Alice Wessen, Jet Propulsion Laboratory

“For everyone . . . must see that astronomy compels

the soul to look upwards and leads us from this 

world to another.”

—Plato (427–347 b.c.)

Our study of Saturn is an international endeavor.

Seventeen countries are participating in the CassiniHuygens mission of discovery. Taking 7 years to reach

Saturn, the 4-year orbital tour is one of the most complicated planetary exploration missions ever undertaken and we anticipate that there will be many 

surprises. The spacecraft will carry out an extensive

study of the planet’s atmosphere, magnetic field, and

rings; the satellite Titan; and a number of the smaller

icy moons. Titan, Saturn’s largest satellite, is the target

of the Huygens instrument probe, which will be

released from Cassini in late December.

A primitive telescope and a fascination with

stargazing spurred the curiosity of the namesake for the

Cassini-Huygens mission—Jean-Dominique Cassini

(1625– 1712). Mentoring and tutelage from the scientists

of his day provided the foundation for Cassini’s interest

in the heavens. Today, the beauty of Saturn and the mystery of Titan create a universal language of “wow.” The

Cassini-Huygens Education and Public Outreach

(E/PO) team seeks to inspire the public and future

stargazers with a variety of programs.

For the Classroom

With Cassini-Huygens’ E/PO program, the journey to

Saturn starts in the classroom for our Nation’s youngest

learners with the Cassini-Huygens K–4 literacy program (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/education/edu-k4.

cfm).

Because literacy is critical in the early stages of

learning and academic achievement, the CassiniHuygens E/PO team is using the science and technology of the Cassini-Huygens mission to enhance the

teaching of science for young learners by using a language arts format. All materials are aligned with

national science education standards and the National

Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) English

Language Arts standards.

Tested in underserved elementary classrooms in

the Oakland, CA, area, pre- and post-tests of children’s

work show exciting implications for reaching children

from a variety of backgrounds. Even very young learners show significant gains in learning the materials.

In addition, 400 educators who visited the

Cassini-Huygens booth at the 2004 International

Reading Association conference praised the writers

who created the curricular materials of the project: the

National/Bay Area Writing Project, Fostering Reading

Through Science and Technology (Project FIRST),

and the Caltech Precollege Science Initiative (CAPSI).

Educators who reviewed the materials felt that elemenA Space Science

Education

Newsletter

Education and Public Outreach

Seven Years, 17 Countries, One Planet:

The Cassini-Huygens Public Engagement Program

ON THE INSIDE

3 Updates

4 Award

5 New Exhibit

Friends Planet Walk

5 Education Products

7 Education Programs

FIRST Robotics Competition

MUCERPI Program—

Fisk University

Journey Through the Universe

MIT/Chandra AfterSchool Project

MESSENGER Workshop

Science Camps for 

Blind Students

Pacific Science Center 

“Origins” Training Workshop

Astronomy, Space Travel,

and Literacy Workshop

Learning from the 

Frontier Workshop

11 Scientists in Education 

and Public Outreach

12 On the Horizon

A Space Science

Education

Newsletter

September 2004

Issue 12

A picture of Saturn from Cassini’s narrow-angle camera taken 

on May 21, 2004. By this point, Saturn and its rings were larger

than the camera’s field of view.
2 VOYAGES IN EDUCATION AND PUBLIC OUTREACH

tary teachers without a strong science background would

be more comfortable presenting a language arts unit with

science as the content.

The Cassini-Huygens Mission Literacy Program is

now on MERLOT as a distinguished, high-quality source

of learning material. MERLOT (http://www.merlot.

org) is an online community of faculty who are collaborating to increase the quantity of Web-based, interactive

teaching and learning materials.

Materials and Programs for the Museum

and Planetarium Community

In the months leading up to Cassini-Huygens’ Saturn

Orbit Insertion (SOI), planetariums, Solar System

Ambassadors, schools, and more were playing the

award-winning planetarium show “Ring World.” The

flavor of the events reflects the diversity of the countries

involved. Today, an enthusiastic and active network of

astronomers, educators, museums, and planeteria have

joined together to share Saturn with the public. Members

of the Cassini-Huygens Saturn Observation Campaign

(SOC) lead at least three to five observation events yearly.

SOC members have participated in online training and

program activity reviews conducted by NASA’s Jet

Propulsion Laboratory. A section of the CassiniHuygens Web site is dedicated to resources, event

announcements, observation techniques, and educational material related to planetary observation.

Handouts for events are also available for downloading

from the Web site. SOC members have year-round support via e-mail and the World Wide Web, and they are

able to download and print materials from the Internet.

They report to Cassini-Huygens outreach regarding the

number and demographics of event attendees, but, more

importantly, they share their stories, their personal pictures, and drawings from the public.

Today, there are 326 active organizations in

the SOC, with 100 in 39 foreign countries and 

226 in 42 States throughout the United States. CassiniHuygens E/PO continues to welcome future SOC

members. Applications for membership can be found at

http://soc.jpl.nasa.gov/index.cfm.

