1

Voyages in Education and Public Outreach

An Office of Space Science Newsletter

May 2003 Issue 8

Reaching Out to Girl Scouts

Rosalie Betrue, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

For the past 2 years, the Girl Scouts of the USA

(GSUSA) and NASA Office of Space Science (OSS)

have been building an informal working

relationship in space science. On March 12, 2003,

the initiation of a more formal relationship was

made through the signing of an agreement

between GSUSA and the NASA Jet Propulsion

Laboratory. The agreement is the first step in an

anticipated evolving formal collaboration at the

national level that will be managed by the NASA

OSS Solar System Exploration (SSE) Education

and Public Outreach (E/PO) Forum. The

relationship is intended to be inclusive of the

science content and E/PO activities throughout

the OSS program and serve as an integrated entrypoint to GSUSA for OSS activities.

Mutual goals are to raise the comprehension

and interest of science-related topics among the

girls, leaders, and leader-trainers and to

encourage the girls and women to pursue careers

in science, technology, engineering and

mathematics (STEM). Through this relationship,

GSUSA provides the opportunity for OSS E/PO

efforts to 1) reach its 2,800,000 girls and almost

one million adult members; 2) access established

programs that include the underserved

population such as migrant worker’s daughters,

American Indian daughters, etc.; 3) join GSUSA

and partners such as science museums, rural

communities; and 4) gain leverage for greater

impact. In return, GSUSA will have the potential

to utilize the learning and discovery aspects of

both OSS’s science results (what we are learning),

and the technology (how we are exploring and

learning) to inspire girls and women to explore

careers in STEM disciplines and improve science

literacy. The SSE E/PO Forum’s responsibilities

are to work with OSS to 1) ensure scientific

accuracy; 2) facilitate access to unique resources

On the Inside

Updates 2

Education Products

 Ring World Planetarium Program 6

 Active Galaxies– Educator Guide with Activities

 in Science and Mathematics 7

 Living with a Star: From Sunscreen to Space

 Weather: A New GEMS Teacher Guide 7

 Touch the Sun–Solar-B Educator Curricular

 Materials and Workshop 8

NASA Resources In Other Languages 8

Education Programs

 Chandra - Science After School Pilot 9

 Los Angeles Students get SMARTT 10

Scientists in Education & Public Outreach 11

On the Horizon 12

(people and facilities); and 3) otherwise help

enhance GSUSA programs that support their

ultimate goal of making girls strong, self-confident,

and independent women.

Cooperative efforts envisioned may include

training and education of leaders, internship and

GSUSA workshop participants observe crustal material

samples and infer the history of the "mystery" planet.
2

FY 2002 – A Year of Transition

Last year marked yet another period of strong

growth in the Office of Space Program education

and public outreach (E/PO) program. Over 100

OSS missions and programs; 1,000 OSS-affiliated

scientists, technologists, and support staff; and 500

institutional partners contributed to the E/PO

efforts. 70 new products were developed and

more than 3,500 events associated with 330

discrete projects were carried in FY 2002. The

events were held in every state, several territories

and foreign counties and represented more than

20% increase over the number reported in FY 2001.

The complete descriptions of the events and

projects along with the contributing scientists,

missions, programs, and institutions are reported

mentoring programs, communication (magazines,

Web sites, and newsletters), special events, and

program evaluation.

Because adult leaders and volunteers are

uncomfortable with science, a major task is to

make science comfortable and fun for the trainers,

leaders, volunteers, and ultimately the girls.

Therefore the initial national-level focus will be

on direct contact with the adult membership of

GSUSA, through “train-the-trainer” workshops.

Building on a pilot workshop in 2002, the first OSSwide effort under this agreement will be a 4-day

national Girl Scout trainer workshop in New York

in November 2003, including activity

presentations representing all OSS themes. From

this OSS-wide effort will come a “menu of

workshops” to offer the Girl Scouts across the

country. A support/mentoring program is also

being developed for Girl Scout adult and youth

members that attend a NASA workshop or a

GSUSA event with NASA content.

Working through this agreement will enhance

the opportunities for E/PO contributions and

participation in GSUSA/NASA activities at the

national level. Communication through the OSS

E/PO community about national as well as

individual local efforts with GSUSA can be

facilitated through this collaboration, resulting in

leveraging opportunities, resource sharing, and

sharing of lessons-learned. For further

information on this collaboration, please contact

Rosalie Betrue at Rosalie.Betrue@jpl.nasa.gov .

Updates

in the FY 2002 OSS E/PO Annual report which is

available online at http://spacescience.nasa.gov/

education/ . Printed copies may be requested

from Dr. Philip Sakimoto at

philip.j.sakimoto@nasa.gov .

