July 21, 2004

NASA SEU Educator Ambassador Training 2004

Brought to you by Sonoma State University NASA Education and

Public Outreach Group

July 21, 2004

Topics of the Day • Introductions

– SSU E/PO group– Other facilitators

• NASA Organization• Teachers as Learners• The Electromagnetic Spectrum • Powers of Ten• Scaling the Universe (TOPS) • How old is the Universe?• What are the different regions of space?

– Size and Scale of the Universe– Objects in the Universe

• Debrief and reflection

July 21, 2004

SSU E/PO Group Staring

Homer Simpson as Phil

Marge Simpson as Lynn

Lisa Simpson as Aurore

Bart Simpson as Tim

Maggie Simpson as Sarah

July 21, 2004

Special Guests

July 21, 2004

National Aeronautics and

Space Administration

July 21, 2004

Space

July 21, 2004

Aerospace

Space Operations

Science

Exploration Systems

NASA DIVISIONS

July 21, 2004

Science Division

• ????

July 21, 2004

Structure and Evolution of the Universe

1. To explain structure in the Universe and forecast our cosmic destiny;

2. To explore the cycles of matter and energy in the evolving Universe;

3. To examine the ultimate limits of gravity and energy in the Universe ranging from the closest stars to the most distant quasars.

July 21, 2004

Structure and Evolution of the Universe Missions

ACE HETE-2ASTRO E2 INTEGRALChandra LISACHIPS MAPConstellation-X RXTEGALEX SWASGLAST SwiftGravity Probe B XMM-Newton• Not yet launched In orbit

Hubble

July 21, 2004

What’s the frequency, Kenneth?

ASTRO-E2

Chandra

CHIPS Con-X

GALEXGLAST

HETE-2

INTEGRAL

MAP

RXTE

SWAS

XMM-Newton

Swift

Energy (eV)

Radio Infrared Visible UV X-ray Gamma ray

ACE

GP-B LISA

Misfits of Science:

-

July 21, 2004 Universe Education Forum:http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/seuforum/index.htm

SEU Education Forum at the Center for Astrophysics at

Harvard

July 21, 2004

Have you been wondering

• Why am I here?• Because you are an

impressive group of educators.

• We need you to spread the word to your fellow educators.

• We feel that teachers are more likely to listen to you (their co-workers) than us ( the science world).

We want you!

July 21, 2004

Educator Ambassador Missions

• GLAST (10) Lead Lynn Cominsky• Swift (5) Lead Lynn Cominsky• XMM-Newton (2) Lead Lynn Cominsky• Astro-E2 (1) Lead Jim Lochner• HEASARC (1) Lead Jim Lochner• LISA (2) Lead Nancy Leon• GALEX (2) Lead Nancy Leon

All Educator Ambassadors are managed at SSU by Sarah

July 21, 2004

How can you do this?

• We will be modeling the methods and techniques that you will use during your workshops.

• Why should you listen to us?• Over the past two years we have made it our

mission (especially Sarah) to make sure we know the best methods to use to train educators and adults.

• Oh Yah, we know the science behind the missions too. A moot point.

July 21, 2004

Professional Development Goals

• Goals for students learning

• Goals for teacher learning

• Goals for teaching practice

• Goals for the organization

July 21, 2004

Goals for students learning

To bring SEU Science into the classroom.

• As only NASA can.– What does that mean?

• To learn SEU science in such a way that it is exciting, engaging and inspiring.

• What is SEU Science?

July 21, 2004

Goals for teacher learning

• To teach SEU science in such a way that it is exciting, engaging and inspiring.

• To understand and learn how to implement the five E’s techniques in their workshops and into their classrooms. (in your binders)

July 21, 2004

Goals for teaching practice

• To teach SEU science using a method that is consistent with research on education.

• To use methods of teaching that encourage inquiry and discovery as a means to acquire knowledge.

July 21, 2004

Goals for the organization

• To excite the world’s children with NASA SEU Science through their learning experiences.

• To use this training to teach many other educators about SEU science.

• A journey to inspire, innovate, and discover.

July 21, 2004

How do we plan to do all this?

• Through modeling what methods you should use in your workshops and classrooms.

Learners and Learning

• New knowledge is built on the learner’s prior knowledge.

• Learning is an active process.

• Knowledge is constructed through a process of change.