Events by SOC members for the SOI were held on

June 30 around the world, from Campos dos Goytacazes,

Brazil, to Maastricht, Netherlands, and throughout the

United States. The Cockermouth Astronomy Club held

a Saturn Day at the Rum Story in Whitehaven, England.

Events were held by the Sirius Stargazers in Sterling State

Park, MI, and the Brownsville, TX, Public Library. An

estimated 17,000 watched “Ring World” in Valencia,

Spain, while “down under” the girls of the State Guide

Camp at Redland Bay in Queensland, Australia, held

several star parties. All joined together to gaze at one particular ringed planet.

While SOI heralded the official start of CassiniHuygens’ 4-year orbital tour, we expect the mission to

unveil many secrets over the years. Cassini-Huygens

E/PO will share those discoveries with the public and the

museum community through the museum alliance

started by Mars Public Engagement. Teleconferences

with mission personnel and scientists help interpret the

science of the mission, while the museum community

helps interpret the data for local communities. The data

from all 12 instruments and the wealth of images (500

plus daily) will be posted to the mission Web site at

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov for museums and the world

to view. Animation and images are mailed out to the

museum community for it to produce its own local 

programming.

The mission Web site supports multiple audiences, including those who want to know “where 

is Cassini now?” (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/opera

1. Pre-Test, Second-Grade Student

2. Post-Test, Second-Grade Student
A NASA SPACE SCIENCE EDUCATION NEWSLETTER SEPTEMBER 2004 3

tions/present-position.cfm). “Where is Cassini now?”

is updated continuously by mission planners and is one

of the most trafficked sections of the Web site.

Other popular sections include a frequently asked

questions site, a kids’ site with Saturn fun facts that is 

also featured on the NASA Portal http://saturn.jpl.

nasa.gov/kids/index.cfm, a moon count section, and 

e-postcards from Saturn.

From the classroom to the solar system, wherever

imagination soars, the Cassini-Huygens Education and

Public Outreach program seeks to inspire the next generation of explorers.

“Imagination is more important than knowledge.

Knowledge is limited, imagination encircles the world.”

—Albert Einstein (1879–1955)

The Venus Transit

NASA’s Sun-Earth Connection Education Forum

(SECEF)

The historic transit of Venus across the Sun took place on

June 8, and it was a major success in terms of both its formal and informal education impact. On the Internet, the

NASA Portal and SECEF Web sites received over 40

million hits during the 40-hour period around the transit

time. Over 1,000 news media interviews and related stories were filed with all of the major newspaper, TV, and

radio outlets. The NASA-Exploratorium Webcast from

Athens, Greece, was graced by good weather, and its

program was heavily viewed by Web visitors and

employed by over 100 museums across the country as

part of their transit activities. It also was carried live by

NASA TV and the Discovery Channel. Over 100 amateur astronomers registered with the Astronomical

League to participate in an SECEF-partnered observing

certificate program to determine the astronomical unit.

Similar activities have been developed and are now available to teachers and students. Spectacular images from

the TRACE satellite showed the transit in its entirety,

while the SOHO satellite also showed the approach, near

transit, and recession of Venus (see photos). The data will

be packaged so that museums, planetaria, and schools

can continue to use it for educational purposes in the

months and years to come.

Ambassadors Support

Space Day Kickoff Activities

Kay Ferrari, Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Six Solar System Ambassadors from Maryland,

Virginia, North Carolina, and Kentucky, along with two

friends and a Cassini SOC member, joined Sheri Klug

and Kay Ferrari on May 6 for the National Space Day

Kickoff held at the new Stephen F. Udvar-Hazy Center

near Dulles Airport.

Following the opening ceremony, these volunteers

staffed booths sponsored by three missions that offered

hands-on activities for the approximately 1,500 sixthgrade students in attendance from schools in Virginia

and Maryland.

The Mars booth featured three activities designed

to engage students in scientific inquiry. One group determined the landing site of the Spirit rover using

photographs taken by the lander as it descended to the

Martian surface. A second group analyzed images taken

UPDATES

Venus seen as a black disk in the solar corona.

(SOHO image)

Venus seen as a black disk in front of the solar surface.

(TRACE image)

Solar System Ambassador Ian Hewitt from North Carolina

staffing MER landing.
4 VOYAGES IN EDUCATION AND PUBLIC OUTREACH

by the Mars Odyssey. At the same time, a third group

investigated “Mystery Planet” crystal samples, posted its

discoveries on a board, and was asked to name the planet

from which the samples came.

Next door in the Deep Impact booth, students

learned how the “impactor” on this spacecraft will blast

open a football-field-sized crater in comet Tempel 1 in

order to study the interior of that body. They also cut out

and assembled paper impactor models.

In the third booth, sponsored by the CassiniHuygens mission, students used a desk chair and

styrofoam balls to demonstrate the synchronous rotation

of Saturn’s moons around the planet.

This year marks the first time the Space Day

Foundation has invited local-area students to attend the

kickoff and participate in a day of activities.

Support Network Members

Attend the Council for

Exceptional Children 

2004 Convention and Expo

Dr. Cassandra Runyon, South East Regional

Clearing House (SERCH)

“NASA is the best thing to ever happen to my students—

they came alive when we started working with your

materials!”