In 2002 OSS also received feedback on E/PO

from several sources including the OSS E/PO

Conference (see Voyages, issue 6), the Space Science

Advisory Committee’s E/PO Task Force, and the

Lesley University Program Evaluation and

Research Group (PERG). These groups pointed

to the Annual Report statistics as evidence of

substantial progress and of the national impact of

the OSS E/PO program. At the same time, the

feedback pointed to the need to build greater

coherence into the OSS E/PO program, and the

need to pay greater attention to the impact it is

having on its intended audiences. In response,

OSS entered FY 2003 with renewed commitments

to program improvements such as building a

space science curriculum framework to guide the

development and dissemination of OSS E/PO

materials, providing professional development

opportunities for personnel engaged in OSS

E/PO efforts, and providing even greater

opportunities for an increasingly diverse

population to participate in space science

missions, research, and E/PO programs.

The Task Force and PERG reports may be

obtained at

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

resources/evaluation/index.htm .

ViewSpace

Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI)

As detailed in Voyages, issue 3, ViewSpace is a

multimedia astronomy product for planetarium

lobbies and similar venues. John Stoke, creative

force behind the ViewSpace program at STScI

notes continued progress in the development and

expansion of ViewSpace. Originally distributed

to sites on a CD, an “online” version of ViewSpace

is now being tested at eight sites around the

country. The online version enables much more

frequent updating of video players – as often as

several times a day when there’s breaking space

science news. ViewSpace Online interleaves “long

shelf life” regular features with topical

programming that will grow to include

“Astronomy Picture of the Day” and “The Sky

Tonight.”
3

On the programming front the ViewSpace

team has expanded the scope of its content beyond

products solely inspired by Hubble. Producer

Bryan Preston, in collaboration with Dr. Steele Hill

from the SOHO project, produced Helios, an

overview of the many faces of the Sun. Soon

production will begin on an infrared astronomy

program authored by Doris Daou of the Space

Infrared Telescope Facility. Cassini’s Ring World

will also be coming to ViewSpace [see companion

article on page 6]. Additional collaborations with

other OSS missions are being considered.

For more information please contact John

Stoke, at the STScI Office of Public Outreach at

stoke@stsci.edu.

ViewSpace installation at the Bishop Museum,

Honolulu, Hawaii

Space Science Media Needs of Science

Center Professionals

Karen Meyer, University of California Berkeley

With increased awareness of the role that

science centers play in presenting space science

to the public, NASA’s Office of Space Science has

initiated research into the user needs of science

center communities. As part of this effort, the SunEarth Connection Education Forum interviewed

twenty-nine science center professionals to explore

ways to better meet their media needs. (“Media”

refers to images, animations, simulations, and

videos, etc., available via the X%b.) The results

are reported in “Space Science Media Needs of

Science Center Professionals,” which is available

online at http://cse.ssl.berkeley.edu/

spacescience.pdf . Below is a brief summary of

key recommendations:

• Continue to invest in science centers by

providing professional development of science

center professionals, providing access to mission

scientists and technicians, developing joint

products and programs, and streamlining NASA

Web sites for more consistent search results;

• Upgrade Mission Web sites to include media

thumbnails and full resolution media, improve site

search functionality, and support streamlined

searches between NASA Web sites;

• Develop “Best of” galleries of space science

media products;

• Develop space science media descriptors

(metadata protocols);

• Develop video sequences, using Hubble’s

“ViewSpace” as a model;

• Develop resources with ties to culture and

history;

• Develop tools that allow the public to explore

3D data sets; and

• Expand and enhance the “Space Science

Portal” (http://spacescienceportal.org) Web site.

For more information about this research or

the implementation of these recommendations,

please email Karen Meyer at

karena@ssl.berkeley.edu or Isabel Hawkins at

isabelh@ssl.berkeley.edu .

Live From the Aurora –Sun-Earth Day 2003

Elaine Lewis, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

On March 18, 2003, thousands of people

participated in Sun-Earth Day 2003. At science

museums, schools, and star parties in North

America and Europe participants talked with

researchers, and observed the Sun with telescopes

connected to the Internet. They learned about the

beautiful displays of the aurora (the Northern and

Southern Lights), space weather and catastrophic

power outages, as well as the cultures of peoples

living at northern lattitudes.

Leading up and on Sun-Earth Day NASA

Centers, NASA Educator Resource Centers and

nearly 140 museums held events, or conducted

training for science teachers, students, and for the

public. During February and March more than

8,000 teachers participated in education

workshops related to the science of the Sun-Earth

Connection. In addition 182 events were

supported by amateur astronomers.

 “Living With A Star,” a solar science

documentary was broadcast on February 11th.
4

This program helped prepare students for “Live

From the Aurora – Sun- Earth Day 2003”, by

providing graphically-rich content and exciting

science to capture the interest of students and

teachers.