• New knowledge comes from experiences and interactions with ideas and phenomena.

•Learning needs to be situated in meaningful and relevant contexts.•Learning is supported through interactions among students about the ideas of science and mathematics.

Source: Bansford, Brown, and Cocking (1999).

July 21, 2004

Teachers as Learners

• What do you know about adult learners?– They come with preconceived notions.

• How do we eliminate these?

• Why would we want to eliminate these?

July 21, 2004

Coffee Break

• Do we see light?

• How do we see objects?– Sun, bird…

• What is the temperature of light?

July 21, 2004

Engage

• What do we know about the EM Spectrum?

• What do the students need to know about the EM Spectrum?

• What are some of the effective ways to teaching this topic?

July 21, 2004

GEMS Activity 2 - Sources

Question: Name some visible sources of light in the room

Question: Is the screen at the front of the room a light source?

Definition: Sources of light are objects that emit light energy

FlashlightProjector

Laptop Monitor

But it seems to be emitting light?Oh, I see the screen is reflecting the light, not emitting it.

July 21, 2004

Question: Can you tell me where there are light detectors in this room?

GEMS Activity 2 - Detectors

Question: Are there any other light detectors that you know of?

Those two openings on either side of our noses!

Solar Calculators

Motion Sensitive Light Switches

Cameras

July 21, 2004

GEMS Activity 2 – Transmitters and Shields

• Question: What are some things that don’t allow light through?Is it safe to say these things “Shield the

Light”?

• Question: What are some materials we know of that do allow light to either completely or partially pass through it?– Is it safe to say these things “Transmit

the Light”?

July 21, 2004

GEMS Activity 2 – Invisible Sources

In addition to visible sources of light in the room there are many invisible sources of light too.

Question: Can anyone name any invisible sources of light in the room?

Infrared Heat Lamps

UV Black LightInfrared Remote

Yes! Us.

July 21, 2004

GEMS Activity 2 – Invisible Sources of Light

• There are 6 different stations throughout the room, each with three setups.

• They are equipped with a source of invisible light and a detector for detecting that light.

• In a moment we will break up into groups.• Each station will have a set of materials.• These materials are potential shields.

July 21, 2004

GEMS Activity 2 - Procedure

• Each group will go from station to station. You have about 5 minutes per station.

• As scientists we are obligated to make a prediction about how we think each material will behave. DO THIS FIRST!

• Then test each material at each station to see if it is a Transmitter (T) or a Shield (S) for that particular type of light.

• Try to determine the common properties of the materials that block the different types of light

July 21, 2004

Stations:

• AM Radio• Infrared lamp• Flashlight

• FM Radio• Remote control• “Black” light

Let’s Get Busy!

July 21, 2004

GEMS Activity 2 – What did we learn?

Question: What property of the materials we tested caused radio waves to be blocked?

Question: Are all the plastics we tested translucent/transparent to infrared light?

Question: If someone had no sunscreen while at the beach what could they cover their face with to keep from getting sun burned by UV light?

July 21, 2004

GEMS Activity 2 – Reflection (literally)

• Each group should pick a station.

• Try to figure out which of your materials can reflect the invisible light of that station.

• Try and use what you have learned in the previous section to test your ideas in this section.

Question: What did you find out?

July 21, 2004

July 21, 2004

Seeing the Light VLA MAP SIRTF EUVE Chandra GLAST

HST/Keck

July 21, 2004

Satellite Detectors

• What are the different detectors and light collectors used by satellites?

• Why do we choose to use the different detectors?

July 21, 2004

Satellite Detectors

• Radio• Microwave

– WMAP

• Infrared– SWAS

• Optical– Swift

• Ultra Violet– Swift– Astro-E2– GALEX

• X-ray– Chandra – XMM-Newton– Astro-E2– RXTE

• Gamma-ray– HETE-2– Swift– GLAST

July 21, 2004

Imaging X-rays

• A simulation that shows how grazing incidence mirrors are used to focus

X-rays

July 21, 2004

Chandra X-ray Observatory

CXC

Schematic of Grazing Incidence, X-ray Mirrors

July 21, 2004

X-ray detectors

• CCDs

• Microchannel plates

• Proportional counters

• CdZnTe

• (more needed here)

July 21, 2004

CGRO (1991-2000)

July 21, 2004

BATSE

July 21, 2004

OSSE

July 21, 2004

COMPTEL

July 21, 2004

EGRET

July 21, 2004

GLAST design

July 21, 2004

Powers of Ten

• How has our view of the Universe changed since the production of this classic film? (1977)

July 21, 2004

Size and Scale (general)

• What do we know about how far away things are in space?