—Special Education Teacher, Louisiana

“Thank you for your materials and what you are doing.

NASA and space science lights a fire in my students and

creates a desire for them to learn more.”

—Special Education Teacher, Florida

Members from the space science education Support

Network attended the Council for Exceptional Children

(CEC) 2004 Convention and Expo in New Orleans,

LA, April 14–17, 2004. CEC is the largest international

professional organization dedicated to improving education outcomes for individuals with exceptionalities,

students with disabilities, and/or the gifted. Attendance

at this year’s convention and expo was over 6,300 and

included special and general education teachers, administrators, principals, and special education directors. We

had the pleasure of meeting and talking with the Director

of CEC, the Director of the National Center for

Disability Services, and representatives from many

school districts from across the country, including several

from predominately Native American- and Hispanicserving school districts.

CEC advocates for newly and historically underserved individuals with exceptionalities and appropriate

governmental policies, sets professional standards, provides continual professional development, and helps

professionals obtain conditions and resources necessary

for effective professional practice.

Personnel from the SERCH Broker/Facilitator

and the Origins Education Forum presented a poster session on “Exceptional Space Science Materials for

Exceptional Children” as part of the CEC Convention

and Expo. Through this session they were able to speak

intimately about what SERCH and the space science

education Support Network have been doing to make

their educational products more accessible. Several

demonstrations and a variety of materials were shared

with those visiting the poster session. All of our materials

went in a flash! A huge thank you to all who sent materials

and helped to support this meeting with us!

Plans are already underway for next year’s conference in Baltimore, April 6–9, 2005. To join the SERCH,

Sun-Earth Connection, and Origins education forums in

the fun, contact Kathryn Guimond at serch@cofc.edu.

Sun-Earth Media Viewer

Wins Prestigious Pirelli

Internetional Award

Karin Hauck (SECEF) and Jim Spadaccini (Ideum)

On May 27, Elaine Lewis, of NASA’s Sun-Earth

Connection Education Forum (SECEF), found herself in

Rome’s historic Temple of Hadrian to receive the Pirelli

Internetional Award on behalf of her SECEF team and its

AWARD
A NASA SPACE SCIENCE EDUCATION NEWSLETTER SEPTEMBER 2004 5

partner, Ideum. SECEF’s Sun-Earth Viewer (http://

ds9.ssl.berkeley.edu/viewer/flash/flash.html)—a

multimedia lesson on the interaction between the Sun and

Earth—was honored with a ¤15,000 Pirelli Internetional

Award for “Best Environmental Multimedia Project”

(http://www.pirelliaward.com).

The Pirelli Internetional Award is open to all

Internet users worldwide, for the best multimedia works

which contribute to the dissemination of scientific and

technological culture through the Internet. The award is

presented every year to works oriented toward education,

the environment, or the latest information and communication technologies. It aims to promote the spread of

scientific culture by merging the values of culture with

the passion for new technologies.

The Sun-Earth Media Viewer is a Flash-based

interactive toolkit built to support NASA’s/SECEF’s

major public outreach initiatives. The viewer allows users

to watch real-time NASA satellite images of the Sun and

Earth. A thumbnail viewer lets them explore and compare

solar and terrestrial data from a variety of NASA missions

and ground-based observatories. In addition, the viewer

contains video interviews with scientists and other

experts. Computer-generated visualizations and additional NASA footage are also available.

SECEF and Ideum were tremendously honored

by the international acknowledgment of their educational

outreach work. 

NASA Mission Contributes

Sun Station to Planet Walk

Barbara Lambert, Goddard Space Flight Center

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in

Greenbelt, MD, has joined with the Friends of Anne

Arundel County Trails to create a project that will enable

visitors to stroll, bike, or skate through the solar system.

The two groups will work together in a partnership to

complete the Friends Planet Walk, a 4.6-mile linear

exhibit of our solar system that is being developed along

the B&A Trail in Maryland.

Each of the stations is unique in shape, size, and

concept and will contain a full complement of educational displays relevant to and centering around a

one-of-a-kind art sculpture for that planet.

The stainless steel sculpture for the Sun Station was

installed in May and rises 24feet in the air. It is topped by a

10-foot sphere comprised of 9

stainless steel circles and 48

large acrylic prisms. Included

in the landscaping surrounding the site will be educational

graphics and text about the

Sun. The exhibit will be accessible to those with disabilities,

and a companion Web site will

provide lesson plans, activities,

and information for educators

and the public.

NASA’s Solar Dynamics

Observatory Project (SDO), a

mission in the Living With A

Star program (LWS) at

GSFC, was responsible for

creating the educational content and graphics for the signage that will be installed at the Sun Station this summer.

The panel design and processes developed by the SDO

staff will serve as the template for all the stations in this

incredible exhibit.

Hubble Meets the Giant Screen

John Stoke, Space Telescope Science Institute

(STScI)

After upgrades in 2002, the Hubble Space Telescope

(HST) began to deliver images of such immensity that it

seemed time for HST to meet the biggest of screens—

IMAX!

