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NOAO Educational Outreach (1Sep95)
(from Director's Office, NOAO Newsletter No. 43, September 1995)

                            IDEA Grant Status

As reported in previous Newsletters, NOAO staff members are
participating in an educational outreach project partially funded by
the NASA IDEA Grant "Active Learning Exercises in Planetary and Solar
Astronomy for K-3 Students."  Astronomers are working directly with
students and teachers of the Satori School  (Tucson, Arizona) over a
series of 12 weeks to present basic astronomical concepts.  The goals
of the project are to involve scientists in classroom settings and to
engage young people in the excitement and fun of scientific discovery.
Four topics in planetary astronomy have been explored in the program
so far:

(1)  The students learned about the relative spacing and sizes of
objects in our solar system as they became a "living solar system,"
orbiting and rotating on the school playground.

(2)  This was followed by a presentation on comets, where students
built their own comets from dry ice, water, dirt, and corn syrup.
This popular---and messy---activity demonstrated that comets are
irregularly shaped dirty snowballs that change in composition and form
as they travel through the solar system.

(3)  A third presentation was titled "Impacts and Hazards."  In this
exercise, projectiles were thrown and skipped into dishes of various
materials to explore the effects of impacts on planetary surfaces.
The protective benefits of an earth-like atmosphere were simulated by
a thick layer of jello over the mud or flour surfaces.  The
possibility that a comet or asteroid impact led to the extinction of
the dinosaurs added extra interest to this topic.

(4)  The final presentation was titled"Space Resources," and explored
what makes it possible for people to live on Earth and what would be
needed to live elsewhere.  The children worked in groups to define
what was necessary to live in space and how those resources might be
obtained.

Lesson modules developed through this pilot program are being written
up now and will be disseminated in printed form and electronically
through the World Wide Web of the Internet.  Implementation of the
IDEA Grant continues this fall with NSO astronomers presenting topics
ranging from rainbows to "solar music"--helioseismology.

                            Web Pages On-line

The NOAO K-12 Educational Outreach Pages can now be reached through
the NOAO Home Page at http://www.noao.edu.  The following items are
currently featured on our Educational Resources page:

An FAQ list of questions about being an astronomer.  The questions are
compiled from phone conversations with students who call in to NOAO
for information; answers are provided by NOAO staff members.

On-line versions of the exemplary Survival Guides for Sharing Science
with Children produced by the North Carolina Museum of Life and
Science.  Three Guides are available: one for scientists and
engineers, one for teachers, and one for parents. You can browse the
Guides on-line, download a PostScript version of each Guide, or send
in the order form directly to the NCMLS to order multiple copies.

A recipe for "Making a Comet in the Classroom" provided by Dennis
Schatz of the Pacific Science Center.  We also describe our experiences
using the recipe with elementary students and include a summary of
comet facts by NOAO astronomer Nalin Samarasinha.

Suzanne Jacoby, Education Officer

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