ESS Workshop 2014 Links

Farmers Market
The Botanical Research Institute of Texas (BRIT) Farmers Market takes place on the first Saturday of each month from April-October, 8am - noon. From Angela.

The Decorah Eagles webcam
Bald Eagles with two hatchlings, live streaming. From Angela.

Dallas Blooms Festival
The 30th annual Dallas Blooms spring festival opens Saturday at the Dallas Arboretum. The festival, which includes more than 500,000 blossoming bulbs, runs until April 6. This year’s theme is “Birds in Paradise” includes cabin-sized interactive bird houses and two 13-foot-tall peacock topiaries. From Angela.

Coldest Spot on Earth
News article from NASA about the coldest place in the world, and why it is the coldest. From Angela.

Images of Change IPad App
From the NASA site: "Human activities, a changing climate and natural disasters are rapidly altering the face of our planet. Now, with NASA's Images of Change iPad application, users can get an interactive before-and-after view of these changes. The app presents pairs or sets of images of places around the world that have changed dramatically. Some of these locations have suffered a disaster, such as a fire or tsunami, or illustrate the effects of human activities, such as dam building or urban growth. Others document impacts of climate change such as persistent drought and rapidly receding glaciers. " From Angela.

McDonald Observatory Summer 2014 Professional Development Workshops
From Angela, McDonald Observatory is now accepting applications for its 2014 teacher professional development workshops. We will be offering six workshops during Summer 2014. All workshops are 3 day / 2 night workshops, and workshops for all grade levels are available. We are pleased to be able to offer scholarships for four of the six workshops.

The following workshops will be offered in Summer 2014:

"Explore Our Solar System" - June 19-21, grades K-8
"Telescopes, Instruments, & Observations" - June 23-25, grades 6-12
"Worlds Beyond Our Solar System" - June 26-28, grades 6-12
"Giant Magellan Telescope" - June 29-July 1, grades 8-12
"Star Dust - Linking Distant Galaxies to Us" - July 8-10, grades 8-12
"Earth & Space Science" - July 31-August 2, grades 8-12

The deadline to apply for McDonald Observatory teacher workshops is February 7, 2014.

Heavens Above
From Angela, this looks to be a site that keeps track of the locations of various objects orbiting Earth which may be visible, such as the Space Station. Feeds data to the Satellite finder app for phones.

Moon Phase Simulator
From Angela, a java script page that teachers and demonstrates the lunar phases. Fairly comprehensive treatment of all things related to the phases.

Comet ISON NASA campaign
From Angela, Home page of NASA's campaign to coordinate public awareness and observations of Comet Ison, which may be visible in December 2013.

Volunteers Needed for Mars Mission in Canadian Arctic
From Angela, a CBS news story about an opportunity to live in the Arctic for a year in order to study and simulate human exploration of Mars.

SEEC (Space Exploration Educators Conference
From Angela, a link to the upcoming conference in Feb 2014 for K-12 science teachers.

Satellite finder app
From Angela, an iTunes app from the makers of SkyView that lets you track information about satellites and the space station.

XKCD Most Common Google Auto-Complete Questions
Cartoon with commonly asked google questions, and a Reddit comment thread that attempts to answer them. There is also an Explain XKCD wiki that addresses this particular cartoon.

SETI Live
SETI Live "citizen science" project. Also, you can look at the other projects link on the top right to find links to many other citizen science projects sponsored by Zooverse.

Oct 5 2013 Lake Mineral Wells State Park Star Party
This link connects you to the official state park website for time, address, contact information.

Summer 2013 NASA Tour group photo

NASA Resource Search
Currently not working, but this is what we were supposed to see at the little workshop we attended at the NASA Teacher Resource Center. With luck, this link will begin working soon. This form allows you to search all NASA websites according to grade level and topic for activities, readings, videos, curriculum, etc.

