From: Chris Impey Date: Fri, 26 Nov 2004 12:51:02 -0700 (MST) ABSTRACTS FOR PRESENTERS AT THE "GADGETS AND GIZMOS" SESSION ____________________________________________________________ ASTRONOMY EDUCATION USING THE CHANDRA SATELLITE Through the recent development of user friendly software that works on Windows based computers, it has become possible to afford students an authentic research experience using x-ray astronomy images from the Chandra satellite. Any interested person can now generate light curves, power spectra, and energy spectra using sophisticated analysis tools (Ftools and DS9) and images from the Chandra public archive. Moreover, a teacher can help resolve computer issues remotely, from anywhere in the world, via VNC, which affords access to Unix based scientific software on any platform. The system is extremely flexible, allowing access to prepared modules and content, while still allowing the sophisticated user virtually unlimited freedom to explore and analyze arbitrary cosmic sources. Professor Terry Matilsky Rutgers University matilsky@physics.rutgers.edu Department of Physics Phone: 732 445 3876 136 Frelinghuysen Road Fax: 732 445 4343 Piscataway, N. J. 08854-8019 http://xray.rutgers.edu/~matilsky PLANET FINDER Planetfinder consists of a Java applet that allows the student to measure the properties of an extra-solar planet by fitting data representing stellar Doppler velocity measurements. The applet is embedded in an html lesson plan intended to provide students in introductory astronomy classes with a hands-on learning experience that is very similar to actual data analysis. The lesson plan is designed for collaborative learning, either synchronous or asynchronous.In this session, I will introduce the facility briefly. During the remainder of the sesson, participants will play with the lesson and, we hope, provide advice on how to improve it. Richard McCray University of Colorado at Boulder dick@jila.colorado.edu THE EXTRA-SOLAR PLANET PROJECT The project is making use of the eTEACH software developed at the school of engineering at UW - Madison and implemented into an introductory astronomy course. The motivation for this project was to replace traditional classroom lecture with a high quality web-lecture and thus open up the scheduled lecture time to create a more active learning environment. I have attached to this mail a short report describing The Extra-Solar Planet Project and I provide a link to the web-lecture below. More information about the eTEACH software can be found at http://eteach.engr.wisc.edu/newEteach/home.html. The web-lecture can be accessed from: ttp://eteach.engr.wisc.edu/meibom/espp/index.html At the present time the lecture requires a windows computer, Internet Explorer, and Power Point. Soeren Meibom E-mail: meibom@astro.wisc.edu University of Wisconsin - Madison Phone : (608) 262 1298 Astronomy Department Fax : (608) 263 6386 475 North Charter Street Madison, Wisconsin 53706 - 1582, USA WIRELESS STUDENT RESPONSE - WHY THEY SHOULD BE IN YOUR CLASSROOM Technology has advanced to the point that wireless student response systems - "clickers" - allow a teacher to sample the thinking of all students, at any time, and the students don't have to run the risk of embarrassing themselves in front of their peers. Colorado has 6,000 clickers in use, UMass 8,000, other universities are adopting them fast. They are simple (just a few buttons to push) and cheap. More importantly, they can do what most faculty say they want: increase students attention, learning, and enthusiasm (and faculty enthusiasm, too). What have we learned from several years of use? What are the benefits of clickers and what are the drawbacks? How are they most effectively used and what should you avoid? Drawing on the research that went into my newly published book, "Clickers in the Classroom" (Addison Wesley), I will present examples, data, and videotaped interviews. Clickers will be used in the presentation. Dr. Douglas Duncan Director of Astronomical Laboratories Dept. of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences Univ. of Colorado, Boulder 303-735-6141 ASTRONOMY APPLETS Both tools were developed to assist students in visualizing concepts which they sometimes find difficult. Moreover, they allow students to interact with the concept and try out various situations. The lunar phase tool also includes a quiz (it asks questions of three types, repeating questions of the same type until the student gets that type correct). The small angle formula tool includes the ability to do numerical calulations for real situations. Understanding lunar phases: http://www.calvin.edu/~lmolnar/moon/Tool.html Exploring the small angle formula: http://www.calvin.edu/~lmolnar/saf/ Dr. Deborah B. Haarsma office: SB175 mail: Physics & Astronomy Department Calvin College 1734 