B. J. Mendez, L. Peticolas, N. Craig (UC Berkeley), G. Holman (GSFC)
The E/PO programs of NASA missions often face the challenge of making complex science investigations relevant for the classroom. Magnetism is one of the basic topics taught in classrooms throughout the nation. It also has profound importance within a great variety of astrophysical systems. We have used the topic of magnetism to form the basis of a series of teacher's lesson guides that connect the basic science concepts to the more complex systems being studied by scientists today. These guides use hands-on, inquiry based activities to teach concepts of magnetism for students of grades 6-9. The primary guide, Exploring Magnetism, examines the fundamental properties of magnetism and electromagnetism. Supplemental guides teach about current NASA investigations by connecting the basic science to the science being studied by these space missions. Currently, there are two supplemental guides: Exploring Magnetism in the Solar Wind, which explores how the STEREO mission uses a spacecraft boom to measure the magnetic field of the solar wind free from contamination of the spacecraft itself; and Exploring Magnetism in Solar Flares, which uses RHESSI observations to demonstrate how rapidly changing magnetic fields can unleash enormous amounts of energy.
If you would like more information about this abstract, please follow the link to http://cse.ssl.berkeley.edu/ExploringMagnetism. 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.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: bmendez@ssl.berkeley.edu
Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 37 #2
© 2005. The American Astronomical Soceity.