January 21, 2004
The Washington NASA Space Grant Consortium's electronic newsletter for teachers provides curriculum ideas, Internet links and other resources to help you better meet the Washington EALRs and the National Science Education Standards.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
-- SEND IN YOUR SCHOOLHOUSE ROCKS (K-12)
-- GET A FREE GLIMPSE OF 'SPACE' (K-12)
-- ONLINE SCIENCE COURSES FOR CREDIT (K-12)
-- ROBOTIC PLANETARY EXPLORATION LECTURE
-- MUSEUM MARKS ASTRONAUT REMEMBRANCE WEEK
-- SEE MARS LIKE THE SCIENTISTS DO
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SEND IN YOUR SCHOOLHOUSE ROCKS (K-12)
Mars scientists are asking students from around the world to help them
understand the red planet. Send in a rock collected by you or your
classroom and they will use a special tool to tell you what it's made
of. The rocks will be kept in a special collection where scientists
from around the world can come to study them.
Rocks should be no smaller than 2 inches nor bigger than 6 inches. Make
sure to only take a rock in or on the ground in its natural setting.
Avoid rocks that are decorative or used in landscaping as they could
have come from other regions on Earth. Students might want to include
the latitude/longitude of sample site, the name of a geographic feature
(if it has one) where rock was collected and a copy of map with
location where rock was collected. For more information on sending in
your rocks, visit
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/classroom/schoolhouse/
GET A FREE GLIMPSE OF 'SPACE' (K-12)
On Jan. 24, the Pacific Science Center will host a special open house
for teachers to tour "Space: A Journey to Our Future" and enjoy
complimentary IMAX® screenings. Check-in is first-come, first-served
and takes place from 8:30-11:30 a.m. Teachers must check-in to receive
free admission and movie tickets.
The IMAX screenings are Bugs, The Dream is Alive, Disney's Young Black
Stallion, Coral Reef Adventure and Destiny in Space. Educators may also
participate in Mars Mania! activities including live science
demonstrations, astronomy crafts and rocket building. Visitors will
learn more about the Mars Exploration Rovers from UW Astronomy
Professor Woody Sullivan. Teachers may bring up to three guests,
including family members. For more information, go to
http://www.pacsci.org
ONLINE SCIENCE COURSES FOR CREDIT (K-12)
The American Museum of Natural History is offering six-week online
science courses for K-12 educators. Topics include Diversity of Fishes;
Earth: Inside and Out; Genetic, Genomics, Genethics; and Frontiers in
Physical Science.
Courses run from Feb. 16-March 28. Each course is
$200. Graduate credits and CEUs are available at additional cost from
Adams State College and Plymouth State University. To learn more or
register, go to
http://learn.amnh.org/welcome.php?w=NCSLETW041
ROBOTIC PLANETARY EXPLORATION LECTURE
As the millennium closed, so did the era of once every decade,
large-scale planetary spacecraft. Future robotic spacecraft like the
Mars rovers will have a wide range of capabilities and diverse mission
objectives, and will be launched at a rate of almost one per year.
On Feb. 7, Dr. Randii Wessen of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory will
be speaking at the Pacific Science Center on "The Future of U.S.
Robotic Planetary Exploration." Over the past 19 years, Wessen has
been a key member of the teams responsible for the Cassini, Galileo,
Voyager 2 and Mars missions. He is currently with the Navigator
Program, which seeks to understand the formation and history of
planetary systems in our galaxy. The co-author of "Neptune: the Planet,
Rings and Satellites," he is a fellow of both the Royal Astronomical
Society and the British Interplanetary Society.
The lecture, which takes place at 2 p.m. in the Adobe Laser Dome, is
part of a monthly series being presented in conjunction with the
exhibit, Space: A Journey to our Future. Admission to the lectures is
free with regular Pacific Science Center admission. For more
information, go to
http://www.pacsci.org/
MUSEUM MARKS ASTRONAUT REMEMBRANCE WEEK
The Museum of Flight will honor the astronauts lost in NASA service
with a week of remembrance, Jan. 27-Feb. 1. Throughout the week,
special exhibits will highlight the lives of the 17 astronauts from the
Apollo and Space Shuttle programs and remembrance journals will be
available for visitors to record their thoughts on each of these
heroes.
There will also be a display of personal memorabilia from Washington
state astronaut and Columbia shuttle pilot Willie McCool, a distance
learning program broadcast from NASA's Johnson Space Center, and panel
discussions with Apollo astronaut Walter Cunningham and former Mission
Control specialists Jerry Bostick and Sy Liebergot. A nondenominational
remembrance service is planned for Feb. 1 at 10:15 a.m. For details,
see
http://www.museumofflight.org
SEE MARS LIKE THE SCIENTISTS DO
The NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory has released Maestro, a public
version of the primary software tool used by NASA scientists to design
goals for the Mars Exploration Rovers and analyze the images received
from Mars. Visitors can download Maestro for free from and use it to
follow along with the rovers' progress during the mission. Maestro can
be used to view pictures from Mars in 2D and 3D and to create
simplified rover activity plans. During the mission, updates will be
released for Maestro containing the latest images from Mars. To
download Maestro, go to
http://mars.telascience.org/
FEEDBACK
Ideas, comments and Web sites of interest to other teachers should be sent to Irene Svete, newsletter editor, at
isvete@u.washington.edu
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