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As we begin a new millennium and the Sun undergoes another solar maximum, the Sun-Earth Connection Education Forum (SECEF) is sponsoring a series of "Solar Events" during 2000-2001 to feature and celebrate the active Sun and its connection to our lives. In partnership with museums, educators, and space scientists around the country, SECEF is supporting a traveling Space Weather Center museum exhibit, a national "Sun-Earth Day," and an international total solar eclipse webcast from Southern Africa. Solar Events will allow a broad community to learn about NASA's SEC theme and its missions through high-visibility events. For example, "Sun-Earth Day,"
scheduled for April 27, 2001, will engage schools and classrooms nationwide. Teachers and students will get the opportunity to increase their awareness of the Sun-Earth connection through a Sun-Earth Day Education Kit, email mentoring, and online chat sessions with scientists. The event will be co-celebrated with Astronomy Day, the annual celebration of the Astronomical League (North America's amateur astronomy group) and will coincide with celebrations of the fifth anniversary of ESA and NASA's SOHO spacecraft. The June 21, 2001 total solar eclipse webcast from southern Africa will give science museums in the US and abroad the opportunity to host events for the public and special interest groups. "Eclipse 2001" will build on the successes of two previous webcast events in 1998 and 1999—viewed by millions of Internet and live participants—which were conducted in partnership with the San Francisco Exploratorium and Goddard Space Flight Center. Eclipse 2001 will feature a live 30-minute downlink to science museums from the International Space Station (ISS), highlighting NASA's Living with a Star initiative by addressing the effects of the active Sun on ISS astronauts. To learn more about Solar Events, access the website:
http://solarevents.org/
-- contributed by Dr. Isabel Hawkins, Space Science Lab, UC Berkeley
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The Sun-Earth Connection Education Forum, in collaboration with the Lawrence Hall of Science, has developed a GEMS (Great Explorations in Math and Science) guide called "The Real Reasons for Seasons: Sun-Earth Connections." This guide, targeted for middle school teachers, is the first in the respected and popular Great Explorations in Math and Science guide series to include an accompanying CD-ROM. The guide contains activities to help teachers dispel common misconceptions about Earth seasons and other Sun-Earth Connections. The CD-ROM’s contents include complementary materials featuring Sun-Earth Connection NASA resources. The Seasons GEMS guide will be distributed nationally through the existing network of GEMS sites, where training for local teachers will be provided. GEMS guides are also automatically distributed through the National Science Teachers Association curriculum resource catalog. GEMS guides are extensively pilot-tested both locally and nationally, and are revised periodically to incorporate teacher comments, new pedagogical approaches, and up-to-date scientific discoveries. Over the past 10 years, GEMS has developed a network of over 10,000 educators nationwide who regularly use the GEMS materials to meet their math and science instructional goals. For more information about the GEMS guides, visit the GEMS homepage at
http://lawrencehallofscience.org/GEMS/GEMS.html
-- Contributed by Diane Kisich, Science Education Specialist, Space Sciences Lab, UC/Berkeley
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A noteworthy symposium on education and outreach in astronomy and space science is scheduled as part of the upcoming American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Annual Meeting (San Francisco, Feb. 15-20, 2001,
http://www.aaas.org/meetings/ ). This three-hour symposium on Monday, February 19 is titled "Bringing Space Science Down to Earth: Developments in Education & Outreach," and features five prominent astronomy educators. The session will include extensive time for panel discussion and audience questions, and is aimed at any scientist, educator, or other conference attendee interested in science education and public outreach. A simple flyer for this AAAS conference symposium, including an abstract and the speaker list, has been prepared in PDF and can be downloaded at
http://sunearth.ssl.berkeley.edu/SECnews/AAAS.symp.announce1.pdf.
The symposium organizer, panel moderator, and point-of-contact for questions is Dr. Greg Schultz (UC Berkeley) at schultz@ssl.berkeley.edu.
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An integral element of the Office of Space Science (OSS) education and public outreach strategy is the establishment of a network for space science to foster a wide variety of education and public outreach activities. This network of institutions include (1) four Education Forums that serve as major centers for space science education and public outreach in each of the four OSS Themes, and (2) a set of regional Broker/Facilitators who, for example, help arrange collaborations between scientists and the education community. The Sun-Earth Connection Education Forum (SECEF) is a partnership led by Goddard Space Flight Center and UC Berkeley’s Space Sciences Laboratory. To learn more about SECEF and the Office of Space Science Education and Public Outreach program, go to
http://spacescience.nasa.gov/education/ecosystem.htm
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The Sun-Earth CONNECTION Education and Public Outreach Newsletter
is issued approximately monthly. Back issues can be found at http://sunearth.ssl.berkeley.edu/SECNews/
The Newsletter is sponsored by the NASA Sun-Earth Connection Education Forum (Goddard Space Flight
Center and UC Berkeley; Rich Vondrak and Isabel Hawkins, Co-Directors)
Sun-Earth Connection Education Forum Web Site:
http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov and
http://sunearth.ssl.berkeley.edu
Please direct all submissions to the newsletter to:
Karin Hauck (Editor) – E-mail: editor@sunearth.ssl.berkeley.edu
Phone: (510)642-2343 Fax: (510)643-5660
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