July 2008 - January 2009
Our Education/ Outreach poster is really very comprehensive. It
clearly outlines all of the work that was done. Here is the link for
all of the posters http://coolwiki.ipac.caltech.edu/index.php/Posters_and_Handouts_from_AAS_meetings
Here is a link to some of the photos from the conference.
http://picasaweb.google.com/Guastellaphotos/AASJan2009#5290754102407805538
Manhasset was busy preparing their research in the months since
the summer training sessions. Students learned to work with APT,
MOPEX, Excel, Leopard and Spot. The Manhasset group met regularly
with the Oil City group via Skype conferences. Students used the
criteria to select candidate YSO's. Following this they evaluated the
images, determined the flux densities and created Color/Color
diagrams. From this, Spectral Energy Distributions were created and
an assessment of the YSO forming characteristics of LDN 981 and 425
was completed.
4 Manhasset students; Ashley Peter, William Wassmer
(part of the original Spitzer training program), AJ Scaramucci and
Rose Haber (interested students that developed their knowledge through
classroom training at Manhasset) attended the AAS meeting. At the
conference students were active in helping to discuss the 3 poster
boards completed by the entire Spitzer group.
What was especially
important to me as an educator was the way that the students planned
their own schedule of listening to research presentations and
reviewing poster presentations. The students were very active
participants in the conference and they took away an amazing amount of
information and excitement. One parent told me that her normally
quiet son spent the entire weekend relating stories of the experience
to his family and friends.
January-June 2008
I was pleased to attend the AAS in January where I met the other
Spitzer teachers, participated in the training session, and worked on
a plan to develop a study with Dr. Rebull and the members of my
group. From that point members of the team developed and wrote a
research proposal to investigate LDN 425 and 981. This was a
wonderful collaborative effort utilizing the WIKI, call conferencing
and the internet, allowing everyone to participate in the process. In
early May we finalized a date of June 14-18 for our team's conference
and further training at the SSC. I was pleased to find out that the
budget allowed for two of my research students to attend the session
as well. I selected two students that had already completed research
studies in Astronomy. One had used archival data from the RBSE
program and the other student had actually worked with images from
Spitzer using Leopard. At the SSC, Dr Rebull was most thorough in her
training and provided us with much hands-on time to learn the
intriguesies of the data collection from LDN 425. The trip was capped
with a tour of JPL which was thoroughly enjoyed by both me and my
students. Presently my students are planning a research study that
they will develop for next year t based on the collected data. They
hope to present their work at the regional Science and Engineering
fair in early February.
I have been interested in making research
based astronomy education an important part of my school's research
curriculum. Through NOAO's RBSE program and now through the Spitzer
program I have developed many ways for my students to do meaningful
Astronomy research studies. Even though I was only able to being
two students with me. I have 4 more working on developing research
studies from the Spitzer data about other Ldn's that have been
observed. In all I know have about a dozen astronomy projects in the
works with my advanced research students in the fall. In the sort term
I hope to get my 6 students on track with their studies but overall I
hope be involved in proposals during Spitzer's warm period.
I sent
off an article to my school's PR person to publish in the Manhasset
press. I have not yet seen it published. I will forward it as soon
as it gets in.
I presented to the NCSSSMST (National Consortium
of Specialized Secondary Science Math and Technology schools at their
Teachers Convention in Dallas this past February.. The title of the
talk was; Creating an Astronomy Based Science Research. It
highlighted the work of the RBSE NOAO program and the Spitzer
Program. I also did a few of the interactive demo's from the Infra
kit. The audience size was about 20 teachers.
Additionally , I
planned a training session using the kit as a motivational tool to get
some of the gifted and talented 8th graders interested in the Science
Research program. The demo's and lesson was a fun filled time and a
huge success. The big hit was using the radio shack speaker
/amplifier with the photocell and listening to the sounds of a remote
control. That particular demo is going to be my demo for my classes
on the first day of school in the fall.
Jeff Adkins
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John Blackwell
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Jacqueline Barge
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Christopher Border
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Kareen Borders
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Robert Bonadurer
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Merrill Butler
|
Lauren Chapple
|
Joseph Childers
|
Howard Chun
|
Wendy Curtis
|
Richard DeCoster
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Stacy DeVeau
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Harlan Devore
|
Cris DeWolf
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Velvet Dowdy
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Thomas Doyle
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Dean Drumheller
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Debbie Edwards
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Mike Ford
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Debbie French
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John Gibbs
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Peter Guastella
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Rosa Hemphill
|
Ardis Herrold
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Vivian Hoette
|
Chelen Johnson
|
Virginia Jones
|
Adam Keeton
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Susan Kelly
|
Marcella Linahan
|
Thomas Loughran
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Carolyn Mallory
|
Anthony Maranto
|
Christoper Martin
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Kevin McCarron
|
Matthew McCutcheon
|
David McDonald
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Shefali Mehta
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Cindy Melton
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Kate Meredith
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Lauren Novatne
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Kathryn O'Connor
|
Caroline Odden
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Jeffrey Paradis
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Vincent Pereira
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Helen Petach
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Peggy Piper
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Peter Pitman
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Elizabeth Ramseyer
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Steve Rapp
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Theresa Roelofsen Moody
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Denise Rothrock
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Diane Sartore
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John Schaefers
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Sally Seebode
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Babs Sepulveda
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Timothy Spuck
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Darryl Stanford
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Linda Stefaniak
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Dwight Taylor
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Jennifer Tetler
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Beth Thomas
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Cynthia Weehler
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Lynne Zielinski