Knollcrest Circle SE Grand Rapids, MI 49546-4403 email: dhaarsma@calvin.edu web: http://www.calvin.edu/~dhaarsma phone: 616-526-6340 fax: 616-526-6501 INTERNET TELESCOPES Since 2001 teachers and students from Japan and the USA have been collaborating in the use of three remote telescopes. Two are set on the roof of Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wisconsin; the third is on the roof of the Science Museum in Tokyo. This project stems from the goal of the astronomy education program Hands-On Universe to provide real time imaging for students. Since the time difference between the observatories is fourteen hours, educators from each country can observe during their daytime when they have students in class. It is especially fun to collaborate on projects such as tracking Jupiter's moons when one class can take over the observations begun by their international partners. Another aspect of this collaboration is a program at the Science Museum in Tokyo called a Science Liveshow. This show occurs at 2pm on Saturday afternoons in Tokyo. Since that is Friday night midnight at Yerkes Observatory, the observatory provides realtime images from the 24 inch telescope, exchanges audience and astronomer views through video conferencing, and communicates via internet chats and a phone conversation with the Tokyo audience. During the AAS session, depending on the time, we will demonstrate the operation of each of these telescopes, opening the dome or the rooftop cover to take images if the weather is clear. Vivian Hoette (University of Chicago Yerkes Observatory) Kevin McCarron(Oak Park and River Forest High School) Kimura Kaoru (Science Museum, Tokyo) vhoette@hale.yerkes.uchicago.edu, kaoru@jsf.or.jp, kmccarron@sbcglobal.net HANDS-ON RADIO SCIENCE: THE JOVE AND INSPIRE PROJECTS Radio JOVE and INSPIRE are interactive, hands-on, educational activities for learning the scientific method through the medium of radio observations of Jupiter, the Sun, and the Earth. Students build radio receivers from relatively inexpensive non-profit kits (about $135 plus shipping for Radio JOVE and $80 plus shipping for INSPIRE) and use them to record data, analyze the data, and share the results with others. Alternatively, for no cost, the students can record and analyze data from remote radio receivers connected to the web. The projects are useful adjuncts to activities in optical observing since students should recognize that we learn about the universe through more than just the optical spectrum. The projects are mini-electronics courses and also teach about charged particles and magnetic fields. The Radio JOVE web site (http://radiojove.gsfc.nasa.gov) and the INSPIRE web site (http://image.gsfc.nasa.gov/poetry/inspire/ should be consulted for further information. Prseented by James Thieman and William Taylor. Jim Thieman Code 633 NASA/GSFC Greenbelt, MD 20771 Phone: 301-286-9790 FAX: 301-286-1771 thieman@nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov GEMINI OBSERVATORY VIRTUAL TOUR The Gemini Observatory Virtual Tour is a multi-faceted CD-ROM/Kiosk that allows users to explore the science, people and technology of the Gemini Observatory. Elements of the tour include a virtual observing experience which allows users to create their own color image, current science highlights, a walking tour of the observatory, a chance to meet science staff, an exploration of the electromagnetic spectrum and several games that illustrate concepts such as active and adaptive optics. CD-ROMs will be distributed free of charge to users and interested participants. The CD-ROM works on both Mac and Windows OS with an optional internet integration to update recent science findings. Peter Michaud Public Information and Outreach Manager Gemini Observatory 670 A'ohoku Place Hilo, HI 96720 (808) 974-2510 (Desk) (808) 937-0845 (Cell) (808) 935-9650 (Fax) THE ESA/ESO/NASA PHOTOSHOP FITS LIBERATOR A tool that opens up the possibilities of education with a wide variety of astronomy research images, within the Photoshop environment. The web site is http://www.spacetelescope.org/projects/fits_liberator. The demo and the activity involve: * Opening in Photoshop CS, and working interactively with, selected astronomical observations (FITS files) * Post processing of astronomical images * Composition of colour images from raw astronomical data * Examples of educational projects with the FITS Liberator Lars Lindberg Christensen ESA Hubble/JWST Public Information Officer Hubble European Space Agency Information Centre ESO/ST-ECF, Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2 D-85748 Garching bei MPhone +49 (0) 89 320 06 306 Cellular +49 (0) 173 38 72 621 Fax +49 (0) 89 320 06 480 http://www.spacetelescope.org lars@eso.org - office 010 SUN-EARTH-MOON VIRTUAL REALITY This is a demo of a VR piece of software recently