AAS 202nd Meeting, May 2003
Session 10 Astronomy Education: Middle School to College
Poster, Monday, May 26, 2003, 9:20am-6:30pm, West Exhibit Hall

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[10.18] Education and Public Outreach Programs for RHESSI and STEREO/IMPACT Missions

N. Craig, B. J. Mendez, L. Peticolas (UC Berkeley, Space Sciences Laboratory)

We will present inquiry-based classroom activities for grades 8-12, as well as public outreach web-based resources featuring solar data, mathematics, and solar scientist interviews. The classroom activities are well aligned with National Science Education Standards. The inquiry-based resources “X-ray Candles: Solar Flares on Your Birthday,” “SUNSPOTS” and “Discover Solar Cycle” will be highlighted. These activities allow students to discover the solar cycle by analyzing x-ray flare data and graphing the percentage of high energy flares over time. The RHESSI satellite mission scientists and a RHESSI EPO developed this activity. It was featured in the 'Having a Solar Blast' episode of NASA Connect that was broadcast on NASA TV and PBS stations last spring.

We will also present the various ways scientists from NASA's STEREO mission are contributing to the EPO program--through interviews incorporated in the high-visibility Eclipse 2001 webcast event, and through a STEREO website hosted by the Exploratorium. Measuring Magnetism, another inquiry-based classroom activity explaining the background science for STEREO, will be highlighted. We will also feature an exciting prototype program that involves converting the science results of solar energetic particle data to sound, and then a musician ultimately creates a composition inspired by these sounds as well as related solar images. Data from an earlier twin-spacecraft Mission, Helios1/2 (courtesy of D. Reames, GSFC and the Helios mission investigators) are used as a testbed for creating the stereo sounds from the future STEREO data. These resources are supported by RHESSI and STEREO EPO and the Science Education Gateway (SEGway) Project, a NASA SR&T (Supporting Research and Technology) Program.


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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 35 #3
© 2003. The American Astronomical Soceity.