NASA EARTH & SPACE SCIENCE EDUCATION-December, 2013

McDonald Observatory 2014 Teacher Professional Development Workshops (Apply by Feb. 7)

(Apply by Feb. 7)

McDonald Observatory is now accepting applications for its Summer 2014 K-12 teacher professional development workshops. McDonald Observatory will be offering four scholarship workshops (with some funding provided by NASA) during Summer 2014, with all workshops being held at the McDonald Observatory in the Davis Mountains of west Texas. Each workshop is three-days, two-nights, and scholarships will cover most workshop expenses, including food, lodging, and program fees (participants will be responsible for their own travel expenses).

• June 19-21: Explore Our Solar System (K-8)
• June 23-25: Telescopes, Instruments, and Observations (6-12)
• June 26-28: Worlds Beyond Our Solar System (6-12)
• June 29-July 1: Giant Magellan Telescope (8-12)
• July 8-10: Star Dust – Linking Distant Galaxies to Us (8-12)
• July 31-Aug. 2: Earth and Space Science (8-12)

For more information on these sessions and to register, please visit http://bit.ly/1gcc34q.

Beta-Testers Needed for In-VESTA-Gate

CosmoQuest is looking for beta-testers for In-VESTA-Gate, our middle school unit on planetary systems, asteroids, meteors, and more. This unit aligns with the Next Generation Science Standards and goes along with the CosmoQuest citizen science project, Asteroid Mappers.

Educators are needed who can:

• Look over the unit and provide feedback from an educator’s perspective.
• Try one of the new activities, such as the Gravity Misconceptions cards, Gravity Pulls You Down, Comet: Physical Model, Expedition Asteroid, The Long Winding Road to Earth, and Collision Course, with your classroom or group.
• Be super enthusiastic and try the whole unit!

Links to the draft materials are available at http://bit.ly/HppwJP. Questions should be directed to educate@cosmoquest.org.

 NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship Program

( New applications due Feb. 3; Renewal applications due March 17)

NASA announces a call for graduate fellowship proposals to the NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship (NESSF) program for the 2014-2015 academic year. This call for proposals solicits applications from accredited U.S. universities on behalf of individuals pursuing Master of Science (M.Sc.) or Doctoral (Ph.D.) degrees in Earth and space sciences, or related disciplines. The purpose of NESSF is to ensure continued training of a highly qualified workforce in disciplines needed to achieve NASA’s scientific goals. Awards resulting from the competitive selection will be made in the form of training grants to the respective universities.

The NESSF call for proposals, submission instructions, and Frequently Asked Questions are available at http://bit.ly/1gpmB2I.

 Here, There, and Everywhere Exhibition (Through Aug. 2015)

(Through Aug. 2015; Multiple locations)

Here, There, and Everywhere (HTE) is a NASA-funded program that consists of a series of exhibitions, posters, and supporting hands-on activities that utilize analogies in the teaching of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) to provide multi-generational and family-friendly content in English and Spanish for community centers, libraries, schools, and under-resourced or small science centers. The purpose of the program is to connect cross-cutting content in Earth, planetary sciences, and astrophysics, with everyday phenomena. These connections will show that what happens in our daily lives also happens on a larger scale across the Universe. The HTE program utilizes multimodal content delivery (physical exhibits, handouts, interpretive stations, facilitated activities for educators, and online materials) hosted by locations for informal science learning. For more information, and to see if HTE is coming to a location near you, visit http://bit.ly/YThbPX.

Cosmic Times 2019

The Cosmic Times team is inviting teachers to contribute their students’ vision of the 2019 edition of the Cosmic Times for possible inclusion in an online student gallery. Cosmic Times is a suite of curriculum support materials that traces our understanding of the changing universe from the first confirmation of Einstein’s General Relativity in 1919, through the discovery and follow-up evidence of dark energy in 2006. This story is told using a series of posters each resembling a front-page newspaper from a particular era, with readings for students and supporting lessons for teachers. Through the Cosmic Times 2019 lesson plan, students write the 2019 edition of Cosmic Times, imagining what new knowledge we will have on the 100th “anniversary” of the first edition of Cosmic Times.

For more information and instructions on how to participate in this ongoing activity, please visit http://1.usa.gov/15hMIi9.

Exploring the Milky Way (Grades 6-8)

This book of problems introduces students to mapping the shape of the Milky Way galaxy, and how to identify the various kinds of galaxies in our universe. Students also learn about the shapes and sized of other galaxies in our universe as they learn how to classify them. Problems included cover basic scientific notation skills, explain how these skills relate to working with astronomically large numbers, and provide opportunities to plot points on a Cartesian plane to map the various features of our Milky Way. http://bit.ly/16Eggxb

In the Fog About Smog: Solving the Smog Problem on Earth and from Space (Grades 9-12)

This ChemMatters (an educational magazine for high school students) article provides a brief background on smog, then examines the causes of it, efforts to reduce it, and methods used to measure it. http://bit.ly/1ccp9wk

The Heliosphere

This lithograph outlines the components of our heliosphere, using information released by the Interstellar Boundary Explorer, or IBEX, spacecraft team. Students will see an illustration of our heliosphere on the front of the product, read information about the heliosphere on the back, and then use the image itself as part of a model activity titled “Model the Heliosphere Using Your Kitchen Sink, ” where the water represents outflowing solar wind! http://bit.ly/1gcnIQQ

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Communication Design Challenge (Grades 5-8)

This activity about spacecraft design asks teams of students to model how scientists and engineers design and build spacecraft to collect, store, and transmit data to Earth. Teams will design a system to store and transmit topographic data of the Moon, then analyze that data and compare it to data collected by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. http://bit.ly/1aOI9hE