ASA is honored to be a part of the 30th Anniversary celebration of Skylab! Skylab was the first American space program wholly dedicated to scientific research. Accomplishments during the program included a host of ultraviolet astronomy experiments, as well as detailed X-ray studies of the Sun. On Monday, November 10th at 9:00 AM (Central Time), three Skylab Astronauts will have an interactive Webcast discussion with selected high school students in Alabama. Questions and comments will be solicited both before and during the Webcast. Following the live interactive Webcast, the recorded material will be available at http://media.eb.uah.edu/Skylab. The University of Alabama in Huntsville is hosting and archiving these historic events as a community service for all. ASA's network, the Alabama Research and Education Network (AREN), is the "highway" the Astronauts' Webcast will travel on to get from UAH to both the Internet and Internet2. ASA engineers will manage the conference bridge that connects a local educational television studio in the Huntsville area and selected schools in Huntsville, Madison, and Lee County; and, provide the technical services required for Quality of Service for this video broadcast.
READING ABOUT EDUCATION AND TECHNOLOGY
A NEW CURRICULUM FOR A NEW AGE: INFORMATION AND TECHNOLOGY LITERACY As Groton Public Schools revised curriculum, they realized that integrating instructional technology and library media was the vision they were seeking. The result is a curriculum that embodies a 21st century information and technology literacy vision for students that is comprehensive and useable. techlearning.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=15600251
TEACHER COLLABORATION A KEY TO INSTRUCTIONAL REFORM Teacher collaboration is an important factor for the success of instructional reform. The current issue of Notes & Reflections, a Web-based newsletter for professional developers, describes how collaborative professional development can support new instructional methods. The newsletter offers practical ideas and suggestions about several collaborative professional development approaches such as modeling, peer coaching, and reflective group discussions. Moreover, it presents several real-life examples that illustrate how to introduce teacher collaboration to school districts that do not have a preexisting culture of collaboration. http://www.ncrel.org/info/notes/fall03/index.html
LITERACY LEARNING ON THE NET This study reveals what literacy researchers and lead teachers think about Internet-based curricular activities and instructional practices used to enhance students' literacy. Literacy Learning on the Net identifies a number of educational benefits associated with using the Internet. http://www2.learningpt.org/catalog/cart/item.asp?SessionID=981038555&productID=51
EDUCATION AND THE INTERNET
Exploring American Indian and Alaskan Native Traditions Steeped in tradition, pow wows are one occasion when many American Indian tribes come together to celebrate their past, present and future. Today's pow wow dancers wear colorful costumes that represent their tribes, and members of the crowd are often invited to sing and dance along. This month, MarcoPolo celebrates American Indian and Alaskan Native Heritage Month with resources about the rich traditions of this thriving culture. Use the activities to introduce students to overarching traditions and concerns regarding American Indians and Alaskan Natives, then use the links to lessons and resources to teach about specific tribes and other relevant discussion topics. http://www.marcopolo-education.org/MarcoGrams/Nov2003.html
Veteran's Day is November 11. Veterans History Project is collecting oral histories, letters, diaries, & photos of America's war veterans & those who supported them. The project includes participants in World War I, World War II, & the Korean, Vietnam, & Persian Gulf wars. Students, citizens, & organizations are invited to contribute using the Project Kit, which provides all information & forms needed to interview a veteran. Libraries, museums, & civic groups can read about model veterans projects & start a project in their community. http://www.loc.gov/folklife/vets/ Additional sites for oral history as identified by EduHound are listed below:
The First Thanksgiving Beginning with a pictorial time line of 1620–1621, students explore the voyage on the Mayflower, the relationship between the Wampanoag and the Pilgrims, and the events that led up to the harvest feast celebrated by both groups. The project also gives students an intimate perspective of the period through interviews with Pilgrim interpreters playing the roles of actual Pilgrims, and a modern-day Wampanoag descendant. http://teacher.scholastic.com/thanksgiving/Oral History Society The Oral History Society is a national and international organization dedicated to the collection and preservation of oral history. It encourages people of all ages to tape, video or write down their own and other people's life stories. It offers practical support and advice about how to get started, what equipment to use, what techniques are best, how to care for tapes, and how to use what you have collected. Oral history records the living memories and feelings of all kinds of people, many otherwise hidden from history, and creates a more vivid picture of our past. http://www.oralhistory.org.uk