“Live From the Aurora” aired on March 18th,

featuring real-time interaction between NASA

researchers on location at Poker Flat Research

Range, Alaska–the world’s premier site to study

the aurora with sounding rockets. Youngsters

stayed up late at night to participate through

Webcasts at the Maryland Science Center,

Baltimore, Maryland; Chabot Space & Science

Center, Oakland, California; Fernbank Science

Center, Atlanta, Georgia; and The Imaginarium,

Anchorage, Alaska. During the broadcast and for

one hour afterward viewers could submit

questions to a panel of NASA and University of

Alaska/ Geophysical Institute experts on the

aurora by going to “On-Air” in the INTERACT

section of the P2K/LIVE FROM THE AURORA

Web site, http://passporttoknowledge.com/sun/

main.html . More than 150 Question and Answer

pairs are now archived online.

The Web site, http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/

sunearthday, provided additional resources to

support educators, museums, and scientists for

this year’s event. A new feature was added in

January, the “Student Observation Network

(SON).” Through the network students can track

a solar storm and predict an aurora. Activities, Web

quests, and a multimedia gallery were all created

to support and enhance this year’s Sun- Earth Day

and the ongoing SON effort.

The public Sun-Earth days, now in their third

year, were created to communicate the excitement

of the fast-moving field of solar science and

research into the Sun’s effects on Earth.

The NASA Sun-Earth Connection Education

Forum (SECEF) and Passport to Knowledge (P2K)

jointly developed Sun-Earth Day, 2003 and its

theme “Live from the Aurora.” SECEF translates

and interprets the research results from NASA’s

solar science missions for educators and the public

through training programs and educational

products. P2K is the longest-running series of

interactive learning adventures on public TV.

IDEAS Abound

Heather Bradbury, Space Telescope Science Institute

The Initiative to Develop Education through

The Space Place Networks with Amateur

Astronomers

Nancy Leon and Diane Fisher, NASA Jet Propulsion

Laboratory

Amateur astronomers can be wonderful

messengers for spreading the excitement of space

science and technology in their communities.

NASA’s Space Place outreach program,

administered by the New Millennium Program at

JPL, has been cultivating partnerships with these

highly motivated hobbyists. There are hundreds

of community-based amateur astronomy clubs

throughout the country and many of these clubs

publish monthly newsletters for their members.

The Space Place program is now working with

over 150 amateur astronomy clubs across the

United States, as well as several clubs in Canada,

England, and New Zealand. These clubs, with a

total membership of over 25,000, receive original

Astronomy and Space Science (IDEAS) Grant

Program is one component of NASA’s Office of

Space Science (OSS) Education and Public

Outreach program. The IDEAS objective is to

enhance science, mathematics and/or technology

education in the United States for K-14 students,

teachers and the general public by promoting

partnerships that explore new ways to make

astronomy and space science educational and

stimulating. IDEAS provides start-up funding to

innovative, creative education and public outreach

programs that feature active collaboration

between astronomers/space scientists and formal

education/informal education professionals. This

year’s IDEAS Grant Program drew 78 proposal

submissions from 33 states and 1 U.S. Territory.

The number of proposals submitted increased by

32% from the previous year. Fifteen proposals

were accepted for funding, amounting to

approximately $600,000 and the ratio of funded

proposals was ~1:5. The largest number of funded

proposals (11) was in the area of educator

workshops and curricular materials development

for K-12. The next opportunity for submitting an

IDEAS proposals will be October 24, 2003. IDEAS

is administered by the Space Telescope Science

Institute (STScI) on behalf of NASA OSS. For

program information and proposal abstracts,

please see the IDEAS Web site at http://

ideas.stsci.edu .
5

monthly columns for their newsletters especially

written for their well informed adult readership.

Some of the topics of the columns to date have

been:

• Voyager spacecraft now seeking the

heliopause.

• Advances made by the Apollo Program as

necessary steps toward today’s sustainable space

programs and the miniaturized technologies being

validated by the New Millennium Program.

• Introduction of the mission of the new

Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) spacecraft.

• The combination of careful planning and

creative improvisation that enabled the Deep

Space 1 mission to far exceed its original goals.

Each column includes a Web link to a NASA

site giving more information on the topic or

mission. In addition, a link directs readers to a

related activity or fun fact on the Space Place Web

site for children at http://spaceplace.nasa.gov .

Creative Collaborations

The Hubble Space Telescope Formal Education Team

Who? What? When? Where? Why? - these

questions are a newspaper reporter’s mantra.

Reporters must answer them to convey the entire

story to readers. Like reporters, education

researchers must answer similar questions when

evaluating the effectiveness of educational

programs. The Formal Education Team at the

Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore,

MD, has been evaluating the effectiveness of its

Amazing Space education program, which uses

the Hubble Space Telescope’s (HST) discoveries

to inspire and educate about the wonders of the

universe. The team has been asking such

questions as: 1) Who is using Amazing Space, 2)

How are they using it, and 3) How has the

program affected student performance and

attitudes? The team has answered the first two

questions, discovering, for example, that more

than 274 US school districts and 175 colleges and

universities are using Amazing Space.