developed by the Oregon Research Institute (ORI), which is starting to be used in K-6 outreach classes. Sun-Earth-Moon (SEM) was developed under a Federal Department of Ed. grant to facilitate science inquiry for Orthopedically Impaired (OI) students, one of ORI's major groups of clients. Transferred from a training program for motorized wheelchairs to a virtual spacecraft, the user can maneuver to any perspective of the Earth-Moon system from a considerable distance. The Earth and Moon can be put in motion at a variety of speeds. The prime learning goal was initially to understand Moon phases, but the curriculum has been expanded to include rotation/revolution, cycles, timekeeping, seasons, and eclipses. Please check it out (download it free: DOE financed) at http://www.ori.org/%7Evr/projects/vrscience/sem/index.html/. This software will also be referred to in an oral presentation on Tuesday of the AAS Conference. Rick Kang Oregon Research Institute rkang@efn.org tel: 541-683-1381 http://pmo-sun.uoregon.edu/~pmo/ THE DIGITAL UNIVERSE ATLAS In this workshop, we will describe the Digital Universe atlas created at the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH). We will demonstrate how we use the atlas for education and outreach programs and describe the software that enables us to display the atlas. Partiview is a free, multi-platform viewer that is strong in data visualization and manipulation but lacks traditional planetarium functionality. Beyond showing what we already distribute, we will discuss the data format for these tools and how to prepare data for the Digital Universe atlas. In outlining these steps, we hope to expand upon our existing user community and build a global data repository for scientific data for use in academia, planetariums, and science centers. Digital Universe Atlas available for download: www.haydenplanetarium.org Ryan Wyatt, Science Visualizer Rose Center for Earth & Space American Museum of Natural History 79th Street & Central Park West New York, New York 10024 212.313.7903 vox 212.313.7868 fax Carter Emmart Director of Astrovisualization Rose Center for Earth and Space American Museum of Natural History 79th Street at Central Park West New York, NY 10024 Office: (212) 496-3570 Mobile: (917) 567-7033 FAX: (212) 313-7868 3D VISUALIZATIONS OF CURRENT ASTROPHYSICAL RESEARCH FOR PUBLIC EXPLORATIONS AND FOR THE CLASSROOM Interactive 3-D visualizations are a compelling tool to connect museum visitors and undergraduate students with evolving scientific research (e.g., the Large-Scale Structure of the Universe being mapped by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey). Immersive electronic media allows people to experience scientific discoveries as they unfold and to visit otherwise inaccessible worlds such as a quark's view of a particle accelerator or telescopes in Antarctica. Electronic exhibits are flexible and adaptable on timescales of days compared to years for physical displays, which means they are well positioned to exploit real and theoretical data streams (e.g., Mars Rovers images). Until recently, interactive immersive technology was prohibitively expensive and complex. However, it is now possible to create robust, commodity hardware based, visualization systems (e.g., the stereoscopic projection system know as the Geowall www.geowall.org). This presentation will explore the 3D visualizations of real astrophysical data (SDSS, WMAP, etc), virtual visits to observatories, and the topology of the surface of Mars with a portable geowall system. Many of the visualizations that will be presented can be previewed in 2D at the Cosmus web site: http://astro.uchicago.edu/cosmus. Randall H. Landsberg Director of Education & Outreach Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics University of Chicago randy@oddjob.uchicago.edu Mark SubbaRao Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum Dinoj Surendran University of Chicago, Computer Science Department ASTRONOMICA At the University of Arizona, the www.astronomica.org web site serves 1200 students per semester with a wide array of astronomy content that is integrated into course management capabilities. In addition to 450 articles, an 7000-image data bank, news stories, and a linked 1200-term glossary, there is a recommendation system and a natural language question and answer tool. The site is built on an XML architecture, which allows the delivery of content to handheld devices. Another part of the web site serves voiceXML to web-enabled cell phones. The goal is to increase the level of student engagement and serve different learning styles. The site and content will soon be available for use by outside instructors. Chris Impey and Adrienne Gauthier Steward Observatory University of Arizona cimpey@as.arizona.edu/agauthier@as.arizona.edu 520-621-6522/520-621-2752