odyssey’s instruments use parts of the

electromagnetic spectrum beyond visible light to

discover otherwise hidden aspects of Mars’

mysterious surface. Live From Mars 2002 will

explain how “virtual observations” are open to

any teams of students, anywhere, via the Internet.

Roger Gibbs chats with student

from Michigan.

through the Mars Student Imaging Project. (See

details in the following article).
12

Space Day will blast off on May 2, 2002. The

goal of Space Day is to advance science, math and

technology education and to inspire children to

realize the vision of our space pioneers. Cochaired by former Senator John Glenn, this awardwinning global celebration is dedicated to the

extraordinary achievements, benefits and

opportunities in the exploration of space.

Space Day 2002 - Adventure to Mars! will focus

children’s attention on expanding our scientific

frontiers to one of Earth’s nearest planetary

neighbors. Three new Design Challenges created

by Challenger Center for Space Science Education will

provide teachers with the right stuff to lift

students’ interest. Visit the Space Day website

(http://www.spaceday.com) for more

information on the Design Challenges.

On the Horizon On the Horizon On the Horizon

To receive an electronic copy of future

newsletters, contribute an article or have questions

about getting involved with the NASA OSS

Education and Public Outreach Program, contact

Larry Cooper, Editor. (larrycooper@oai.org)

Back issues of Voyages are online at http://

spacescience.nasa.gov/education/news/

NASA’s Sun Earth Connection Education

Forum (SECEF) is developing and supporting the

2nd annual Sun Earth Day, an education and

public outreach event that will be held on March

20, 2002, to celebrate the Equinox and share The

Real Reasons for the Seasons, a new GEMS Teacher

Guide featured in Voyages, January 2001, issue.

Participant kits will be distributed in January 2002,

and a new web cast is being developed. New

activities with projects such as Telescopes in

Education (http://tie.jpl.nasa.gov/tie/) and

Astronomy With a Stick (daytime astronomy for

elementary and middle school - http://

www.nsta.org/programs/sst/aws/)will be

featured. The web cast will include a celebration

of the Equinox through a Native American

collaboration, and student interactions through

activities selected to enhance student knowledge

about the Sun and seasons. Updates, participation

opportunities, and ideas can be found on the

Sun-Earth Day website:

http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/sunearthday

SEU Missions Bring High Energy Astronomy

to Educators

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GFSC)

Several SEU missions participated in a daylong teachers’ workshop in April 2001, organized

by Dr. James Lochner (GSFC) and sponsored by

the Gamma-Ray large Area Space Telescope

(GLAST) mission and NASA GSFC. Local

teachers attended and heard content-rich talks on

gamma-ray bursts and other exciting topics in

gamma-ray astronomy from experts such as Dr.

Steve Ritz (GSFC) and Dr. Chryssa Kouveliotou

of NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. There

were also two hands-on presentations to engage

the teachers. The first presentation, developed by

Dr. Laura Whitlock of Sonoma State University

(SSU) as part of the Swift E/PO program, and

presented by Dr. Philip Plait (SSU), encouraged

the teachers to study wave motion by playing with

slinkies, and develop math skills by using a special

deck of cards featuring 13 astronomical or Earthobjects, in the four “suits” of Mass, Distance,

Energy and Time. A second workshop, conducted

by Dr. Padi Boyd (GSFC) and Dr. Alan and Karen

Smale (GSFC) showed ways to use gamma-ray

bursts to engage student learning. The gammaray burst teachers’ activity book and posters used

during this workshop are on-line and available at

http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/teachers/

gammaraybursts/gammaraybursts.html

astronomy education projects can post

descriptions and photos of projects “in the

works.”

• Best Practices contains education research,

lessons learned in past space science education

and public outreach projects, and other

information meant to contribute to improving the

quality of future programs and products.

The site debuted at the October 2001, meeting

of the Association of Science -Technology Centers

in Phoenix, Arizona and will be evolving as users

provide feedback and new resources are added.

The site has an on-line evaluation form. Everyone

with suggestions for new links or site

improvements is encouraged to fill it out, or email

spacescienceaccess@cfa.harvard.edu. Don’t

forget to use the Project Sharing bulletin board to

post information about your informal science

education and public outreach projects!

Sun Earth Day - Celebrate the Equinox