Now the team is beginning to answer the third

broader question: “How has Amazing Space

impacted student performance and attitudes

about science?” Answering this question is time

consuming, requiring the assistance of education

researchers from across the country. Therefore,

the Formal Education Team’s goal for the next year

is to forge creative partnerships with education

researchers and graduate students at universities

and colleges to collect comprehensive information

from many students. “These creative partnerships

between the astronomy and education

communities will provide us with extensive

information on how HST education products are

impacting students across the country,” says

Bonnie Eisenhamer, the Formal Education Team

manager.

The team already has identified several

possible partnerships with universities that are

exploring the impact of Amazing Space on

teaching science and technology. One potential

partner is Towson University in Towson, MD, a

college just a few minutes away from the institute.

A Towson professor of curriculum and instruction

is using Amazing Space as an engaging use of

media in a class on how to teach with computerassisted instruction and has collected data on it’s

effectiveness. Another possible partnership is with

professors and graduate students at the University

of Nebraska. The graduate students are using

Amazing Space specifically, the activity “Mission

Mastermind”– to teach technology to fifth grade

science students. “I love that this project exposes

the students to a present-day technological

design,” writes Amy Wilson, a fifth-grade teacher

and University of Nebraska graduate student.

“It’s a real-life experience that actively involves

every learner in the classroom.” The Formal

Education Team also is working with education

researchers at McRel (Mid-continent Research for

Education) to study student performance. Located

in Aurora, CO, McRel provides products and

services primarily to K-12 educators.

To better serve students, the Formal Education

Team has launched “Capture the Cosmos,” a new
6

New Educational

Products

section of the Amazing Space Web site specifically

for students and the general public. The site offers

astronomy themed information, activities, and

materials especially packaged for a broader

audience. To visit “Capture the Cosmos,” go to

http://amazing-space.stsci.edu and follow the

link.

Countdown to Ring World

Alice Wessen, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

In the summer of 2004, a remarkable

spacecraft will rendezvous with Saturn, one of the

most fascinating planets within our solar system,

seeking to understand its nature, history, and

moons. The four-year orbital tour will be one of

the most complicated planetary exploration

missions ever performed. It is anticipated that we

will be surprised many times as we explore the

depths of the marvelous enigma that is the Saturn

system.

To tell the story of the international Cassini/

Huygens mission, a team led by NASA’s Jet

Propulsion Laboratory has produced a

planetarium show called Ring World. Written by

Dr. Bill Gutsch, former head of the Hayden

Planetarium and produced by Brian Sullivan of

Salt Lake City, Utah, Ring World was available to

every planetarium in the United States in May

2003.

The show is narrated by John Billingsley, who

plays Doctor Flox on Star Trek Enterprise. It tells

the story of the journey and the history of the

Cassini/Huygens mission. Images for the show

were created by veteran space artists with over 20

years experience producing planetarium shows as

well as creating illustrations for several past,

present and future NASA missions. Technical

advisors included Rob Landis of Cassini–Huygens

Mission Support and Operations, Dr. Ellis Miner

and Dr. Linda Spilker of the Cassini science team,

and Robert Mitchell, Program Manager for the

Cassini–Huygens mission. To share this story with

the largest possible audience, a single screen DVD

presentation will also be made available for youth

groups, libraries, community colleges, and

classrooms across the United States by the start of

the 2003/2004 school year. The Deep Space

Network is a partner in this undertaking and

copies will also be available to the Deep Space

Network’s visitor centers in: Goldstone,

California; Madrid, Spain; and Canberra,

Australia. In response to international interest

from Japan, Europe and Canada, a version will

also be made available for translation in October

2003. The Space Telescope Science Institute will

be incorporating Ring World into a ViewSpace

production [see companion article, page 2].

A second planetarium show is planned for the

2005/2006 timeframe. Through a series of

personal stories, the show will capture the

excitement of the scientists and mission staff as

they await the initial data and images from the

Cassini-Huygens mission. For further

information on Cassini/Huygens, visit their Web

site at http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov . For

information on obtaining a Planetarium Show Kit

or DVD, please contact Brian Sullivan at

codyssey2001@netscape.net or (801) 350-8340.

Artist illustration from the Ring World

Planetarium Show.

The Cassini/Huygens mission is a joint

endeavor by the National Aeronautics and Space

Administration (NASA), which provided the

orbiter, and the European Space Agency (ESA),

which supplied the Huygens probe. The Italian

space agency (Agenzia Spaziale Italiana, or ASI)

provided hardware systems for the orbiter

spacecraft and instruments.
7

Active Galaxies– Educator Guide with

Activities in Science and Mathematics

Lynn Cominsky and Philip Plait, Sonoma State

University

The NASA

Education and

Public Outreach

group at Sonoma

State University

has developed

Active Galaxies, a

new educator

guide with a set

of three hands-on

classroom

activities based on

the science of the

Gamma-ray

Large Area Space

Telescope (GLAST) mission. The standards-based

activities use various properties of black holes in

distant galaxies to engage grades 9-12 physical

science and mathematics students. In the first

activity, “Building Perspectives with Active

Galaxies,” the students use inexpensive materials

to build a model of a supermassive black hole and

its nearby environment. Using basic math and

science skills, they analyze their model from

different geometric perspectives, comparing it to

real images of active galactic nuclei. The second

activity, “Zooming In on Active Galaxies,”

involves the use of a beautifully illustrated poster

depicting the core of an active galaxy with jets.