Space Exploration Educators Conference
Link from Angela, this is one of the workshops discussed during the presentation we all heard at the NASA Teacher Resource Center. Angela says, "I have attended this conference on two occasions....it is phenomenal.....there are many opportunities to go "behind the scenes" to see specific operations of the space program...from building and constructing the ISS to dieticians who prepare astro foods...to the NBL the largest "swimming pool" in the world....where astronauts dive and train in a mock up ISS. the last night of the conference there is a banquet....all the food and drink you want...while the Astronaut Band Max Q entertains...in addition various astronauts mingle with you throughout the conference."

NASA TOUR PREP
The International Space Station
This is the website for the ISS. Johnson Space Center in Houston, directs the ISS program. Mission control operates the U.S. on-orbit segment (USOS) and manages activities across the station in close coordination with the international partner control centers. JSC is the primary center for spacecraft design, development, and mission integration. JSC is also the primary location for crew training. Related is CASIS, the Center for the Advancement of Science In Space, which promotes scientific research on board the ISS. Also related is this link to the ISS Live Stream, a live camera pointed toward the ISS with the rotating Earth in the background and internal views of the ISS when the crew is on duty.

The following articles from Scientific American and other sources provide background information on the NASA missions we will be discussing in the workshop prior to our NASA trip on August 2.

The Dawn of Distant Skies
This eight-page feature article summarizes the Kepler planet-hunting mission results and then discusses how we are trying to detect the composition of exoplanetary atmospheres using the Spitzer Space Telescope's infrared spectroscopy capabilities. An included full-page chart summarizes the characteristics of the 864 discovered planets to date.

TESS
This one-page article discusses the next generation planet-hunting telescope called TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite), scheduled to launch in 2017. There is also a mention here of how the 3rd generation space telescope (1st = Hubble, 2nd = Spitzer, 3rd = James Webb), the James Webb Space Telescope, scheduled for launch in 2018, will help.

Asteroid Detection
This one-page article summarizes recent and future efforts to detect asteroids that may be a threat to impact the Earth.

Mars in Motion
This eight-page feature article summarizes recent discoveries from the various Mars missions. The focus is on whether or not liquid water may exist underground on Mars today. Initial missions suggested yes due to gullies and changing surface features, but the evidence is mixed. Better evidence for water may be the very thin dark streaks (about five meters wide) on some slopes that appear seasonally, suggesting melting ice beneath the surface. The missions discussed in this article are the MRO (Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter) and one of its instruments, HiRISE (High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment).

This Way to Mars
This eight-page feature article recommends pathways for NASA to continue manned space exploration beyond the Moon in the absence of the shuttle program and in an era of unpredictable budgets.

Pebbles on Mars
This two-page article from Science describes some of the first findings of the Curiosity rover in Gale Crater, the site of an apparent alluvial fan. There are some nice pictures of a fan feature on Earth along with a picture of a typical fan deposit on a human scale, similar to the kind of photo taken by Curiosity. In this article, the author describes how Curiosity has apparently found the first definitive evidence of flowing river deposits on Mars sometime in the past. Related is this interesting image comparing rounded gravel fragments on Earth and Mars in streambeds and clasts (small rock fragments cemented together) in both places.

Journey to the Innermost Planet
This article summarizes the flight path and research plans of the MESSENGER mission to Mercury. Among the questions to be answered: What is the composition of the surface? Why does it have a magnetic field? Is there ice on the surface? Why is it so dense?

H-R Diagram Explorer
This is a simple interactive website that allows you to play with a star's temperature, size and luminosity and see how that changes its location on the H-R diagram. It also shows you how the sizes of stars varies in the diagram at different places, the distribution of stars on the diagram (both nearest and brightest). It also shows the regions for white dwarfs, dwarfs, giants and supergiants, etc. A simple, useful reference tool

RePhoto
From Molly. "The National Science Foundation Initiative (NSFI) wanted to engage the general public with science in meaningful ways, so rePhoto was developed. The app stores "projects," nature-rich areas around town that you're encouraged to photograph. It also gives an outline of form, so you can match it with distance and camera angle. Then, you snap and save. Your photo uploades to the photo pool and the collaborative data layers, creating an image in time-lapse. Viewed philosophically, it's allowing us to chart the world's growth together. Basically, the app is both incredibly simple to use and at the same time really powerful," says West. She and her colleagues envision RePhoto as more than another tap-and-play toy: depending on the constructs of each project, the app could track turtles in Missouri or monitor the growth of urban tree canopies of New York, Vermont or Dallas -- useful data for scientists who study the shifting ecology. By joining, you fill in gaps that cannot be bridged through aerial photography and tree censuses alone. Discussed in the Dallas mixmaster blog.

