OSGC Educational Resources Blog

Next on NOVA: “Astrospies”
http://www.pbs.org/nova/astrospies

Tuesday, February 12 at 8 p.m.
Check your local listings as dates and times may vary. Broadcast in HD where available.

Millions remember the countdowns, launchings, splashdowns, and parades as the U.S. raced the USSR to the moon in the 1960s. But few know that both countries also ran parallel space programs, whose covert goal was to launch military astronauts on spying missions. In this program, NOVA delves into the untold story of this top-secret space race, which might easily have turned into a shooting war in orbit.

Coproduced by investigative journalist James Bamford, acclaimed best-selling author of The Puzzle Palace and Emmy Award-winning producer Scott Willis, “Astrospies” uncovers new clues about the tensest period of the Cold War, when the U.S. and USSR were on the verge of war and desperate for intelligence on each other’s nuclear capabilities.

Here’s what you’ll find online:

Watch the Program Online:  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/astrospies/program.html 
“Astrospies” will be available to view online starting February 13.

Secret Astronauts:  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/astrospies/profiles.html
Meet eight astronauts from the Manned Orbiting Laboratory program.

The Race Today:   http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/astrospies/racetoday.html
Historian Asif Siddiqi discusses the space programs of China, India, and other new players, and their impact.

Space Race Time Line:   http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/astrospies/timeline.html
Examine turning points in the heated competition between the U.S. and USSR to dominate space.

Spy Photos:   http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/astrospies/photos.html
A surveillance-image specialist examines photos of Iraq, North Korea, and other political hotspots.

Also, a video preview, Links & Books, the Teacher’s Guide, and more:
http://www.pbs.org/nova/astrospies

It is now even easier to find NASA teaching materials. Apart from the spiffy new appearance of the NASA Education Portal, NASA has added new functionality and organization to the website. Are you looking for grade appropriate science content for your classroom? Just use the checkboxes on the main Educator’s portal to select content relevant to your needs. To find current programs and funding opportunities for both educators and students, please select the “Current Opportunities” links found on the left side of the page within each grade level. Visit the revamped NASA web portal today! http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/index.html

ISS EarthKAM Image Competition Entries Due Nov. 28, 2007

Educators and their students are invited to participate in the International Space Station Earth Klimate Analysis Mission Image Competition. Participating classes will create a collaborative investigation about climate change using EarthKAM images.

Each classroom should focus their investigation on a specific topic. The investigation should include background research and supporting images. Schools are encouraged to select a topic that is relevant to their local community.

The entire project must be submitted electronically, no later than Nov. 28, 2007. The EarthKAM team will evaluate the submitted investigations based on content, creativity and overall presentation. Prizes will be awarded for the best projects, and the winning projects will be posted on the EarthKAM Web site.

To learn more, visit: http://www.earthkam.ucsd.edu/public/about/missions/index.shtml

Visit NASA’s website to find dates and times for sighting the International Space station and the Space Shuttle Discovery.  Lsitings can be searched by location and include date/time, duration of visibility, and angle in the sky.  This could be a great astronomy tool and a nice way to work on math skills.

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/index.html

For help with interpreting the lisitngs, please visit the following link:

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/help.html

When will humans return to the moon? How will they get there? How will the astronauts live and work in reduced gravity? How does someone grow plants on the moon? Classroom students from across the country will have the chance to ask these questions and more during a series of live Web chats with experts from NASA’s Constellation Program and Biological Sciences Offices.

The Challenger Center for Space Science Education in Alexandria, Va., and NASA Education are partnering to host two one-hour webcasts with Dr. Gary W. Stutte and Dr. Raymond M. Wheeler from Kennedy Spaceflight Center and John Gruener from the Johnson Space Center on October 23 and 30, 2007, at 2:00 p.m.ET. The webcasts are free and open to the public.

Classroom teachers may register at the Challenger Center Web site to chat with NASA’s plant growth experts on how astronauts will use plants to provide food, oxygen, clean water and recycle waste during long-duration space missions on the moon. The conversations are in support of NASA’s Lunar Plant Growth Chamber design challenge for grades K-12.

In the NASA design challenge, elementary, middle and high school students research, design, build and evaluate lunar plant growth chambers using space-flown basil seeds. Students participate in the engineering design process, learn how to conduct a scientific experiment and can receive national recognition for their efforts on the Challenger Center Web site. To register for the webcasts visit: http://www.challenger.org/clc/sts118webcast.cfm

The 10 million basil seeds that flew in space on the STS-118 space shuttle mission have moved one step closer to the classroom. The seeds were returned to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, on Oct. 4, 2007, and were then packaged and sent to Park Seed Company, located in Greenwood, S.C. At Park Seed Company, the seeds will be sorted and placed in small packets, each packet containing approximately 50 seeds. The packets of space-flown seeds and control packets of seeds that have not flown will then be distributed to educators who have registered to take part in the Engineering Design Challenge. The seeds will be packaged in a commemorative envelope with an insert that provides additional information about the seeds.