The students first test the limits of the small angle

approximation, then use the small angle formula

to calculate the height of their fellow students by

measuring their distance and apparent size in

degrees. They then use this knowledge to measure

the size of the radio lobes and accretion disk of

the active galaxy on the poster, using methods

similar to those used by real astronomers. In the

third activity, “Light Travel Time and the Size of

Active Galaxies,” the students analyze a plot of a

real gamma-ray flare from an active galaxy. They

use the rise and decay times of the flare (together

with the speed of light) to calculate the size of the

flare region, and extrapolate various other

properties of the flare. The activity guidebook and

accompanying poster can be ordered through the

Sonoma State University E/PO Web site at

http://epo.sonoma.edu/orderformpublic.html .

Living with a Star: From Sunscreen to Space

Weather: A New GEMS Teacher Guide® for

Grades 6–8

Karin Hauck, University of California Berkeley

The Living with a Star teacher guide was

released in April 2003 as part of the Lawrence Hall

of Science award-winning Great Explorations in

Math and Science (GEMS) Series. This middle

school guide, produced by NASA’s Sun-Earth

Connection Forum and the UC Berkeley Lawrence

Hall of Science, examines

the Earth’s relationship to

the dynamic Sun. The

guide provides a series of

activities for students to

help them understand

aspects of the Sun-Earth

system that affect life and

society. A key goal of the

guide is to make students

aware of the risks of

living with our nearest

star, the Sun, and how “space weather” impacts

astronaut safety, satellite operations, power grids,

and communications. Over the course of this unit

students engage in activities that lead them to

discover for themselves the potential risks of living

with a star, and about many important and useful

concepts in space science, earth science, physics,

technology, and health science.

In Living with a Star, students become solar

scientists, studying fascinating and lesser-known

aspects of the Sun and Earth and the connections

between the two. Challenged to resolve a

confounding mystery on Earth, in which strange

things happen in the sky and to technology on the

ground, students use research techniques, data

collection and analysis to identify the likely culprit,

the Sun! To confirm their suspicions, students

investigate the full array of solar output, and

discover that a whole spectrum of electromagnetic

energies, as well as a continuous wind of solar

energetic particles, sweep past our planet every

day. They learn that Earth is bombarded much

more intensely by these energies and particles

during periods of high solar activity.

In activities about risks from solar radiation,

students discover that Earth is naturally protected

from most of the Sun’s harmful effects by two

shields - our atmosphere and magnetosphere.

They do research, gather data, make and interpret
8

graphs, gauge risk factors, and engage in a

simulation activity. In the process, they gain

valuable experience in risk assessment; making

considered choices and assessing priorities now

and in the future—for themselves, their

communities, and the planet as a whole.

In a “Space Weather” game, much of what

students have learned throughout the unit comes

together. Arrayed around a model Sun, students

represent Earth at different points in its orbit and

also different characters–a person on Earth, a

Space shuttle astronaut, and a Mars Mission crew

member. Game cards and a spinner atop the Sun

indicate when and where flares and coronal mass

ejections are discharged. The students record and

graph the solar events and the possible harmful

effects on the characters. They finish with an

enhanced realization of the importance of

understanding and predicting solar storms.

The guide includes a companion CD that

provides access to NASA space weather

information, satellite imagery, movies, scientist

interviews, and other multimedia resources. The

CD contains background materials, classroom

activities, and the latest NASA images and

research from SEC missions, and can be used by

itself or together with the guide. There is also a

Web site that can be accessed at http://

www.lhsgems.org/lws .

The guide will be distributed nationally

through an existing network of more than 75

GEMS sites that offer professional development

and training on how to use the guides to teachers

in their regions. For more information about the

GEMS guide, please visit http://

www.lhs.berkeley.edu/GEMS/GEMSlwas.html .

Touch the Sun–Solar-B Curricular Materials

and Educator Workshops

Benjamin Burress, Chabot Space & Science Center

Chabot Space & Science Center has developed

Touch the Sun curricular materials and educator

workshops that use hands-on instrument building

and measurement activities with inexpensive,

everyday materials to introduce the science and

technologies of satellite-based solar astronomy.

The curricular materials are designed for grades

8 to 12 (adaptable for grades 5 to 7) and were

developed by Chabot staff in support of the

Lockheed-Martin Solar-B education and public

Workshop participants make

pinhole camera measurements

to calculate the Sun’s diameter.