Using Oral History: Lesson This lesson presents social history content and topics through the voices of ordinary people. It draws on primary sources from the American Memory Collection. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/lessons/oralhist/ohhome.html
PBS: The New Americans -- Teacher Guide -- Oral Histories Students select a first- or second- generation immigrant to interview for the purpose of creating an oral history. http://www.pbs.org/newamericans/6.0/html/oralhistory.html
A Team Approach to Oral History The result of this active process will be a student-written publication of their own community using the skills obtained in their English classes. http://www.askeric.org/cgi- bin/printlessons.cgi/Virtual/Lessons/Social_Studies/History/HIS0013.html
Oral History in the Classroom Helping students learn about history from the people who lived it. A seven-part series by Kathryn Walbert. http://www.learnnc.org/Index.nsf/doc/oh-intro0406
Flashcard Exchange The Flashcard Exchange is a community supported site where you, the user of the site, make flashcards for yourself, your students or your peers. It is this sense of community that really makes this site a valuable resource for all. Study to your heart's content, but also enter some flashcards before you leave! http://www.flashcardexchange.com
Smithsonian Education is an exciting new website for educators, families, and students.The site features content from 16 Smithsonian museums, the National Zoo, and the Smithsonian's world-class research centers. Content is aligned with national education standards, developed with input from teachers, and based on Smithsonian scholarship. Educators can quickly download lesson plans or search by subject or grade level for nearly 1,000 publications, websites, field trips, and other teaching tools. The site also lists professional development opportunities, special events for teachers, and a step-by-step guide to planning field trips to the Smithsonian and other museums. http://www.SmithsonianEducation.org/
Mrs. Rabbit's Bookbag A blog for children's librarians, courtesy of Charlotte Rabbitt, Youth Services Librarian Peterborough, NH http://mrsrabbitt.blogspot.com
Edward Ruscha: Lisp, 1968 explores this painting by one of the most compelling artists of the last 40 years. Ruscha is best known for paintings in which words play a central role. "Lisp" shows his interest in words not only for the images & meanings they suggest, but also as representational imagery & subject matter. http://www.nga.gov/feature/ruscha/ruscha01.htm
Van Gogh's Van Gogh features 9 paintings & a chronology of the life of this ingenious Dutch painter. Van Gogh was 27 years old when he decided to become an artist after unsuccessful attempts at being an art dealer, a teacher, & a clergyman. He taught himself mostly by studying the prints & reproductions he collected. The paintings he produced before his death at age 37 set the direction for many of the expressionist tendencies in 20th century art. http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/vgbro.htm
Ask an Astronomer for Kids provides answers & photos for 200 questions about astronomy & objects in space. Topics include planets, stars, the solar system, comets, asteroids, galaxies, & the night sky. http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/cosmic_kids/AskKids/Cool Cosmos invites students into the world of infrared astronomy. Teachers & students may discover light outside the visible spectrum with these classroom activities, experiments, & lessons. The site provides ask-an-astronomer videos, an infrared astronomy timeline, & more. http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/
Dropping in a Microgravity Environment is a competition for teams of students to propose, design, & build a science experiment to be performed in a microgravity drop tower facility. Representatives from selected teams will attend an expenses-paid DIME Drop Days in April 2004 at NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. The website offers details about the competition, summaries of past competitions, & archived webcasts of team activities from previous competitions. Lesson ideas on microgravity are also provided. http://microgravity.grc.nasa.gov/DIME.html
Edison Invents examines several of Edison's inventions -- the telegraph, telephone, phonograph, & electric light bulb. Students can learn about his life & how to create their own light bulb. http://www.si.edu/lemelson/edison/
ISS EarthKAM offers thousands of images of Earth & guides for using them to support instruction in Earth science, space science, geography, social studies, math, & other subjects. Images can be searched by country or geographic feature (island, archipelago, peninsula, canyon, & others). Photos were taken by a digital camera mounted on the International Space Station (ISS) under the direction & control of students. http://www.earthkam.ucsd.edu/index.shtml
