Astrophysics Missions, Grants, and Forum Nuggets for February 2013

2 NASA Center for Astronomy Education* CAE Brings Professional Development to the 221 st Meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Long Beach! * Sponsored by the Exoplanet Exploration Program Long Beach, CAJanuary 5 – 6, 2013 “Wall of Burning Questions” Graduates of the CAE Collaboration of Astronomy Teaching Scholars (CATS) Workshop Presenter Apprenticeship Training Program, Rica French (MiraCosta College) and Paul Robinson (Westchester Community College), presented their first CAE Teaching Excellence Workshop on their own! 54 participants attended the CAE Tier I Introductory Workshop: Improving the College Introductory Astronomy and Space Science General Education Course Through Active Engagement. Of those participants, approximately half were postdocs and graduate students. Left: Rica French models Socratic Dialogue with workshop participants. Right: Participants answer a Think- Pair-Share question - and the correct answer is…? Below: Paul Robinson discusses implementing Ranking Tasks with workshop participants. Educator Evaluation Responses: “Thanks! I really appreciate you taking the time to share interactive teaching practices!” “Everyone needs to be aware of and learn the importance of a learner-centered classroom.” In addition to the workshop, CAE held its third reunion reception at the 221 st AAS meeting, which was attended by many past workshop participants!

Chandra-SAO Outreach The quality of presentations, the level of communication afforded by the presenters, and the overall content provided was exceptional...Students reported: " In my honest opinion, I felt this was the best field trip in my school career."; "this was by far the most informative field trip I have ever been on"; " it really gave me an insight on how physics operate on a daily basis" (etc.). Being in a real science facility, speaking to real scientists, seeing real science in action were the big hits of the day. - Bob Van Buren, Physics & Astro. teacher, Hudson My students absolutely loved your talk, said it was the best part. They loved SDO (as did I!). If you're good with it, I'd like to keep coming back as an annual tradition, it's been great for me to build on in class. - Josh Lake, Physics & Astro. teacher, Pomfret Chandra hosted over 40 students from 2 local high schools at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory January 14. Events included a Chandra talk about image processing and color in astronomy, a tour of the Great Refractor, MicroObservatory, historical plate stacks, and the Solar Dynamics Observatory control room.

Here. There. Everywhere. January 2013: Hawley Public Library, Hawley, Pennsylvania The Here, There, and Everywhere (HTE) exhibit visited the Hawley Public Library in Hawley, Pennsylvania for the month of January. Librarian Jean Kammer reported that the set up of the exhibit and activities went just fine. In addition to exhibiting HTE at the library, there were two special events hosted in Pennsylvania. On Tuesday, January 22, the large posters and activities were brought to an after-school YMCA program. The second event included a local middle school and a visit with HTE. Jean noted that the library attendees who did the HTE activities and read the banners were impressed. HTE continued on to the Prince George’s County Memorial Library System, Hyattsville, MD for the month of February. To see new podcasts and blog posts:

Over the years, many state-level initiatives have identified STScI’s Amazing Space website and its contents as recommended instructional resources. Most recently, Amazing Space’s “Tonight’s Sky” has been recommended by the Tennessee Curriculum Center. “Tonight’s Sky” is described as “an awesome video of what can be seen in the night sky for the current month.” It was specifically recognized for covering a variety of celestial events in a semi-interactive fashion. This is important since many educators look for instructional tools that help them integrate technology into the classroom, and that provide multi-sensory learning experiences. This helps make science concepts more accessible for a variety of learners. Tennessee Recommends Amazing Space’s ‘Tonight’s Sky’ The Tennessee Curriculum Center is an online professional community where teachers collaborate and find classroom materials. The collection of materials found at the Tennessee Curriculum Center are designed to help educators develop learning experiences that are aligned with Learning Expectations found in the TDOE Curriculum Standards. The website (TNcurriculumcenter.org) originated as a Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) initiative to support the development of K-12 pacing guides. From June 2011, the project has been coordinated through a Math-Science Partnership grant to Maryville College. Contact: Hussein Jirdeh Bonnie Eisenhamer

Internet users continue to find STScI’s Amazing Space website an interesting place to explore, and the expansion of social media sites has introduced it to audiences beyond the K-12 education community. StumbleUpon is one such site where users are recommending Amazing Space’s “Tonight’s Sky.” Over 600 “Stumblers” with an interest in astronomy were identified as “liking” this resource. StumbleUpon is a discovery engine that finds and recommends web content to its over 25 million users. Its features allow users to discover and rate Web pages, photos, and videos that are personalized to individual tastes and interests using peer-sourcing and social- networking principles. StumbleUpon Users Identify Amazing Space’s ‘Tonight’s Sky’ Contact: Hussein Jirdeh Bonnie Eisenhamer

7 Lynn Cominsky E/PO Event at American Astronomical Society in Long Beach, CA January 8, 2013 Sonoma State University supported educational activities for both the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope and NuSTAR as part of the E/PO event which brought several hundred students to the AAS meeting Reustle with two students building pulsars at the Fermi booth For more information: Karl Forster and Lynn Cominsky explain and demonstrate black holes at the NuSTAR booth Scientists Alex Reustle and Elizabeth Ferrara explain Fermi discoveries