NASA Resources In Other Languages

Dr. Teresa J. Kennedy, University of Idaho

Using NASA materials in other languages

provides teachers working with English Language

Learners (ELL’s) the opportunity to assist their

students to acquire English literacy skills in the

regular classroom while at the same time

providing these students with access to high

outreach program.

The package features

seven activity units

that parallel the

scientific and satellite

engineering

processes through

building, making

measurements with,

and analyzing data

from simplified Sunand light-measuring

instruments. Using

the scientific goals of

the Solar-B mission

and the capabilities of

the spacecraft, Touch

the Sun encompasses activities focused on

instrumentation (Spectroscope and Polarimeter),

observation (Sunspot Tracker, Sundial, and

Pinhole Camera), and satellite engineering

(Shoebox Satellite). All of the activities emphasize

precision in construction and measurement, as

well as instrument redesign to improve the quality

of data. The curricular materials are aligned with

national science and mathematics standards, and

received an Exemplary rating from the annual

NASA Educational Products Review. The Touch

the Sun educator guide is available in PDF format

at http://www.chabotspace.org/vsc/exhibits/

solarb/educationresources .

A three-day Touch the Sun workshop is also

offered each summer at Chabot Space & Science

Center. The workshop’s primary focus is to

conduct the activities and promote group

discussions on the best ways of integrating them

into existing curricula. The workshop also

includes an introduction to modern solar

astronomy and take-away kits of optical materials

and educational resources for participants. For

more information on Touch the Sun, please contact

Benjamin Burress at BBurress@ChabotSpace.org .
9

quality science information in their first language.

The K-12 student body found in many of our

nation’s schools currently represents a large

growth in the number of students whose native

language is not English. Moreover, new figures

released in January 2003 by the Census Bureau

reported that the Hispanic population, the nation’s

largest minority group, is now roughly at 37

million, up 37% from Census 2000.

NASA education materials are the means to

create an enriched science program that actively

includes all students regardless of their first

language, enhance the academic achievements of

the entire student body, integrate literacy skills in

reading and writing with scientific inquiry, and

specifically provide ELL’s the opportunity to learn

grade level curriculum. In addition, NASA

materials in other languages are wonderful

resources that can also be used at Family Science

Nights to involve the whole community as well

as provide a means for family members who speak

little or no English the opportunity to become

involved in their child’s education.

A comprehensive list of over 50 NASA

programs and resources in Spanish and many

other languages was recently compiled for the

Astronomical Society of the Pacific newsletter,

“The Universe in the Classroom” and can be found

online at http://www.astrosociety.org/

education/publications/tnl/60/spanish.html .

Also, see http://www.uidaho.edu/ed/

nasa_rerc for an updated version of the article

mentioned above that is regularly revised as new

NASA materials in languages other than English

become available. Click on the link Materials in

Other Languagesto access the updated version. For

a list of the languages that are spoken in the K12 schools in your state see http://

www.ncela.gwu.edu/states/reports/statedata/

2001/index.html . For more information, contact

Dr. Teresa Kennedy at tkennedy@uidaho.edu .

Educational Programs

Chandra - Science After School Pilot

Irene Porro, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Center for Space Research

“It’s great to see so many of our teens get

excited about science,” said Boston Mayor Thomas

M. Menino when asked about the Chandra - Science

After School Pilot attended by 7th through 9th

graders from Boston after school sites in the Fall

2002. The initiative, led by Dr. Irene Porro of the

E/PO Office of the MIT Center for Space Research

(CSR), was a result of efforts by Chandra scientists,

the staff of the Museum of Science (MoS), Boston

and the staff of Mayor Menino’s Boston 2:00-to6:00 After School Initiative, a division of Boston

Centers for Youth and Families.

The Science After School Pilot was the first of a

series of E/PO initiatives to offer local youth an

opportunity to explore their interest in science in

ways that are appealing and that reinforce the

learning that takes place during the school day.

The program consisted of six sessions at the MoS

with each session featuring a presentation on the

exciting discoveries made by Chandra. Students

engaged in hands-on activities prior to the

presentation which was held in the museum’s

Current Science and Technology (CS&T) Center.

Afterwards they visited museum exhibits related

to the science topic of that day.

The program is a natural outgrowth of the CSR

E/PO Office’s approach which is to facilitate the

direct involvement of CSR scientists with students

and the public. More than 30% of CSR scientists

regularly participate in E/PO initiatives. The Pilot

also benefited from an ongoing partnership

between CSR and MoS and contributed to the

effort of the CS&T Center to reach children from

underrepresented groups in the local community.

“This was a very successful joint venture, and we

hope that more scientists and after-school

organizations will see this center as a place [to]

get together and talk about science and technology

as a means of inspiring young people,” said Tania

Ruiz of the CS&T Center.

