[96.02] Outer Space is not Empty Space

AAS 205th Meeting, 9-13 January 2005
Session 96 Astronomy Education: K-12
Poster, Wednesday, January 12, 2005, 9:20am-6:30pm, Exhibit Hall

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[96.02] Outer Space is not Empty Space

W. Johnson (Nahsua High School), P. Pratap (MIT Haystack Observatory), R. Riegel (Pinkerton Academy)

Outer Space Is Not Empty Space is a learning unit that focuses on increasing comprehension of Astronomy, Chemistry, Physics, Physical Science, and Earth & Space science. It was designed as a self paced study with some teacher oversight. The unit was a result of an NSF funded Research Experiences for Teachers program at MIT Haystack Observatory. The educational vehicle used in the unit is the Web Quest which consists of several Power Point presentations within four main topics in Radio Astronomy: Introduction, Light, Matter, and the Atmosphere. These Web Quests are a self paced series of educational materials that encourages the student to learn on his or her own. They consist of informational web sites placed within a Power Point presentation. They are not designed to be teacher classroom presentations since the paths taken by the student in the Power Points are nonlinear. Each Power Point presentations comes with an assessment to evaluate the students' understanding of the material. One of the goals of this learning unit is to encourage teacher and student use of two unique learning opportunities: the Small Radio Telescope (SRT) and remote use of the Haystack 37m Radio Telescope. The SRT was designed by engineers and scientists at M.I.T.s Haystack Observatory specifically for student use at the University or Secondary School level. The 37-m telescope is available via remote operation for educational projects. Descriptions of both instruments can be found at the MIT Haystack Observatory web site:

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