Extrasolar Planets Teaching Resource Guide
Intended for an undergraduate non-science major student population, but I found many things in here suitable for younger students. From the author: "Great resource for content. The discovery and characterization of exoplanets is one of the most exciting and fast-changing areas in modern astronomical research. As a result, Astronomy 101 instructors have had trouble keeping up with the flow of new techniques, instruments and discoveries. To help, NASA missions, educational projects around the country, and scientists themselves have produced a wide range of materials that astronomy instructors (and their students) can use to learn about the latest developments. This annotated guide is designed to highlight useful materials on the web and in print. It was produced in consultation with NASA education specialists, who suggested some resources that may not have been well known. We include only those non-technical materials that instructors around the U.S. are likely to have access to. Items were selected based on their level of difficulty (Astro 101 level and below), the likelihood of their being easily available for a college audience, and their usefulness for teaching and learning." Thanks to Nancy for the link and text.

Mind Over Mechanics
Youtube video showing a demonstration of a robot plane being controlled by the experimenter's brain directly. About 3 minutes long, pretty neat stuff, from Angela.

Mechanical Hand
From Angela, detailed instructions for how to build a mechanical hand using only simple equipment, like a hole punch and drinking straws.

Earth as Art App
In 1960 the United States put its first Earth-observing environmental satellite into orbit around the planet. Over the decades these satellites have provided invaluable information, and the vantage point of space has provided new perspectives on Earth. This app celebrates Earth’s aesthetic beauty in the patterns, shapes, colors, and textures of the land, oceans, ice, and atmosphere. The app features stunning images of Earth from the Terra, Landsat 5, Landsat 7, EO-1, and Aqua satellites. Sensors on these satellites can measure light outside of the visible range, so the images show more than what is visible to the naked eye. The app draws on several images from the USGS Landsat image gallery and introduces many new images. This app features time-lapse satellite images of locations on Earth undergoing significant change over decades, linking to NASA's Earth Observatory website. The app has a thumbnail gallery of the images as well as an interactive directory with images organized by geographic region. Each image has a brief caption and the ability to enlarge each scene.

Make a Solar System
Just an interactive site so student can build their own solar systems. It demonstrates the speed of rotation and revolution.

Doppler Shift
Great interactive site to show Doppler effect to discuss Red shift, blue shift and frequency change. You can listen to the information or read the transcript.

Middle School Science Activities
Good set of easy introductory activities. To get to some of the resources on the site, you have to watch a 15-second ad that you can also skip, but otherwise, lots of resources here.

CK-12
Huge database of educational resources. From the website: "Free education resources for Teaching. Standards-aligned and customizable. studyHELP: Want help with a pesky question for an assignment that is due tomorrow? Get help on studyHELP. Sign in and ask away your questions. FlexMath: Combining engaging lessons, interactive practice, adaptive assessment, extensive scaffolding for struggling learners of Algebra. And lots more stuff like this. Very deep website.

National Space Biomedical Research Institute
Lots of good resources here for middle school students with instructions and teacher guides, very little equipment required. From the website: "NSBRI is transferring the excitement and knowledge learned from the research for human spaceflight through a number of teacher resources for the elementary level all the way up to the college level. These materials include a series of free teacher guides. The stand-alone and field-tested guides are teacher ready. The guides can be downloaded from this website or requested by email to info@nsbri.org. Other resources available on this website include an online textbook, college-level video lectures and Podcasts Plus Lessons -- a series of podcasts featuring NSBRI research projects with related supplementary standards-based educational activities."

