An Education and Public Outreach (EPO) Newsletter
for the Sun-Earth Connection Science Community - and beyond!
November 4, 2005 Volume VI, Issue 6
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See End for Sponsor Information, How to Contribute (please
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
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=> 1. Hunters See Mysterious Lights in the Sky, Local Science
Teacher Knows Why
=> 2. Satellite Missions CALIPSO and CloudSat Partner with GLOBE:
Providing a Web Forum for Students and Teachers Worldwide
=> 3. Space Place Live! with Donya Douglas
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1. HUNTERS SEE MYSTERIOUS LIGHTS IN THE SKY,
LOCAL SCIENCE TEACHER KNOWS WHY
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In November 2004, in the rural town of Ukiah, Oregon, local hunters
were out late into the night tracking elk when they saw a peculiar
red glow in the sky. Mystified, they discussed its possible causes.
One of the hungers recalled an article he’d read recently in the
local paper. “Didn’t Ms. Barber get a device from NASA in her
school to study the Northern Lights? Could this glow be Northern
Lights?” After their hunting trip, they tracked down Ms. Laura
Barber, the local middle and high school physical science teacher,
and told her what they had seen.
Ms. Barber confirmed that the lights they saw were indeed the
Northern Lights. She went on to say that personnel from a NASA
satellite mission’s Education and Public Outreach team had come
to her school and installed an instrument called a magnetometer
to measure magnetic fields. This instrument, Ms. Barber explained,
measures changes in Earth’s magnetic field due to the Northern
Lights and the magnetometer is part of the THEMIS mission, which
stands for Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during
Substorms. (To recall this acronym, Ms. Barber had to pull out
the flyer that the E/PO team from the University of California
in Berkeley had created and sent to her.) Ms. Barber then sat down
and sent an email to the 13 other teachers involved in the
project, telling them the story of the hunters seeking her out
to ask about the Northern Lights.
Ms. Barber’s story is just one from the eleven schools with
magnetometers installed at, or near, their campus in 2004 and
2005. The schools are all located in the northern United States:
Alaska, Oregon, Nevada, North and South Dakota, Montana, Wisconsin,
Michigan, Vermont and Pennsylvania. The teachers involved in the
THEMIS E/PO magnetometer program, known as the Geomagnetic Event
Observation Network by Students (GEONS), have been active and
enthusiastic. They have taught lessons on THEMIS and magnetometers
in their classrooms and have gotten press releases in their local
papers about the magnetometer installation. The North Dakota
installation appeared in USA Today. Cris DeWolf in Michigan taught
the soda bottle magnetometer at the popular Michigan Science
Teachers Conferences in ’04 and ‘05. Wendell Gehman in South
Dakota had his Native American high school students in turn teach
their younger elementary school students about space weather.
Becoming a crucial part of a NASA mission operating out of their
very own schools has provided the students with feelings of
ownership, pride, and wonder. The teachers, too, show increasing
knowledge and confidence, benefiting from the yearly professional
development workshops, weekly emails and a teacher list-serve
providing ongoing support from the THEMIS E/PO team.
The THEMIS E/PO team creates lessons for teachers to use, test and
revise. All the data are on the web in real-time — and archived for
any teacher across the country to use. Please email Dr. Nahide Craig
ncraig@ssl.berkeley.edu or Dr. Laura Peticolas laura@ssl.berkeley.edu
if you are interested in knowing more about this program.
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2. SATELLITE MISSIONS FROM CALYPSO and CLOUDSAT PARTNER WITH GLOBE:
PROVIDING A WEB FORUM FOR STUDENTS AND TEACHERS WORLDWIDE
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“I think it is pretty cool that CLOUDSAT and CALIPSO will be able
to see through the clouds and help us learn more about aerosols,
as well as give us better prediction of the weather.”