The seeds are available to the first 100,000 registrants, who must be residents of the United States or U.S. Territories and Outlying Areas. For more information on the challenge and to register to participate, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/education/plantchallenge

The registration deadline for three of the NASA’s Exploring Space Challenges has been extended to Oct. 14, 2007. These challenges are designed to help students develop computer and Internet skills, learn to communicate more clearly and effectively, and work collaboratively as team members.

The following challenges are now open. For more information, visit the links below.

Mission: Hurricanes — Grades 6-8

Here’s an opportunity for students to become hurricane detectives! NASA scientists follow the clues that are left behind by these storms. Students have the opportunity to consult with a NASA scientist or educator, analyze NASA data, and communicate their findings.
http://esc.nasa.gov/html_files/Hurricanes.html

Mission: Habitat Moon — Grades 3-12

Within the next decade, humans will once again return to the moon. The ultimate goal is to build a base to live and work on the moon. Mission: Habitat Moon wants your students to play the roles of the first engineers and scientists on the moon. Student engineers can design and construct an enclosed habitat of their own, as well as monitor its maintenance.
http://esc.nasa.gov/html_files/HabitatMoon.html

Mission: Moon Math — Grades 5-8

This challenge is an opportunity for students to complete a scientific investigation related to NASA’s efforts to return to the moon by 2020. Students will work in teams of two to design, build and conduct an experiment on some aspect of the moon. All projects must incorporate measurement.
http://esc.nasa.gov/html_files/moon_math.html

Seeing in the Dark
PBS film by Timothy Ferris
Premiere scheduled for September 19, 2007 (check local listings for times/channels)

When youngsters are asked for their favorite topics in science, astronomy (along with dinosaurs) is always high on the list. As a “gateway” to science education, astronomy is essential to the curriculum in many states and school districts. But even where astronomy is not required, it can often be a wonderful way to approach required science principles and ideas. Examples from astronomy can make vivid any general discussion of gravity and forces, of nuclear energy, of light and color, and of the nature of scientific hypotheses.

( For a summary of astronomy in the K-8 science standards of the 50 states, see: http://aer.noao.edu/cgi-bin/article.pl?id=204 )

As you explore the Seeing in the Dark website, be sure to take a look at the how-to videos for stargazing, print out a custom star chart of the night sky where you live, read and watch special effects videos of fascinating astronomy topics, and consider requesting an image from our high-powered Internet telescope.

The companion website includes a special section for educators and features a robotic telescope located at a high-altitude site in New Mexico. Students and teachers can request images of the galaxy by registering online and then sending an e-mail specifying the object they would like to image (for free).

The website also has a digital star chart that can be customized for your date and location. You can even set it to get the most suitable results depending on whether you’re observing with the unaided eye, binoculars, or a small telescope.

Visit the companion website at:
http://www.pbs.org/seeinginthedark/

With about a hundred million stars and two hundred million galaxies, Sky in Google Earth lets you explore the heavens like never before. Visit the link below for a video tour of Google Sky. Google Earth, one of the very best tools for exploring your world, is available as a free download.

http://earth.google.com/sky/skyedu.html

It’s Not Your Father’s Earth Science Class at NASA Langley!
( Press Release found at http://www.nasa.gov/centers/langley/news/releases/2007/07-033.html )

HAMPTON, Va. — It’s a warm afternoon in a high school Earth science class, and the lesson for the day is about Earth’s troposphere. While scribbling down notes as fast as possible, the students ask themselves, “Who would ever need to use this information?”

The answer is NASA. It is now possible to add that “real world” element to teaching by incorporating data from NASA satellites and observations. On July 29, a week-long workshop led by scientists at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va. will provide intense training for teachers from around the world who are interested in learning how to excite their students with lessons that use authentic NASA research.

This annual summer workshop is sponsored by MY NASA DATA, a project in which a team of scientists takes large volumes of data and generates understandable microsets to be used by the public. The microsets are primarily used by educators to bring a twenty-first century dimension to the teaching of Earth science.

“While only a small number of teachers can attend the workshop, we are very pleased to know that over 8,000 people worldwide are accessing the MY NASA DATA Web site each month,” said Dr. Lin Chambers, the NASA Langley atmospheric scientist who leads the project. “As a Hampton resident, I am proud to offer this educational experience in our own back yard.”

The workshop guides teachers through the exploration of a variety of NASA Earth science data, using it to create engaging lesson plans. Students use scientific inquiry and math skills as they access and display microsets of the Earth System.

“When students realize that scientists are truly using the same set of data, it brings relevance to the class and the lesson is no longer intangible,” explains Susan Moore, a member of the MY NASA DATA team.

The MY NASA DATA Web site collects all of the lessons that have been put together by previous workshop participants, as well as archived data microsets. Teachers can go online and search for the data that is relevant to their lectures and create their own captivating lesson plans.

“When the teachers get excited about the data, that energy is transferred to the students,” says Moore.

For more information about MY NASA DATA, please visit the official website at http://mynasadata.larc.nasa.gov/