SETI Education Resources
SETI = Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence. This website has educator resources for explorations of the question "Are we alone?" or "How would we communicate with aliens?" or "How should we search for alien life?" There is also a fair bit on how the exploration of our solar system (Mars, particularly) is related to the overall search for life. Relates back to current Mars missions. Included is a video podcast of three scientists discussing how wind and erosion shaped various surface features on Mars (link).

Kepler Exoplanet Transit Hunt
Interactive web-based activity in which students collect data on transiting planets in the Kepler star field. (Flash-based). The whole Kepler website has lots of great, up-to-date information about the Kepler mission to find transiting planets outside of our solar system. Simple mission, simple concept, great resource.

May 30 2013 Asteroid Flyby
Summary of NASA's planned observations of a big asteroid passing close to Earth on May 30-31 2013. Link from Angela.

Saturn at Opposition
NASA's summary of the late April 2013 opposition of Saturn, link from Angela. Saturn is easy to find this year. First, find the Big Dipper. Follow the arc to Arcturus in the constellation Bootes, then "speed on to Spica" along the same line, which is the brightest star in the constellation Virgo. Saturn is the other bright object in that area of the sky.

Water Cycle for Kids
From the U.S. Geological Survey and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) have teamed up to create a water-cycle diagram for kids in elementary and middle schools. It is a pdf file suitable for printing. Molly forwarded this link to the group.

Great Horned Owl Cam
Webcam of an owl who made her home in a flower box on someone's balcony in Edmond, Oklahoma. Angela shared this link from us. Currently the two owlets have fledged and left the nest, but there is neat archival footage here and perhaps more birds in the future.

Wind Map
A current map of wind currents in the United States. Very pretty flash animation, cool to watch when there is a big storm or cold front. Link from Angela.

Comet Pan-STARRS
This is a NASA ScienceCast, a 4:11 YouTube video, regarding a new comet that is predicted to be visible around March 12-13 plus or minus a week. There is also a mention about Comet ISON, but no real information. You can find out more about Comet ISON here.

Professional Development workshops
McDonald Observatory teacher professional development workshops for Summer 2013. Deadline for application is February 8. The link leads to a list of workshops and details about each along with an application link. Workshop space is competitive, so be clear about the grade level you teach and your reasons for wanting to attend the particular workshop you have selected.

MoonKAM
The MoonKAM Extended Mission began Wednesday, October 24. Again, we are excited to be able to invite you to sign up for the MoonKAM Extended Mission and snap photos of the Moon! You can register now as a MoonKAM school to take part in the upcoming Extended Mission. As part of the mission, you can: We will follow up with more details as soon as we have confirmation of our operating dates. For more information about the mission, images, and activities, please visit our website. Thanks to Angela Groves for the link.

Lake Mineral Wells Star Party: October 20, 2012
Link to a brief web page from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, including the address and other information about the park. If you are going, try to arrive before sunset so that you can find your way around (bright flashlights are not welcome). It costs $5 per person to enter the park unless you have a State Park pass. There are campsites, and reservations are necessary if you would like to stay overnight. Dr. Ingram will be there hosting a 30-60 minute constellation sky tour with a laser pointer about 30 minutes after sunset, and lots of amateur astronomers will be out with their telescopes. You are welcome to bring your own. As with any outdoor skywatching event, it is subject to the weather, so if it is cloudy or rainy, it is not worth going.

NPR State Impact - Texas Drought
Molly showed us this website during our meeting on Saturday, October 6. It shows the drought severity map vs time as an animation. There are also data on other effects, such as agricultural losses, fire damage as well as how the state has responded. There are other similar resources on this site that make for good bell-starters in place of other curriculum framework materials.

Neon
NASA Online Educators Network, presented at our workshop on Saturday, September 8. There is also a related group called "Pathfinders: Teachers in Space" on Facebook. NEON is a teacher forum for discussion of anything related to space education. Requires registration, but that's free. In addition, our speaker, Hao Tran has a blog called Teacher Tech Know, and she also has provided a link to a call for proposals for experiments to be run on suborbital flights through the "Citizens in Space" program.

Hao Tran's Prezi on Space Travel
Also, Hao mentioned the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program and emailed all of us instructions on how to participate. Molly also sent us a link to this movie, which is a condensed video summary of Curiosity Rover's journey from Earth to Mars.