That is exactly what happened, as

demonstrated by two of the students that

participated in the Chandra writing contest, a

specific program component to foster the

communication skills of the students. “This

program was really helpful. It was a good source

to use for my science class. It increased my interest

in paying more attention to my lessons,” wrote

one student, who received a special mention

award for her essay. Another student wrote, “It

was amazing for me to see these professors

actually take their time to lecture and perform

detailed demonstrations right in front of me.

[They] were doing what I wanted to be doing:

Being Scientists. That is one of the major goals I
10

want to accomplish in my life, and now I am much

closer to being there.” Mayor Menino praised the

impact of this E/PO program in promoting new

learning opportunities for urban youth beyond the

regular classroom time, and concluded, “The

Chandra - Science After School Pilot is an important

initiative in our efforts to ensure that youth of all

ages have access to exciting, educational resources

and activities during out-of-school time.” For

more information on this and other CSR E/PO

initiatives, contact Irene Porro at

iporro@space.mit.edu or visit http://

space.mit.edu/CSR/outreach .

Minority University

Education and Research

Partnership Initiative

This is the fifth in a series of articles which

highlights the programs of the institutions participating

in NASA’s Minority University Education and

Research Partnership Initiative in Space Science

(described in Voyages, issue 2)

Los Angeles Students get SMARTT

John P. Sepikas, Pasadena City College

With the help of NASA’s Office of Space

Science under the Minority University Education

and Research Partnership Initiative Program,

Pasadena City College (PCC), a two year collegiate

institution, now has the opportunity to participate

in space science research, engage in outreach to

the Los Angeles area, and involve the local

American Tongva tribe. The program at PCC is

called SMARTT for Scientists Mentoring

Astrophysics Research Teams of Tomorrow. The

first component of SMARTT is outreach to the local

community to educate and explain the science of

infrared astronomy. Some of the outreach efforts

have been conducted at the PCC planetarium

which presents programs to several thousand

students and their teachers every year. Other

efforts are presentations to schools, community

centers and Native American tribes. The largest

outreach effort has been with the Griffith

Observatory and Planetarium in Los Angeles,

which is one of the largest in the country. Outreach

programs with the Observatory have continued

during its renovation and the SMARTT program

will be assisting in the construction of an infrared

astronomy exhibit and providing an infrared

camera to Griffith Observatory for its reopening

in 2004. Students and faculty from PCC’s

engineering department will play a lead role in

the design and construction efforts.

The second program component is outreach

efforts which are specifically focused on the Los

Angeles based Native American Tongva tribe.

These are highly focused activities to integrate

with existing and well established Native

American programs while being especially

respectful of local customs and traditions. The

primary goals of these efforts are to 1) identify and

mentor promising, young Native American

science students who could join the research

group, and 2) increase the awareness of the

community of these NASA sponsored activities.

To accomplish these goals the SMARTT program,

with some of its Tongva staff members, set up a

math/science tutoring program for high school

and college students at the local Tongva

community center. These efforts are just now

bearing fruit with its first Native American student

joining the program officially. The program has

also donated a telescope to the Haramokngna

American Indian Cultural Center to assist in

teaching of astronomy to Native American youth.

The third component of the grant is to develop

SMARTT

staff

member

and

Tongva

tribe

member,

Glenn

Miller,

presents a

telescope

to the son

of the

chief of

the

Tongva

tribe.
11

a long term research capability at PCC for

students, faculty and local Native Americans to

participate in the Space Infrared Telescope Faculty

(SIRTF) mission. Scientists from SIRTF, NASA Jet

Propulsion Laboratory and the SIRTF Science

Center at California Institute of Technology have

been providing mentoring and training in the

science and operation of SIRTF. As pointed out

by Program Director, John P. Sepikas, “This

training would have been impossible for the

faculty to obtain at a two year college in any other

manner and will be applied for decades to come

to many students and teachers.” The PCC research

group should get its first SIRTF observing

opportunity in late 2003.

NOTICE: NASA Office of Education and

Office of Space Science Solicit Proposals

Based on the successes and achievements of

the current participants in the Minority University

Education and Research Partnership Initiative in Space

Science (a number of which have been descibed in

Voyages), NASA released a new solicitation on

April 1, 2003 for proposals from U.S. based

minority institutions interested in developing their

academic and research capabilities in NASArelated space science. NASA-sponsored space

science researchers and research groups are

strongly encouraged to participate as partners in

such effort to be led by minority institutions. The

full text of the solicitation may be found at

http://research.hq.nasa.gov/code_s/nra/

current/NRA-03-OSS-03/index.html .

Current Professional position:

I’m a research scientist at the Center for Space

Research (CSR) at the Massachusetts Institute of

Technology (MIT). I am part of the instrument

team for the Chandra High Energy Transmission

Gratings. My primary background is in

instruments and hardware. My current science

interest is high resolution x-ray spectroscopy of

supernova remnants.