Conventional production in this enormous movie

format costs hundreds of thousands of dollars per minute—

much more than we had to spend. So we opted for the

unconventional, producing entirely in-house the “pilot”

episode of what we hope will become a series of computerrendered, trailer-length explorations of the universe as seen

by HST. With the generous support of IMAX Corporation

(who donated lab services and materials), Hubble: Galaxies

Across Space and Time was born. The three-minute film

features a fantastic simulated flight through a field of galaxies photographed by HST and placed in 3-D perspective.

The film was shown at the Large Format Cinema

Association (LFCA) Film Festival in April 2004, where

it was voted “Best Short Feature.”

Many theaters have expressed interest in showing

the film as a bonus before their main feature. It is available

EDUCATION PRODUCTS

NEW EXHIBIT

Installation of the Sun Station sculpture on the

B&A Trail in Maryland.
6 VOYAGES IN EDUCATION AND PUBLIC OUTREACH

for booking at no cost (see http://hubblesource.stsci.

edu/exhibits/largefilm/, where a small QuickTime clip

of the film can be previewed). Currently it is running at the

Maryland Science Center in Baltimore, the Reuben Fleet

Science Center in San Diego, and the New Detroit

Science Center. Additional bookings are in the works.

Audience reaction has been positive; a console operator in

San Diego reports: “The public is responding well to the

Hubble footage. Their mouths are hanging open.”

New Solar Science Classroom

Supplement Kit

Dr. Steele Hill and Dennis Christopher, Goddard

Space Flight Center

The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO)

Education and Public Outreach (E/PO) program has

entered into a venture with Ward’s Natural Science to produce a series of hands-on classroom supplement kits that tie

to the theme of space weather. Dennis Christopher and

Steele Hill approached Ward’s, the largest distributor of

school kits in the world, at the National Science Teachers

Association (NSTA) meeting and found an immediate

interest on the company’s part. This effort will make the kits

available to teachers on a national scale. Topics for the kits

will include magnetism, the scale of Earth and the Sun, and

how space weather relates to everyday life. These kits will

be generic enough for any solar mission to adapt them to its

E/PO needs. They also will be so user friendly that any

teacher, E/PO specialist, or scientist could pick them up

and use them in a classroom with minimal preparation.

The kits will be developed as a series of stand-alone

curriculum supplements, tied to science topics as identified

by solar researchers, that are correlated to national science

standards and enhanced by high-resolution graphics. Each

topic will include one or two hands-on activities with a

teacher’s guide and all the materials needed. Each topic’s

activity will be associated with a CD presentation that will

include movies and graphics that tie the activity to real data

taken from several spacecraft.

Each topic could stand alone (i.e., if a teacher was

working on a unit dealing with scale and distance,

he/she could pull this topic and use it in the lesson).

Using this approach gives the kits more flexibility inside

current curriculum. The teachers can approach the kits

as a unit, working from sunspots to solar storms to

human impact, or use each topic as a separate lesson

within their curriculum.

Ward’s hopes to have the first set of topics available

for its December catalog, with additional topics to be

added as they are completed. When all of the topics are

complete, an entire kit will be available at a discounted

price. We expect to receive a number of kits that we can

distribute to the Aerospace Education Specialist Program

(AESP), Sun-Earth Connection Education Forum

(SECEF), and mission E/PO staff.

The Space Place Rolls Out

New Web Design

Diane K. Fisher, Jet Propulsion Laboratory

The Space Place (http://spaceplace.nasa.gov), NASA’s

award-winning Web site for kids, has a whole new look

and feel. The site targets elementary school children, their

parents, and teachers. The compelling new design of the

Web site makes it even easier for kids to find their favorite

features, which include games, projects, animations, and

fun facts about space and Earth science and technology.

A frame from STScI’s IMAX film Hubble: Galaxies Across

Space and Time fills the seven-story IMAX screen. Each

frame was digitally rendered at 5.5K x 4K pixel

resolution and imaged to 70-mm film that runs through

the projector at nearly 4 feet per second.
A NASA SPACE SCIENCE EDUCATION NEWSLETTER SEPTEMBER 2004 7

The Space Place Web site is part of a multifaceted

NASA outreach program that creates unique educational

products in a variety of media and distributes them via a

highly leveraged and diverse network of partnerships. The

New Millennium Program launched the Space Place effort

in 1998and now invites all NASA missions and enterprises

to participate.

NASA Ames Robotics 

Team Upholds Ideals of 

NASA and FIRST

Jonas Dino, NASA Ames Research Center

Mention that you are involved in a robotics competition

and most people will conjure up visions of metal-to-metal

destruction, but the NASA Ames Robotic Team, Moffett

Field, CA, is starting to change that perception.

At the For the Inspiration and Recognition of

Science and Technology (FIRST) Robotics 2004

National Championship in the Georgia Dome in Atlanta,

the team didn’t take first place, but they were awarded the

highly coveted Chairman’s Award and were inducted into

the FIRST Hall of Fame.

The Chairman’s Award recognizes a team’s commitment to fellowship among people and the appreciation of

science and technology. These ideals are why NASA has

partnered with the FIRST organization, one of the many

partnerships NASA has cultivated to “inspire the next generation of explorers.”