Concept Maps
Go directly to downloads. Do not pass GO. Do not collect $200. Do not donate. There are both PC and Mac versions.

Monnig Meteorite Gallery
Web page for the Monnig Meteorite Gallery at TCU, including visitor information and contact information for arranging field trips. Also, information and photos from the meteorite collection

Fort Worth Museum of Science and History
This is where we went for Don Garland's planetarium show. Amateur astronomers gather at the museum on the Saturday night after every first quarter moon except in the Winter. A schedule of public star parties is here. The planetarium's web page is here and includes links to sky events and events at the museum.

Web-based Astronomy Activities (Astronomical Society of the Pacific)
K-12 hands-on activities for web browsers and/or software, organized by content area. One example is mystery meteorites. This allows you to use certain types of cookies to model meteorites. Some of the links take you to other websites and about a third of them are no longer working.

K-12 Hands-On Instructions (Astronomical Society of the Pacific)
K-12 hands-on activities (instruction sets for classroom activities). There are some good simple lessons like the toilet paper solar system in which you use toilet paper to measure planet distances; Crash Landing in which you have to classify which objects to take with you and which you leave behind if you crashed on the moon (I've used an exercise similar to this with my students); and galaxy sorting - classification.

Exploring Planets in the Classroom
More hands-on activities from the University of Hawaii.

Lunar Prospector (NASA) activities
Activities from NASA, mostly related to the Moon. Some dead links here, unfortunately phases of the moon exercise is a dead end.

K-12 Activites from the CERES project
Assortment of hands-on activites in astronomy and astrobiology from the Center for Educational Resources at Montana State University.

Design Your Own Extrasolar Planet
Astrobiology project from NASA. Click on "Design a Planet," pick the star type, orbit, planet mass volcanoes, plate movement, liquid water and producers. There are short tutorial notes to help describe the characteristics that you select. After you have selected your planet's characteristics, you will be told if your planet supports life. Keep trying until you get the right mix. This can be used as a class activity with the promethean board or an individual activity.

Dating Popcorn
Simulating radioactive dating with popcorn. Each group is given a small bag of unpopped popcorn. Group one places the popcorn in the microwave for 10 seconds. Group two for 20 seconds, group three for 30, etc. Then each group counts the number of unpopped kernels and the number of popped kernels. The data is converted into percentages and the percentages are plotted on a graph. If you found popped and unpopped kernels at a specific level "ice core" what could you say about the other objects that you might find at that level?

Amazing Space
Resources for educators from STSci (Space Telescope Science Institute), including "Planet Impact", where you simulate a comet impacting Jupiter. Also, "Comet Tails" is a good game exploring comets. The "planet impact" amazing space link can be used to determine how the mass, velocity, and trajectory of an object in space can affect its collision with a planetary mass. The site also demonstrates how the gravitational effect of the aforementioned planet will either draw in the object, break it up, or send it in to space. This could be used to demonstrate how various objects can be captured into orbit and be one satellite. ADDED 2013: Good resource for 6th grade research projects, lots of different topics covered at an appropriate level, plus lots of interactive apps. Mary Beth says: "A fun and interactive way to explore galaxies, black holes, comets, and other fascinating objects. A good site to recommend for research projects"

Windows to the Universe
Space science resources from National Earth Science Teachers Association

Kinesthetic Astronomy
Active full-body motion exercises/games for Astronomy. Also at the main part of the Space Science web page, you can find many other activities, including an interactive activity where students identify certain highlighted physical landforms on a map, which is useful if every student has a computer to work with.

Teach-Nology science lesson plans and activities
Teacher resources for earth and space science, including activities and lesson plans.

Mercury Messenger education resources
From the NASA mission to Mercury, resources include "build a spacecraft," "comparative planetology" (look under Messenger Education Modules on the Teacher page). "Staying Cool" module studies the relationship between light and energy, and it also has detailed lesson plans with links to the national science education standards for each topic. Also an activity where students are given a cube of jello to place beneath a heat source, and they have to design an apparatus to keep the jello from melting.