• What are some of the effective ways to teaching this topic?

July 21, 2004

Exploring Ordering Distance

• In your binder get the distance tabs

• Log Scales- Cut these out and place them on the log scale handout.

• Take some real measurements of other objects.

• What are some other objects large and small that will work?

July 21, 2004

Tea Break

• It took voyager 20 years to get to Pluto. At the same speed, how long does it take to get to the nearest star?

• How long will it take to get to the center of the Galaxy?

July 21, 2004

Looking back through space and time

Constellation-X

JWST, FIRST

WMAP, Planck

LISA, GLAST

Big Bang

inflation

first stars, galaxies,

and black holes

clusters and groups of galaxies

microwavebackground

matter/radiationdecouplingEarly Universe Gap

First Stars Gap

July 21, 2004

Size and Scale of the UniverseSize and Scale of the Universe

Image courtesy of The Cosmic Perspective by Bennett, Donahue, Schneider, & Voit; Addison Wesley, 2002

July 21, 2004

EarthEarth• Planet where we all

live

• Comprised primarily of rock

• Spherical in shape

• 12,700 km in diameter

• It would take 17 days to circumnavigate the globe driving a car at 100 km/hr

• At the speed of light, it would take 0.13 seconds to go all the way around Earth.

July 21, 2004

SunSun

• Star that Earth orbits

• Composed primarily of hydrogen and helium gas

• Uses nuclear fusion in its core to generate heat and light to allow itself to resist the crushing weight of its own mass

• Spherical in shape

• 1.39 Million km in diameter

July 21, 2004

Earth & SunEarth & Sun• The Sun’s diameter is

109 times greater than that of Earth

• Over 1 million Earths would fit inside the Sun’s volume

• Earth orbits the Sun at an average distance of 150 million kilometers. This distance is called an Astronomical Unit (AU)

• It would take 11,780 Earths lined up side to side to bridge the 1 AU between Earth and Sun.

July 21, 2004

• 8.5 planets, thousands and thousands of planetoids and asteroids, billions of comets and meteoroids

• Mostly distributed in a disk about the Sun

• Sun blows a constant wind of charged gas into interplanetary space, called the Solar Wind

The Solar SystemThe Solar System

Boundary between Solar Wind and interstellar space at 100 AU from the Sun (200 AU diameter)

July 21, 2004

The Solar The Solar NeighborhoodNeighborhood• The region of the Galaxy

within about 32.6 light-years of the Sun (65 light-years diameter) is considered its neighborhood.

• Here stars move generally with the Sun in its orbit around the center of the Galaxy

• This region is inside a large bubble of hot interstellar gas called the Local Bubble. Here the gas temperature is about 1 million degrees Kelvin and the density is 1000 times less than average interstellar space.

Direction of Galactic Rotation

To C

ente

r of

Gala

xy

The image is 390 light-years across.

July 21, 2004

You Are Here

The Milky Way Galaxy is a giant disk of stars 160,000 light-years across and 1,000 light-years thick.

There are over 100 Billion stars in the Milky Way

The Spiral arms are only 5% more dense than average, and are the locations of new star formation

The Sun is located at the edge of a spiral arm, 30,000 light-years

from the center

It takes 250 Million years for the Sun to complete one orbit

The Milky Way GalaxyThe Milky Way Galaxy

July 21, 2004

The Local GroupThe Local Group

• Contains 3 large spiral galaxies--Milky Way, Andromeda (M31), and Triangulum (M33)—plus a few dozen dwarf galaxies with elliptical or irregular shapes.

• Gravitationally bound together—orbiting about a common center of mass

• Ellipsoidal in shape

• About 6.5 million light-years in diameter

July 21, 2004

The Local SuperclusterThe Local Supercluster• A cluster of many groups and

clusters of galaxies

• Largest cluster is the Virgo cluster containing over a thousand galaxies.

• Clusters and groups of galaxies are gravitationally bound together, however the clusters and groups spread away from each other as the Universe expands.