“It has been an extremely rewarding year and a

very proud moment for me when the NASA Ames

Robotic Team was announced as the top robotics program in the Nation,” said Steve Kyramarios, engineering

mentor and NASA engineer. “This is just one of the

many results of NASA’s commitment to our youth and

support of education.”

To win the Chairman’s Award, the NASA Ames

Robotics Team #254, better known as the “Cheezy

Poofs” after a snack food from the animated series South

Park, not only were fierce competitors but also went out of

their way to help others. During the competition, the team

made over 400 repairs on about 200 robots using its

mobile repair shop.

Other team activities included mentoring and raising money to send the “Space Girls” team from Castillero

Middle School, San Jose, CA, to Atlanta and holding a

pre-regional competition scrimmage at NASA Ames for

teams in the Bay Area to practice and work out the bugs in

their robots.

The team has won many accolades and titles, but

the true test of a program is how it has changed the lives of

the people who have been involved in it.

“Working with NASA engineers has given me

insights into the business world,” said Chris Ishisoko,

Cheezy Poof team president. “In addition, serving as

team president has

given me the opportunity to develop my

leadership skills and

learn what running a

business can be like.

I’ve learned to work

with people, coordinate

projects and delegate

tasks, and manage

financial resources and

human capital.”

“Ever since I was

young, I always saw NASA scientists as some sort of

mighty godlike figures on a higher plane that I could never

attain,” said Adrian Santos, team leader. “Working alongside some of these brilliant individuals on the NASA Ames

Robotics Team has made me realize that with enough hard

work and dedication, I could someday become a NASA

engineer too.”

How this program affects lives is why NASA,

through the NASA Robotics Education Project, has

helped FIRST expand from its original 28 teams to over

900 national and international teams with 26 regional

competitions and a national championship. The NASA

Office of Space Science funds the Robotics Education

Project under the direction of David Lavery, program

executive for Solar System Exploration.

Related Web sites: 

NASA Ames Robotics: http://team254.bcp.org/

NASA Robotics Education Project: http://robotics.nasa.gov

FIRST: http://www.usfirst.org

Fisk University Off

to a FASST Start

Arnold Burger, Fisk University

Fisk University is one of 16 institutions awarded 3-year

funding from NASA’s Minority University and College

Education and Research Partnership Initiative in Space

Science (MUCERPI) program. The MUCERPI proEDUCATION PROGRAMS

NASA Ames Robotics Team Photo with their robot and

2004 awards.
8 VOYAGES IN EDUCATION AND PUBLIC OUTREACH

gram is an initiative to actively engage minority institutions

in developing substantial space science capabilities.

Through MUCERPI funding, and in close collaboration with Vanderbilt University, we have established the

Fisk Astronomy and Space Science Training (FASST) program. The main objective of

FASST is to increase the

participation of underrepresented minorities pursuing careers in astronomy 

and other space-sciencerelated disciplines. The

program includes research,

teaching, and outreach as

its major components.

One of the key goals

of the MUCERPI program is to build collaborations. Fisk has become

one of the members of the

Detectors Technical Working Group for the Energetic

X-ray Timing Survey Telescope (EXIST). EXIST is a

mission concept under study as a Black Hole Finder Probe

(BHFP), one of the three Einstein probe missions in the

Beyond Einstein Program in the NASA Strategic Plan.

Researchers at Fisk will investigate various concepts for

efficient detectors to be used for imaging gamma-ray bursts

(GRBs), the brightest sources of cosmic gamma rays in the

observable universe.

FASST faculty will develop new curriculum that

will result in three new courses in the Department of

Physics at Fisk, which together will constitute a new concentration in astrophysics. FASST will award scholarships

each year to meritorious undergraduates majoring in

physics and related disciplines to carry out the concentration and to conduct supervised research. Graduate

students also will participate through a new joint master’sPh.D. program with Vanderbilt University.

Mr. Thompson LeBlanc, a Fisk graduate student,

is the first to enroll in the FASST program. He, together

with his mentor, Dr. Keivan Stassun, Co-Director of

FASST and a professor at Vanderbilt as well as an adjunct

professor at Fisk, will perform observational astrophysics

research using the SMARTS telescopes in Chile.

In close partnership with Vanderbilt’s historic

Dyer Observatory, the FASST program will organize

training workshops for K–12 teachers, host educational

events for the public, and sponsor other activities. These

activities include the Fisk-Vanderbilt NASA Roadshow,

which brings the excitement of astronomy and space science to K–12 classrooms and community-based groups

around Tennessee.

The program also will benefit from collaborations with astronomy and space science programs at

Yale University, University of Wisconsin-Madison,

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, NASA

Marshall Space Flight Center, NASA Goddard Space

Flight Center, Harvard University, and Washington

University in St. Louis.

For more information about the FASST program, visit

http://www.physics.vanderbilt.edu/fasst/ or contact Arnold

Burger, FASST Director, aburger@fisk.edu or Keivan Stassun,

FASST Co-Director, keivan.stassun@vanderbilt.edu.

