Chandra 101: The Cosmos is the Classroom

Chandra 101: Cosmos is the Classroom

Summer 2003

Huntsville, Alabama

The Cosmos is the Classroom: Chandra 101, two workshops for teachers that were held in Huntsville, Alabama on June 2-3 and July 20-23, 2003. The first workshop paired teachers with scientists, and taught these pairs to become the leaders/presenters for the second workshop. In the process, materials were developed, edited, and modified and are now being copied onto a CD for distribution. The workshops were held at the National Space Science and Technology Center in Huntsville, Alabama with tours of the Alabama Space and Rocket Center and selected sites within the Marshall Space Flight Center. In addition, the University of Alabama hosted a video-conference in the Huntsville Distance Learning Classroom.

Here are some photos from the June workshop. To view photos from the July workshop, click here.

Our fearless Leader, Mitzi Adams, poses for the camera.	Rebecca Knobel and Barbara Adams listen intently and take notes.	All of the teachers and scientists...and a few extra.
Mitzi Adams looks over the teacher's progress.	Cecilia Chapa, Rob Preece, and Brett Crow take a break.	Some of our teachers and scientists working together on a DS9 activity.
Cindy Rogers and Jeremy Raper discuss their lesson plans.	The group smiles for the camera; Top left to right: Brett Crow, Peter Woods, Ron Elsner, Sandy Patel, Rebecca Knobel, Martin Weisskopf, (row 2) Jeremy Raper, Barbara Adams, Colleen Wilson-Hodge, Cryssa Kouveliotou, Mitzi Adams, Cecilia Chapa, (sitting) Bryan Bennett, James Little, and Cindy Rogers.

Some of the facilitators included:
Barbara Adams, teacher, Bob Jones High School
Mitzi Adams, astrophysicist, NASA
Bryan Bennett, teacher, Huntsville High School
Cecilia Chapa, teacher, (certified in Mexico, but not yet in Alabama)
Brett Crow, teacher, Butler High School
Dr. Ron Elsner, astrophysicist, NASA
Rebecca Knobel, student/intern, Huntsville High School
Dr. Chryssa Kouveliotou, astrophysicist, NASA
James Little, teacher, New Century High School
Dr. Sandy Patel, astrophysicist, USRA
Dr. Robert Preece, astrophysicist, UAH
Jeremy Raper, teacher, CSC
Cindy Rogers, teacher, CSC
Dr. Carol Strong, physicist, UAH
John Toone, amateur astronomer, British Astronomical Association
Dr. C.A. Wilson, astrophysicist, NASA
Dr. Peter Woods, astrophysicist, USRA

The workshop in June included sixteen participants plus a few extra lecturers from the outside. Lecturers included Sally Hershberger from Huntsville City Schools who presented a talk on the problems facing the education community and Roslyn Presnell from the UAH Institute of Science Education who discussed teaching adult learners. The July workshop made use of all seventeen implementers listed above to present materials to 28 teachers. Seven of the teachers were international (Chile (3), Ecuador, Portugal, Thailand, Canada). The other 21 teachers represented the states of Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Texas, North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland, Wisconsin, Washington, Arkansas, Ohio, Michigan, and Tennessee. While most participants teach in grades 10-12, we included five middle school teachers and one pre-service.

PRESENTATIONS:

To access Dr. Ron Elsner's "Tour of the Solar System in X rays" Power Point presentation, click here.
To access Dr. Martin Weisskopf's Power Point presentation about the Chandra X-ray telescope and X-ray astronomy, click here.
To access Dr. Dennis Gallagher's Power Point presentation about image processing and the prerequisites for the use of DS9, click here.
To access Dr. Pete Woods' Power Point presentation titled "Searching for X-ray Pulsars, click here.
To access Dr. Charles Meegan's Power Point presentation titled, "What is Science?", click here.
To access activities and information about variable stars, click here.

NASA Website Privacy and Accessibility Statement

Author: Rebecca Knobel/Mitzi Adams, mitzi.adams @ nasa.gov, (256) 961-7626
Mail Code VP62, NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL 35812

Responsible Official: John M. Davis, john.m.davis @ msfc.nasa.gov, (256) 961-7600 Mail Code VP62, NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL 35812

Curator

Last revised 2006 May 17 - M. Adams