Learn About Chemicals Around Your House answers questions about pesticides & toxic chemicals used around the house. It explains how to read labels & what to do in case of an accident. An online "home tour" invites students to identify pesticides & toxic substances in a typical kitchen, garage, laundry room, bathroom, & bedroom. http://www.epa.gov/kidshometour/toxic.htm
Online Science-athon helps students discover the science in their daily lives. It is organized around four events: How Tall Am I? (grades 2-3), the Marble Roll (grades 4-8), Catching Sunshine (grades 4-8), & the Chocolate Melt (grades 4-8). The site makes it easy for teachers to incorporate the events into instruction, align learning with academic standards, & get students investigating their world in ways that are fun & instructive. Each event produces class data & includes questions for exploring student-generated data. http://scithon.terc.edu/
Polluted Runoff provides lessons & activities for studying how runoff affects streams, how to analyze what's upstream & downstream from your community (watersheds), & how families can reduce "nonpoint source" pollution, which results from rainfall or snowmelt moving over & through the ground. http://www.epa.gov/owow/nps/nps_edu/index.html
Stories from Space tells brief stories about the planets, tools used for exploring space, & "what's in space." Photos of planets, stars, telescopes, & spacecraft are included. http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/cosmic_kids/stories_from_space/
Study of Place presents two online science units for middle- school students. Antarctic Exploration tells the story of Sir Ernest Shackleton's 1914 expedition to Antarctica & how, when his ship became icebound & was crushed to pieces, he & his crew survived before being rescued two years after their journey began. Ocean Currents Exploration describes how Ben Franklin charted the Gulf Stream to help speed mail delivery from Europe to the U.S. http://www.studyofplace.com/common/Home.cfm
Visible Earth is a searchable directory of images, visualizations, & animations of Earth. Topics include soils, clouds, storms, hurricanes, droughts, precipitation, vegetation, oceans, sea ice, human population, land use, erosion, fires, rocks, minerals, regions, & countries. http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/
Alcatraz Island is home to one of the world's most infamous prisons. From the 1930s to 1960s, Alcatraz was the premier maximum-security prison, housing inmates such as Al Capone & George "Machine Gun" Kelly. Before the prison was created, the island was home to American Indians. Today, it is one of San Francisco's most prominent tourist attractions. http://www.nps.gov/alcatraz/index.html
Future State is the U.S. State Department's website for youth. It offers lesson plans on terrorism, Vietnam, the Cuban Missile Crisis & information about more than 50 international issues. "Careers Representing America" games, & "Meet the Secretary of State" are among the features. Links are provided for learning about current events, geography, & the environment. http://www.future.state.gov/
www.whitehousekids.gov provides an online tour of the White House, biographical information about the President & Vice President, & games & quizzes. It includes special features on U.S. Presidents & life in the White House, as well as a teacher's & parent's guide. http://www.whitehouse.gov/kids/
NEWS YOU CAN USE
TOTAL LUNAR ECLIPSE On November 8, 2003, the Moon will slip into the shadow of the Earth, causing a total lunar eclipse. The initial penumbral stage of a lunar eclipse is practically invisible. By the time the more visible, umbral eclipse begins, the Moon will be well above the horizon for all to enjoy. Lunar eclipses are perfectly safe to view, and no special equipment is needed. Telescopes and binoculars can add to the fun of watching the Earth's shadow sweep across the features of the Moon's surface. All you really need to enjoy a lunar eclipse are your eyes and good weather. And there's no rule that says you have to watch the whole thing. Just get out and watch; even if only for a few minutes. For complete information, including viewing times, visit NightSky Friday: Coming Nov. 8: Second Total Lunar Eclipse of 2003 at http://www.space.com/spacewatch/lunar_eclipse_1_031010.html
NASA EXPLORER SCHOOLS Become a NASA Explorer School and partner with NASA to bring exciting and unique opportunities to educators, administrators, students and families. The 2004 program will focus on NASA content at grades 4-9. NASA Explorer School teachers, working with NASA personnel and other partners, will develop an action plan that addresses local needs in mathematics, science and technology and that incorporates NASA data and materials into their curriculum. Throughout a three-year commitment, educator teams will implement their action plans, participate in professional development, and involve students and families. NASA school teams of four educators and an administrator will lead the local effort and particpate in the NASA summer workshop and ongoing professional development during the academic year. For detailed information and the program application, visit http://explorerschools.nasa.gov. Applications are due by January 30, 2004.