Community Takes a Journey

Through the Universe

Jennifer King, Challenger Center for Space

Science Education

Few people ever have the opportunity to venture

beyond Earth’s atmosphere to witness the wonders of

our universe, much less the chance to share that kind of

experience with friends and family. But what if we all

could see cutting-edge research, talk to scientists, and,

as families and communities, discover more about the

world around us? For more than 4 years, Challenger

Center’s Journey through the Universe program has

been doing just that—taking entire communities to the

space frontier.

A recent Journey Week occurred in Dickinson,

Iron, and Menominee Counties in Michigan’s northern

peninsula. Scientists and educators visited classrooms,

Dr. Brad Files uses a model to describe his work on the

Space Shuttle at NASA Johnson Space Center. 

Photo by Bill Bertoldi

Thompson LeBlanc (right) with Dr. David James

(left) in the control room of the SMARTS 1.5 meter

telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American

Observatory (CTIO) in Chile. Thompson is a firstyear master’s student at Fisk, and the first student

in the new Fisk-Vanderbilt master’s-Ph.D.

component of the FASST program. Thompson is

conducting research on star formation under the

direction of Dr. James and Dr. Keivan Stassun, both

of whom hold joint appointments at Fisk and

Vanderbilt Universities as part of the MUCERPIfunded FASST program.
A NASA SPACE SCIENCE EDUCATION NEWSLETTER SEPTEMBER 2004 9

trained teachers, and spoke to families across the community. The average reach for a Journey Week is 100

classroom presentations in 40 schools, reaching 5,000

students; 110 educators trained; and 2–3 Family Science

Nights with 1,000 attendees.

“The program truly reflects the philosophy it takes

a village to raise a child,” says Dr. Jeff Goldstein, the program’s director. “Educators are given the tools and

training to bring the universe into the classroom. Parents

and children learn together through evening programs.

Thousands of students are visited by researchers who are

passionate about what they do and are gifted at communicating that passion to audiences of all ages.”

This was Dickinson-Iron-Menominee’s first year,

and the community was excited. “We’re just thrilled to be a

part of this. Science is a critical field, both now and in the

future,” said Deb Kroll, part of the local team and principal

at Lincoln School in Menominee.

As one fourth-grade student put it, “Now just

because of the facts I learned at the show I like science a lot

more. [Before this program] I only thought about science

as a subject in school that you had to get good grades in.”

If you would like your community to become part of the

Journey through the Universe network, or to find out more, 

e-mail journey@challenger.org.

MIT/Chandra After-School

Astronomy Project (ASAP)

Irene Porro and Charlotte Zeamer, MIT Center for

Space Research

The MIT/Chandra ASAP is the result of a collaboration

coordinated by the MIT Center for Space Research

education and public outreach office and included the

NASA-Smithsonian Structure and Evolution of the

Universe Education Forum, the Timothy Smith

Network (TSN), and the Boston 2:00-to-6:00 AfterSchool Initiative. ASAP was designed to provide youth

in out-of-school time programs with an opportunity to

reinforce learning in space science through activities that

also develop students’ computer skills. During nine

after-school sessions held at two TSN centers, youth

from the Boston Public Schools conducted their own

explorations of the night sky. They did so using

MicroObservatory, a network of educational telescopes

that can be controlled over the Internet and that the

Universe Education Forum made available to this program. Our students then compared their optical images

with x-ray images taken with the Chandra x-ray satellite.

They learned that the universe looks very different when

seen through different “colors” of light and that only by

bringing together the information revealed by visible

and x-ray images can we start to understand some of the

mysteries of our universe. 

“Staying Cool”:

A MESSENGER Workshop

Amy Wolfe, Challenger Center for Space Science

Education

Members of the MESSENGER Education and Public Outreach (E/PO) team

traveled to Cocoa Beach, FL, this May to

participate in NASA’s Explorer Schools

(NES) Student Symposium. The team

members trained teachers on “Staying

Cool,” a standards-based education unit

for the MESSENGER spacecraft mission

to Mercury. Teachers were thrilled to

receive information on such comprehensive inquiry-based lessons for grades

pre-K–12. MESSENGER E/PO team

members also conducted several activities

from “Staying Cool” with students.

Students were excited to learn about this upcoming mission and to participate in hands-on activities, several of

which took place outdoors. MESSENGER Principal

Investigator (PI) Sean Solomon capped off the day of

activities with a talk about the MESSENGER mission.

Irene Porro (first right) with ASAP students at the Roxbury Multi-Service Center

(RMSC). Surrounded by the students are Adreenne Law Hampton (left),

coordinator of the RMSC John D. O’Bryant Community Youth Center, one of the

TSN centers, and Brenda Gadson, RMSC Executive Director (right).

Sean Solomon, MESSENGER PI,

signs posters for NES students

after his presentation at the

NES Student Symposium in

Cocoa Beach.
10 VOYAGES IN EDUCATION AND PUBLIC OUTREACH

Even though the MESSENGER team members were

there to inspire our future generation of space explorers,

the students didn’t fail to inspire the team in return.

NASA Science Camps

for Blind Students

Bernhard Beck-Winchatz, DePaul University

This summer, a partnership between NASA and the

National Federation of the Blind brought blind students

from around the country to Baltimore to participate in two

science camps entitled “Circle of Life” and “Rocket On!”