Stardate
Lessons, activities and astronomy in the news from UT McDonald Observatory

Edupup Science Games
Are You Smarter than a Hillbilly? Molecule construction interactive puzzle.

Educational Modules from "Live from Earth and Mars" Project
Including "digging the dirt" with good outdoor soil activities. Heat absorption, transfer of properties of various soils.

Exploratorium activites
Interactive web-based activities, including Tiny Pants Photo Challenge.

Space Place
Activities including free iphone/ipad apps. There is also a "Space Place" app for the ipad available in the Apple Store. Space Place is an interactive learning environment, created by NASA, that allows students to explore Earth, Space, the Sun, and the Solar System. The site includes web based activities, hands-on projects, demonstrations, animations, puzzles, and interactive games. The site also provides tips and links to app based activities to allow for iPad and iPhone integration. The site is extremely user friendly and geared towards K-8 grade levels. The site is free to use and has many applications that have been translated into Spanish.

Rock Around the World
Send a rock from your area to a Mars scientist! Find out what the rock is made of and how it compares to the red planet. Interactive book "What's in Space" is here.

PBS Nova
Website for the PBS show "Nova," including interactive activities and short videos organized by subject (Planet Earth, Space + Flight, Physics + Math, Tech + Engineering, etc.). After clicking on a subject area, look for the menu on the left hand side for the "Interactive" features. (Flash-based). Added 2013: Planets: breaks down information about the planets in relatively "reader friendly" detail.

Middle School Science
From the same company that does the "Brain Pop" app for the iphone/ipad, a variety of Earth Science resources.

Amateur Radio on the International Space Station
With the help of experienced Amateur Radio volunteers from Amateur Radio clubs, and coordination from the ARISS Team, the ISS crewmembers speak directly with large group audiences in a variety of public forums such as school assemblies or at science museums, Scout camporees and jamborees and space camps, where students, teachers, parents, and communities learn about space and space technologies and Amateur Radio.

Space Weather
News and information about the sun-earth environment, including Solar Flares, etc. Look under the "Flybys" tab and enter your zip code and find out when and where the next satellite will be flying by you.

Building a Space Habitat
Students design and build their own habitats on the moon, mars or a space station taking into account the costs to get materials to the construction site, disposal of wastes, and conditions in outer space.

We Choose the Moon
Interactive history of the Apollo 11 mission and lunar landing. (Flash-based).

National Geographic Science and Space
Interactive activities and educational resources from National Geographic. Specific path for teacher resources (interactive activities and videos) is here. Also, there is a "forces of nature" portion of the website: This is a great interactive website to show the effects of catastrophic events such as tornadoes, hurricanes, volcanoes, and earthquakes. There are pop-up boxes with information that work as a quick tutorial. Students can then select conditions to see if it will form an event. This works well as a class activity using the promethean board.

Planet Science
UK-based website with activites and curriculum.

kids.gov science
Science activities from usa.gov, including link to NASA Dynamic Earth Observatory. We explored earthobservatory.nasa.gov from the links on kids.gov. It has many current satellite images of weather events, or natural things going on in the world. Also has global maps with many animations such as a map of COconcentrations in a 10 year period. Also maps of wildfires, etc. over time.

NBC Summer Olympics Science
Interactive activites and videos related to the 2012 Summer Olympics. Also on this site is Changing Planet in which NBC partners with the National Science Foundation to explore climate change, with lesson plans and linked to Windows to the Universe from above in the list.

Science Spot
There is a list of astronomy lesson plan links and includes several of some that we have on our list.

Earth photo
High-resolution photographs of the Earth (both sides).

SplashTop
This is an iPad app recommended by Nancy. It costs about $20 and allows you to use your iPad as a slate with the promethean board. You are not tied to the computer but can move about the room and still navigate the promethean. It does require you to download streaming, but that's all.

Scribble Clock
How do they write so fast?

Block Clock
Stacking blocks to keep time.

Official U. S. Time
Kept by the U. S. Naval Observatory, accurate to 0.1 sec, usually.