-- student at the Indiana School for the Deaf
Quoted above is one of the lucky students from around the world
who had the opportunity to interact online with scientists from the
CALIPSO and CloudSat satellite missions. Both missions are
scheduled for launch this fall. The event, an online web forum,
was hosted at the GLOBE website from October 17th though 21st,
2005. The forum gave students an opportunity to ask questions
about the CALIPSO and CloudSat missions and learn about clouds,
aerosols and their possible role in predicting climate change.
The asynchronous question and answer web forum not only allowed
students from the United States to participate, but students
as far away as France, Cameroon and Thailand participated as
well. Mission scientists provided answers in English and French.
Student quotes from the Burlington County Institute of Technology
in Vermont:
Laura Quinn, 12th grade: "I think it's great that the GLOBE
Atmosphere observations will soon include ground truth for
satellites. For me, that adds more interest to my work."
Zoe Bryant, 12th grade: "The addition of technology in GLOBE
will attract younger students, especially girls."
Dwayne Tattnall, 10th grade: "I am new to the GLOBE Program,
but I really see the value of these "chats" in helping me prepare
for my future. It gives me a larger view of the world out there."
John Moore, GLOBE Teacher: "The web forum helped students better
understand that many complex environmental problems are of a global
nature. Therefore, the solutions require international cooperation
and the sharing of data. After seeing the questions asked in this
forum by students around the world, I think the next generation is
up to the challenge."
From Teresa Huckleberry and her students at the Indiana School for
the Deaf:
“It was cool because we got to hear from real scientists who
actually know everything about the satellites.”
“I thought the web chat was awesome. I liked it because I got
answers to my questions from real scientists. I could read
questions and answers from students all over the world.”
“I think it is pretty cool that CLOUDSAT and CALIPSO will be able
to see through the clouds and help us learn more about aerosols,
as well as give us better prediction of the weather.”
Quote from teacher Teresa Huckleberry
My students were obviously motivated by having the opportunity to
participate in the GLOBE web chat. It was a good learning tool for
having them come up with questions, especially if they thought I
would not know the answer. They asked questions one day and then
couldn't wait to see the answers to their questions the next day.
They were very excited to see that scientists really had taken the
time to read their questions and had posted answers for them. It
made them feel important. I can teach them the concepts, vocabulary,
and content of Earth System Science, but it just carries a lot more
impact when it comes from scientists. For the first time this year,
students actually viewed clouds and aerosols as being important.
It gave purpose and meaning to the GLOBE measurements they do everyday.
Education/Outreach Contacts:
Becky Boger – GLOBE – rboger@globe.gov
Barbara Maggi – CALIPSO - barbara.maggi@hamptonu.edu
Debra Krumm – CloudSat – dkrumm@atmos.colostate.edu
Related Resources
CALIPSO Outreach
http://calipsooutreach.hamptonu.edu
CloudSat Outreach
http://cloudsat.atmos.colostate.edu/outreach
GLOBE
http://www.globe.gov
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3. SPACE PLACE LIVE! WITH DONYA DOUGLAS
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Space Place Live! is the cartoon "talk show" on The Space Place Web
site, with NASA scientists and engineers chatting about their work,
how they chose their careers, and what they like to do for fun.
The newest episode features Donya Douglas, thermal engineer for
the Space Technology 5 mission, in which three tiny spacecraft
will test advanced new miniaturization technologies in space. See
it at http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/en/kids/live/#
Nancy Leon nancy.j.leon@jpl.nasa.gov
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Newsletter Sponsor Info: Sun-Earth Connection Education Forum
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©UC Regents 2005
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How to Contact Us
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The Sun-Earth CONNECTION Education and Public Outreach
newsletter is issued approximately every 6-8 weeks. Back issues
can be found at
http://sunearth.ssl.berkeley.edu/SECNews/
The Newsletter is sponsored by the Sun-Earth Connection
Education Forum (Goddard Space Flight Center and UC Berkeley;
Isabel Hawkins and Jim Thieman, 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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