The students had the opportunity to experience the excitement of NASA space exploration first hand by engaging in

hands-on science activities and by interacting with blind

and sighted NASA scientists and engineers. In addition to

exposing the students to exciting scientific research, the

camps also addressed the myth that science is too difficult

and dangerous for people who are blind as well as provided

students with the opportunity to learn about career paths at

NASA. The first camp took place July 18–24 and was

designed for blind 6th–8th graders who explored the

Chesapeake Bay ecosystem and collected and analyzed

weather and soil data. The second camp took place August

15–21 and was intended for high school students who

designed, built, and launched a scientific payload from the

Wallops Flight Facility. Both camps also included field

trips to NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and regional

science centers and museums.

Pacific Science Center “Origins”

Training Workshop

Len Adams, Pacific Science Center and Carole Rest,

Origins Education Forum

The Pacific Science Center (PSC), in collaboration with the

Origins Education Forum, held a rewarding 3-day workshop May 12–14 at the Space Telescope Science Institute

(STScI) in Baltimore to support the educational outreach

program of the “Origins” television series on NOVA.

The television series, airing September 28 and 29

on PBS, will explore the origins of the universe, solar system, Earth, life on Earth, and the search for life elsewhere

in the universe. Educational materials will build off and

complement the interdisciplinary nature of the topics by

focusing on the underlying question—what is the evidence for our present understanding of the subject?

Using materials provided by the PSC, 10 partner

museums across the country serving diverse populations

will conduct a variety of programming, including

demonstrations, activities, 2-hour workshops, and community celebrations. The Origins Education Forum will

furnish each museum with the hardware and software

needed to support ViewSpace, a multimedia exhibit created by STScI’s Informal Science team, including a new

“Origins ViewSpace” segment developed to augment the

series. The segment portrays the story of NASA’s search

for Earth-like planets.

The workshop was designed to provide hands-on

training in the use of the PSC materials and ViewSpace,

previews of the series, planning and networking opportunities, and exposure to current NASA research. Staff

from the Mid-Atlantic Region Space Science Broker

(MARSSB) attended the workshop to meet the museum

staff and gather ideas for working with the informal science community on a regional basis. The Origins

Education Forum and MARSSB, in collaboration with

the space science education Support Network, are

exploring ways to sustain the relationship with the partner museums beyond the airing of the NOVA series.

For more information on the “Origins” NOVA series, 

contact origins@stsci.edu.

Astronomy, Space Travel,

and Literacy Workshop

Julie Lutz, Space Science Network Northwest

Space Science Network Northwest sponsored a 6-hour

workshop on Astronomy, Space Travel, and Literacy at

the University of Washington in Seattle on May 15,

2004. The workshop provided teachers of grades two

through six with ideas and materials for incorporating

space science into their literacy curricula. Emphasis was

placed on the topics that appear in the Essential

Academic Learning Requirements of Washington State.

For elementary and early middle school these topics

include Earth-Moon-Sun relationships (including seaDennis Schatz of the Pacific Science Center

demonstrates an activity using light to determine the

temperature and composition of deep space objects.
A NASA SPACE SCIENCE EDUCATION NEWSLETTER SEPTEMBER 2004 11

sons), forces, and the nature of the solar system.

Participants were introduced to NASA education

resources such as Reading, Writing and Rings,

Imagine Mars, and activities on rockets.

Workshop presenter Veronique Paquette, a 

second-grade teacher from Eastmont Elementary in

central Washington, was honored as Washington State

Teacher of the Year in 2003. The other presenter was

Jack Horne, science coordinator for the North Central

Educational Service District, which covers a large area

of central Washington. The presenters emphasized the

large gains that their English as a Second Language

(ESL) students make in reading and writing when these

students are allowed to read and write about science

topics that are engaging.

Learning from the Frontier:

Getting Planetary Data in the

Hands of Educators Workshop

Stephanie Shipp, Lunar and Planetary Institute

Approximately 60 researchers, formal and informal

education specialists, classroom educators, data

archivists, and educational product developers came

together in March in Houston, TX, to explore avenues

for bringing data into the classroom. Participants spent

the day discussing challenges facing educators who are

working with planetary data. Presentations explored

models for facilitating data access and use, examples of

effective classroom use of data, availability of data to the

educational community, and paths for accessing and

using mission data. Panel discussions focused on the

experiences of researchers, educators, and product

developers in creating and implementing programs and

on the challenges remaining for integrating planetary

data into educational environments. One outcome of

the workshop is a series of recommendations for the

development and implementation of successful programs. These recommendations are available at

http://www.lpi.usra.edu/education/score/

planetary_data/. Interested individuals can access the

agenda, participant list, and presentations and can learn

more about examples of successful models of planetary

data use and future workshops. The workshop was cohosted by the South Central Organization of

Researchers and Educators and the Solar System

Exploration Education Forum, both part of NASA’s

space science education Support Network.

This profile is based on an

interview with Dr. Marilyn

Lindstrom conducted in May

2004 by Dr. Anita Krishnamurthi at NASA Headquarters.

