AAS 195th Meeting, January 2000
Session 105. Observations, Outreach and Public Opinion
Display, Saturday, January 15, 2000, 9:20am-4:00pm, Grand Hall

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[105.06] The Swift MIDEX Education and Public Outreach Program

E.D. Feigelson (Penn State), L.R. Cominsky, L.A. Whitlock (Sonoma State)

The Swift satellite is dedicated to an understanding of gamma-ray bursts, the most powerful explosions in the Universe since the Big Bang. A multifaceted E/PO program associated with Swift is planned. Web sites will be constructed, including sophisticated interactive learning environments for combining science concepts with with exploration and critical thinking for high school students. The award-winning instructional television program "What's in the News?", produced by Penn State Public Broadcasting and reaching several million 4th-7th graders, will create a series of broadcasts on Swift and space astronomy. A teachers' curricular guide on space astronomy will be produced by UC-Berkeley's Lawrence Hall of Science as part of their highly successful GEMS guides promoting inquiry-based science education. Teacher workshops will be conducted in the Appalachian region and nationwide to testbed and disseminate these products. We may also assist the production of gamma-ray burst museum exhibits. All aspects of the program will be overseen by a Swift Education Committee and assessed by a professional educational evaluation firm.

This effort will be supported by the NASA Swift MIDEX contract to Penn State.


If you would like more information about this abstract, please follow the link to http://www.astro.psu.edu/xray/swift/outreach. This link was provided by the author. When you follow it, you will leave the Web site for this meeting; to return, you should use the Back comand on your browser. [Previous] | [Session 105] | [Next]