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Table of Contents
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1.
Office of Space Sciences Product Review – Results, and What's Next
Beginning in 2001, NASA's Office of Space
Sciences (OSS) has sponsored an annual, external review of its education
products. OSS education products are reviewed by panels composed of space
scientists and educators, including classroom teachers, NASA teacher trainers,
and curriculum developers. This peer review provides NASA with information
regarding the effectiveness of specific products and recommendations for
professional development and distribution.
A big “Thank
You” to everyone who contributed to the first
round of the Office of Space Science Product Review, which is now complete.
Fifty-four space science educational products were reviewed, with
fourteen space scientists participating in peer reviews on the panels along with
educators. Seven products were
recommended for broad distribution through the NASA network.
Five products were recommended for broad distribution and teacher
workshops, with an additional 13 recommended for distribution through teacher
workshops after minor revisions.
On November 15-17, sixteen exemplary space
science products from the review will be demonstrated during a workshop for
Educator Resource Center (ERC) coordinators, Aerospace Education Specialist
Program (AESP) and OSS Broker/Facilitators at Goddard. The goal of the workshop
is to help the NASA network coordinators connect these exemplary products into
the K-12 curriculum within the states in their service regions.
For more information on the product review
process, http://www.strategies.org/SpaceScienceReview.html
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2. Sun-Earth Day, March 20, 2002: Celebrate
the Equinox
NASA’s Sun-Earth Connection Education Forum (SECEF) is developing and supporting Sun-Earth Day, an education and public outreach event on March 20, 2002, to celebrate the Equinox. This is the second Sun-Earth Day event SECEF is coordinating. Last year’s Sun-Earth Day was a great success, and participants included formal and informal education communities in classrooms, museums, planetaria, NASA centers, and at hundreds of celebrations throughout the country and in Europe. Over 200,000 participants learned about the Sun and Sun-Earth Connection missions, and we hope that this next Sun-Earth Day will be even more successful. New resource kits to support the event will be distributed in early January through NASA CORE. A new webcast is being developed with NASA Connect at NASA Langley Research Center, and new opportunities will be featured through the Telescopes in Education and Astronomy With a Stick programs. The webcast will include a collaboration with Native Americans to celebrate of the Equinox. Clips from the IMAX movie “Solar Max” will give a historical perspective. Student activities will be selected for the program, featured to enhance knowledge about the Sun and seasons. The GEMS guide “The Real Reason for Seasons” will help educators address common misconceptions students may have.
Visit the Sun-Earth Day website— http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/SECEF_SunEarthDay
or go to http://solarevents.org then click “Sun-Earth Day.”
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3. Eclipse 2001 - A Summary of Stats and
Evaluation Results
The “Live from Africa” solar eclipse event on June 21, 2001 was a great success! Sponsored by the Exploratorium and NASA’s Sun-Earth Connection Education Forum, and endorsed by the National Society of Black Physicists, the hour-long program from Africa explained the science behind solar eclipses. In addition, the science of the active Sun was explored through imagery and videos from NASA missions such as SOHO and TRACE. As a result of a partnership with NASA’s “Teaching from Space” Education Program, a pre-recorded conversation with astronauts aboard the International Space Station was also part of the program. Astronauts Jim Voss, Susan Helms and Yury Usachev spoke to a live audience at the Exploratorium about “Living with a Star,” habitability of space, and how they monitor the Sun’s activity—since solar particle radiation can be harmful to astronauts in space. Astronaut Yvonne Cagle was part of the museum program at the Exploratorium on the day of the event.
The stat tallies are in and we would like to share some of the results with you.
· 72 scientists participated
· 164 organizations participated:
o 70 museums, planetariums, science institutions (21 international)
o 71 Girl Scout Troops (1 international)
o 15 Schools/universities (2 international)
o 2 Organizations promoting minority participation in science
o 4 Commercial groups (SmashTV, Magnetic Image Video, Coronado Instruments, and AboveNet Communications, Inc.)
o 2 Mass Media Groups (CNN and NASA TV/NASA Select)
· ~42,000 people participated at museums, science centers, planetaria all over the world
· Exploratorium Eclipse Website stats:
o 198,000 visits on June 21, 2001
o 420,737 Unique IP addresses for June
o 955,685 visits for June
o 10,000,000 hits
· ~75 million viewers: CNN, NBC Nightly News, NBC's Today show, Good Morning America, CBS's Newspath, NASA TV/NASA select, Fox News Tech TV Cable, NBC Network, ABC Network, CNBC Cable, and many local TV stations all over the US
· ~25 million listeners: Radio interviews scientists from the National Society of Black Physicists: Dr. Charles McGruder, Dr. Beth Brown, Dr. George Carruthers. Also Public Service Announcements
·
~25
million readers of national & international newspapers and magazines
A heartfelt thank
you to all who participated. Look for the next events on http://solarevents.org
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4. EDCATS - Thank you! (whew!)
The SECEF team would like
to sincerely thank all the E/PO leads for your long hours and toil entering data
into a seemingly defiant EDCATS system – so much data were received in a short
amount of time that it resulted in an overload on the system!
Your efforts will be worth it – the statistics on events, activities
and scientist participation look spectacular and final tallies will be announced
soon. It was a real crunch to get everything entered this year,
but next year forecasts a much simpler, more streamlined process. The
data will be preserved and you won’t have to reenter source forms for
institutions, scientists or activities. Thank you again for your persistence and
endurance. When you see our collective efforts, you will be impressed!
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5. Products Corner – SEC Materials
Available in Spanish
Note:
Readers, please tell us what products and resources you have available in
Spanish!
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Newsletter Sponsor Information:
Sun-Earth Connection Education Forum
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/index.htm
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How to Contact Us:
The Sun-Earth CONNECTION Education and Public Outreach Newsletter
is issued approximately every 4-6 weeks. 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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