Dr. Lindstrom has received several awards and recognition for

her E/PO efforts such as NASA

Johnson Space Center’s Certificate of Commendation (1993

and 1998) and the NASA Exceptional Service Medal

(2000). Also in 2000, the National Science Foundation

(NSF) named a ridge in Antarctica after her in recognition

of her meteorite curation work, and the Smithsonian

named asteroid 5281 Lindstrom.

What is your current professional position?

I am the Discipline Scientist for the Planetary Instrument

Definition and Development Program at NASA

Headquarters. This program funds research proposals for

the initial instrument development for spacecraft exploring the solar system. I am also the Program Scientist for

astromaterials curation and Solar System Exploration

Education and Public Outreach (E/PO).

How did you get interested in E/PO?

I am a geochemist by training. Prior to coming to work

at NASA HQ, I was a researcher and meteorite curator

at the Johnson Space Center. While serving on the

Federal Women’s Committee (through the NASA EEO

office), I realized that the best way to increase the number of women in science and engineering was to focus on

middle school education. So, when asked, I took the

opportunity to work with some teachers to develop a

curriculum on Earth science for middle school. I was

then asked to provide some curriculum to go along with

the meteorite sample disks that were loaned to schools. I

worked with one scientist-educator colleague, half a

dozen teachers, and other scientists as needed. My

efforts in E/PO kept intensifying after that, and, as my

involvement in E/PO efforts increased, I cut back on my

research.

What were the biggest challenges to your

involvement in E/PO?

Funding to do E/PO was an issue when I was a research

scientist; I was always piecing funds together to do projects. I also had to learn when to say no and realize that I

PROFILES OF SCIENTISTS IN

EDUCATION AND PUBLIC RESEARCH
could only do so much. Once you get interested in doing

E/PO, you don’t watch the clock because you have so

much enthusiasm for it. During this period, I was also

the main caretaker of the Mars meteorite found in

Antarctica that was thought to contain evidence of life,

so that was an extraordinarily busy period. It was sometimes hard on my family, especially my children,

because E/PO and curation travel took me away from

them on many occasions.

What have you gotten out of your

involvement in E/PO?

Working with teachers and their response to our efforts

has been the most rewarding thing for me personally and

has given me a great appreciation for the value of partnerships with the education community. It also has been

gratifying to see my colleagues get enthused about doing

E/PO after working with me on projects. I greatly

enjoyed my meteorite curation job, and this, combined

with my involvement in E/PO, gave me a more “global”

perspective of science.

Any words of wisdom to pass on to other

scientists about E/PO?

My advice is—do it! Choose the way you want to get

involved and put in as much time as you can afford. Test

the waters to see how wonderfully rewarding it can be.

Another point I want to make is that it is possible to

“cross over” into E/PO from research, and equally

importantly, you can also cross back. I started my career

as a pure researcher, but I started spending more time on

E/PO efforts and eventually was doing E/PO full time.

But I missed the science, and so I have made a transition

back to being involved in science again with E/PO on

the side. 

Swift E/PO: The Swift Launch

Teachers Workshop

Dr. Philip Plait, Dr. Lynn Cominsky, and Sarah

Silva, NASA Education and Public Outreach Group

at Sonoma State University

The NASA E/PO Group at Sonoma State University

(SSU) will hold a workshop for educators timed to coincide

with the launch of the Swift mission in October 2004. The

workshop will be held at the Florida Association of Science

Teachers meeting in Orlando, FL, and will be sponsored by

the Swift Educator Ambassadors (EAs) program. Educators participating in the workshop will learn about the

Swift mission and its primary science targets—gamma-ray

bursts (GRBs). They will perform formal educational activities (grades 7–12) based on GRBs for use in the classroom.

If the launch schedule permits, as a final treat the teachers

will watch the Swift launch from a remote location with the

EAs and members of the SSU E/PO group!

For more information, please visit

http://epo.sonoma.edu/ambassadors

Special Invitation to an NSTA

Regional Convention

Julie Lutz, University of Washington

Julie Lutz, Director of Space Science Network Northwest, would like to draw your attention to the NSTA

Regional Convention in Seattle on November 18–20,

2004. Julie is Convention Chair for the meeting and has

made sure that lots of NASA space science is on the program. James Rice of Arizona State University will be

giving a keynote speech on the Mars Exploration Rovers.

The Solar System Exploration and Origins education

forums will be giving short courses, and many 1-hour presentations by education and public outreach personnel

from space science missions are scheduled. View the program and register for the meeting online at

http://www.nsta.org.

ON THE HORIZON

12 VOYAGES IN EDUCATION AND PUBLIC OUTREACH

If you would like to receive an electronic copy of future newsletters, contribute an article, or just have questions about getting

involved with the NASA space science E/PO program,contact Anita

Krishnamurthi, Editor, at Anita.Krishnamurthi@nasa.gov. Prior

issues of Voyages are online at http://spacescience.nasa.gov/

education/news.

Lindstrom Ridge in Antarctica (74 ̊43' S 156 ̊00' E) 

is a 4-mile-long ridge at the east end of Meteorite Hills.

The photo was taken by the 2001 Antarctic Search for

Meteorites field team.