• The Local Supercluster gets bigger with time

• It has a flattened shape

• The Local Group is on the edge of the majority of galaxies

• The Local Supercluster is about 130 Million light-years across

July 21, 2004

The UniverseThe Universe1

.3 B

illion

lig

ht-

years

• Surveys of galaxies reveal a web-like or honeycomb structure to the Universe

• Great walls and filaments of matter surrounding voids containing no galaxies

• Probably 100 Billion galaxies in the Universe

The plane of the Milky Way Galaxy obscures our view of what lies beyond. This creates the wedge-shaped gaps in all-sky galaxy surveys such as those shown here.

July 21, 2004

The UniverseThe Universe

Computer Simulation

The observable Universe is 27 Billion

light-years in diameter.

July 21, 2004

1) 1) The Standard RulerThe Standard Ruler• Use knowledge of physical and/or geometric properties of an

object to relate an angular size with a physical size to determine distance.

• Ex: Parallax, Moving Clusters, Time Delays, Water MASERs• Considered to be a direct or absolute measurement.

There are two basic methods for measuring astronomical distancesThere are two basic methods for measuring astronomical distances

R

d

d = R/Tan() R/

July 21, 2004

Trigonometric ParallaxTrigonometric Parallax• Requires very

precise measurements of stellar positions, and long baselines

• Need telescopes with high resolution, and must observe over several years.

• Hipparchos satellite measured distances to tens of thousands of stars within 1,500 light-years of the Sun.

July 21, 2004

2) 2) The Standard CandleThe Standard Candle• Use knowledge of physical and/or empirical properties of an

object to determine its Luminosity, which yields distance via the Inverse Square Law of Light.

• Ex: Cepheid Variables, Supernovae, TRGB, Tully-Fisher• Considered to be relative until tied to an absolute calibration.

b = L/4d2

July 21, 2004

Cepheid Variable StarsCepheid Variable StarsThere is a kind of giant star

whose surface pulsates in and out with a regular period. That period of pulsation is related to the Luminosity of the star.

LMC contains hundreds of known Cepheids all at the same distance. Which allows for robust determination of the Period Luminosity Relationship.

July 21, 2004

To measure cosmological distances a ladder of methods is used to reach further out into the Universe.

Each “rung” in the ladder of distance measuring methods depends on the calibration of the methods “below.”

July 21, 2004

Objects in the UniverseObjects in the UniverseAn overview of what and where…An overview of what and where…

Science Concepts: • The scale and structure of the

Universe is vast and complex. • Objects in space are viewed across

the whole electromagnetic spectrum.

• The Earth is one of many planets, in one of many solar systems, in one of many galaxies in our Universe.

Goals: • To give students a better grasp of

where objects viewed by scientists in our Universe are located relative to Earth.

• To give the students a better understanding of how and why scientists view objects.

• To give students a better understanding of the structure and evolution of our universe and the objects it contains.

Guiding Question: “What’s in the Universe?”

July 21, 2004

Where does everything go• What do they know about these objects? Size, Distance, Age, and

where are they relative to us. • Are they inside our Solar System (near by), outside our Solar

System but inside the Milky Way (Far), or outside the Milky Way (really far)?

Now you try it!• In groups take the little images of the objects and place them on

the poster where you think they should be located in our Universe. • Note these objects are images in various wavelengths.

Objects in the UniverseObjects in the UniverseAn overview of what and where…An overview of what and where…

July 21, 2004

Objects in the UniverseObjects in the UniverseAn overview of what and where…An overview of what and where…

Now that you have placed your images on the poster…•In your groups discuss the image cards together. •With the information given on the cards fill out the worksheet so you have a better understanding of where those objects should be in our Universe.

July 21, 2004

Now go back and check you images on the poster…Are they all in the correct spot?How do they need to be changed?

Change them!

Objects in the UniverseObjects in the UniverseAn overview of what and where…An overview of what and where…

July 21, 2004

How old is the Universe?

• Insert Lindsay’s things here.

July 21, 2004

Reflection and Debrief(Evaluate)

• Now what do we know?

• What are the big ideas here?

• What do our students need to know?

• Is there anything else we need to know?

• Misconceptions

(take notes)

July 21, 2004

Reflection and Debrief (Evaluate)

• What are some of the effective ways to teaching these topics?

• Standards???

(take notes)