New Outreach Lessons offered, focusing on CHANGING SOLAR PATH: I'm working with teachers at several Eugene-Springfield metro area schools to develop an inquiry program for students to investigate why days are getting shorter, the most obvious sky change occurring the next two months (aside from the conjunctions mentioned on the homepage). The lessons are designed to also tie into basic Earth in Space (rotation/orbit) study, and the popular science kit lesson, Measuring Time. We make use of a shadow device to collect data, contact me if you'd like more info. PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITY: Oregon Science Teachers Association (OSTA) annual conference: Leslie Middle School, Salem, all day Friday, October 12th. Info/Reg: http://oregonscience.org. I'll be offering mini clinics including writeups, answering questions about space, and offering some reading samples for lower grade levels at my table in the exhibit hall. See me there, I won't be doing formal presentations this year.
PMO SUMMER RESEARCH CAMP: The 2012 camp concluded the third week of July, apparently went well, with students and instructors from St. Mary's (Medford), Lincoln High (Portland), Oregon Episcopal School, and from Willamette U participating in photometry and spectroscopy programs. Please contact Professor Rick Watkins, rwatkins@willamette.edu, for info and to enroll for participation in 2013.
SCIENCE INQUIRY VOCABULARY I'll shortly post info about the Science Inquiry Vocabulary project that we began at the OSTA Conference in Coos Bay in October, we had several people attend and we began our list of words. Sorry for the delay, too much going on, will post as soon as I can, interesting to see how many people/organizations are currently focusing on reading/vocab in the science context. OUTREACH PROGRAM WILL BE DIFFICULT TO MAINTAIN, NEEDS SUPPORT! The Classroom Outreach program has really slowed down in terms of requests. This is due to the major emphasis (classroom time) on reading improvement, increased testing, standards changes, and all the other activities and tasks now assigned to classroom teachers, that take away time from science. Many Elementary schools have completely discontinued teaching science. The outreach program can relieve you of some of these tasks and restore science lessons for the students. We can tailor the program to meet specific curricula even outside of science, and to specific grade level needs. The outreach program continues to suffer from lack of fiscal backing. Even with all the rhetoric from authorities about how important STEM training and skills are, exactly what this program offers, plus the direct correlation to increased student awareness about technology/large scale environment/significance of space programs, something that NASA and associated organizations desire, neither NASA nor any academic institutions have offered any consistent support for the program. With somewhat failing health I'm about to terminate the program unless there is more response and dependable fiscal underwriting. UO may be able to reestablish the program later on as they're trying to hire faculty to take this on. This coming schoolyear I'll probably visit schools that invite me but will not actively seek schools any longer as response has been so diminished and I've had to spend most of my time just trying to contact teachers who are very busy with many other tasks. I appreciate all the opportunities that I've had and thank all of you who participated over the years.
If you are a potential donor/underwriter, I'd be glad to discuss the program with you and to arrange a suitable method to receive/manage/disburse your contribution. To maximize effectiveness and minimize taxes, what we really need is a way to reimburse auto rental/mileage, fuel, motel, and restaurant charges.
Don't hesitate to contact me if you'd like an outreach visit or just have a question about space/the sky. epoguy@gmail.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Original info posted at this sublink, updated April, 2011: 2009 was the INTERNATIONAL YEAR of ASTRONOMY (IYA), celebrated 400 years since Galileo first turned a telescope on the sky. There will be some residual activities going on in 2011 and even beyond. The star, Epsilon Aurigae is under close observation by many amateur and professional astrophysicists. This star is predicted to change brightness as the disk of dust and gas that we think surrounds this star interacts with the star. One event has already been observed. See the Campaign 2009 site and the March issue of Sky & Telescope magazine for details (updated model has been created from the data accumulated over past three years).
You can order a GalileoScope, a slightly improved version of the refractor Galileo used, this device has been designed by educators for students and public to introduce as many people as possible to actual telescopic views of Moon and Planets (DON'T EVER VIEW THE SUN !!!) See http://www.galileoscope.org/ for details. Very reasonably priced, easy to assemble, can be dis-assembled for classroom instruction in optics.
See more info, featured topics and objects to study and observe each month, and projects and resources for students at: NASA IYA Website, and at the Astronomical Society of Pacific IYA website, contacts
listed there. The Boston Globe posted a series of spectacular Solar closeup images at their http://bigpicture website. FYI, the site does include quite a few comments by readers, including a debate about religion, you may want to preview this if your group is sensitive about the topic. -------------------------------------------------------------------- TUTORIALS ABOUT SOLAR SYSTEM and LIGHT POLLUTION plus way cool LIGHT POLLUTION SIMULATOR from International Darksky Association --------------------------------------------------------------------- WORKSHOPS - PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT for all seasons:
In Oregon, check local sources
like ESDs for workshops. I'll post info about astronomy workshops on the website here.
We don't have funding for a Teacher STEM Workshop for Summer, 2012, but Professor Carr and Professor Bothun are still trying to look for ways to fund future workshops like we've held at PMO most summers.
One of the key issues is lack of communication with Science Teachers statewide, there isn't a "clearinghouse" for this kind of information, where all Science Teachers, K-12, regularly search for information. For example, the workshop held last summer in McMinnville, at the Evergreen Air and Space Museum, seemed impossible to publicize to teachers statewide, attendance was very low.
We are trying to develop demand info for a Professional Development workshop about astrophysics/astronomy within the Science Inquiry framework, along the lines of our prior Summer events, if you're interested in any type of workshop about aspects of astronomy and astrophysics, please contact Rick (rkang@efn.org) so we can get a tally so that Professor Bothun can get some leverage for funding. Thanks! --------------------------------------------------------------------- Our hemispheric projects have terminated due to lack of interest.
I did propose a project on the National Lab Day website about finding asteroids using images taken from the Sierra Stars Observatories Network (SSON), but NLD buried the information in the site, and there haven't been any takers so far. If you're interested, let me know, I still have several minutes of telescope time prepaid with SSON that I'd be willing to donate to a student interested in trying a project.