Description of Kathryn’s E/PO roles:

I direct the education efforts at CSR and my

E/PO role is both managerial and direct. We’re

just finishing the Chandra-Science After School Pilot

(see companion article, page 8), a program that

merged seven MIT grants on Chandra into one

coherent E/PO program. We brought about 70

students from Boston area after school programs

to the Museum of Science for several visits. Each

time, a different scientist would give a talk on their

specialty and we then worked with the students

on an activity illustrating that particular specialty.

The follow-on to this program will be a two week

summer program at MIT and the Museum of

Science. The students will do a research project

and make a presentation at the end.

Comments on time commitments to the project:

On this project, my direct involvement hasn’t

really been at any higher level than the other

scientists who are presenters. I’m giving my own

talk on supernova remnants in a few weeks. We

have a remarkable individual, Irene Porro, who is

100% dedicated to facilitating and taking care of

the day-to-day details, so I get to work in the

program as a contributing scientist. My oversight

doesn’t take a huge amount of time.

On balancing E/PO and other professional

activities:

With E/PO activities, there is as much

opportunity as you have energy to provide, so you

have to reign yourself in if you want to find

balance with the science that you are doing. I have

an extremely supportive Principle Investigator,

Professor Claude Canizares, who is also the

Associate Provost of MIT. The new director at

Dr. Kathryn Flanagan

Profiles of Scientists in

Education and Public Outreach

This profile is based on excerpts of an April interview

with Dr. Kathryn Flanagan about her involvement in

Education and Public Outreach (E/PO). Contributed by

Dr. C. Morrow, C. Edwards and P. Dyches, Space Science

Institute.
12

On the Horizon

Venus Transit

Sten Odenwald, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

For 6 hours on June 8, 2004, the planet Venus

will slide across the face of the sun. Not since

1889 have the inhabitants of Earth been treated

to this rare astronomical spectacle. From the east

coast of North America, we will see the last 90

minutes of this rare transit event [http://

sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/transit/

venus0412.html]. The Venus transits of 1761 and

1769 provided critical data leading to an accurate

determination of the distance from the earth to the

sun (the Astronomical Unit) and the scale of the

Solar System. The OSS Sun-Earth Connection

Education Forum is spearheading a collaboration

of NASA missions, public and private

observatories, and science museums to observe

this historic event. Among the planned formal

and informal education activities will be student

measurements of Venus’s parallax and calculation

of the Astronomical Unit; spacecraft observations

of the transit; and collaborations with amateur

astronomers and public observatories to

photographically record the event. If you are

interested in contributing your own unique

resources to this national and international

education effort, please contact Dr. Sten Odenwald

at odenwald@mail630.gsfc.nasa.gov for more

details.

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 OSS E/PO Program, contact Larry Cooper,

Editor, at Larry.P.Cooper@nasa.gov . Prior issues

of Voyages are online at http://

spacescience.nasa.gov/education/news .

Physics Teaching Resource Agent Training

In partnership with the American Association

of Physics Teachers (AAPT), NASA OSS will

present a workshop at the next Physics Teaching

Resource Agent (PTRA) training session, July 28

to August 1 in Madison, Wisconsin. PTRA is a

“train the trainers” program sponsored by AAPT

and the National Science Foundation. This joint

SECEF/SEUEF workshop will focus on how

scientists “see” different regions of the

electromagnetic spectrum, and the different

objects and phenomena we see. A number of SEU

and SEC missions will participate in presenting

how different types of detectors work, and what

we learn by looking at astronomical objects in

different wavelength bands. Missions are also

contributing educational materials and hands-on

activities which the participants will pass on to

other teachers through workshops in their home

communities. For more information see http://

www.aapt.org/PTRA/ .

CSR, Professor Jacqueline Hewitt, is also very

supportive of our E/PO efforts.

Challenges to her E/PO involvement:

From a scientist’s point of view, the challenge

is to balance E/PO with your other

responsibilities. E/PO is very seductive – it takes

everything you have got and gives it back. A

second challenge, from a management point of

view, is finding a way to keep an anchorperson

who can make it easy for the individual scientists

to give a little of their time on a regular basis. It’s

so helpful to have somebody with expertise, who

can steer you toward the difference between

formal and informal education and help you forge

partnerships; someone who can help implement

it on a local level.

Her most important impact on the program:

When we do E/PO we’re feeding the spirit,

but it’s really hard to measure that. The payoff is

really in individuals. You would be amazed at

the kind of impact it can make on a child, just to

see the possibility of becoming a scientist.

Remember, we are older versions of the kids sitting

in front of us.

Kathryn’s words of wisdom about E/PO:

You just have to start somewhere. It’s quite

amazing. The next thing you know, somebody is

coming to you and giving you an opportunity, and

another and another. It depends on the level of

involvement and what you would like to do. If

you would like to speak in a classroom, I guarantee

you will find a classroom to speak in. If you want

an organized effort, start with your OSS Broker/

Facilitator and the local folks that do this sort of

thing. There’s no shortage of opportunities that

come once you open your eyes to it.