January 2012
Ms. Piper has rejoined NITARP as a mentor teacher this year, and has
just started with her new team. She also brought several students
with her to the AAS to present their
poster on an asteroid light curve. Please also see the AAS 2012 page for a summary
of the new class's activities. She writes:
AAS 2012 was my third trip to a convention and it was a marathon
event. I had a lot more commitments/connections this go-round which
made the experience richer. I knew the lay of the land and was able to
target areas I wanted to cover. I was also better able to help some of
the newbies and my students find their way. My confidence level
speaking to this vast assortment of Astronomy professionals has risen
significantly and this translates directly to my ability to convey
what I have learned and experienced to not only my students but other
teachers and my community.
Peggy was also very busy at the AAS helping to also represent SOFIA.
There
was a press release from the SOFIA folks about her at the AAS. Way to go, Peggy!
Here is an
article from her school on the AAS.
December 2011-January 2012
Some of Ms. Piper's students will be presenting some of their asteroid
work at the AAS in Jan 2012. Their poster is here.
October 2011
Elizabeth Ramseyer, Peggy Piper, and Richard DeCoster included NITARP
in talks given at the Illinois Science Teachers Association meeting in
October 2011.
September 2011
Ms. Piper will be participating in a workshop at Yerkes Observatory on
Infrared Astronomy, incorporating things from her NITARP
experience.
Summer 2011
Ms. Piper has been very busy, conducting more than
seven(!) workshops (with more planned) for teachers
and students in Illinois and Wisconsin.
She also writes:
My students who have been asteroid hunting (WISE-ISAC) are seniors
now, and are now working on determining light curves of asteroids and
are dedicated to expanding their horizons in the area of obtaining
their own data.
I have a new group that is rapidly growing through word of mouth that
plans to hunt for asteroids and learn about SOFIA. This plan started
with my own daughter and her cousins who attend three neighboring
schools and has now spread to friends of friends. This group is
especially interesting because these schools are from two different
districts and tend to be rivals.
My school district also just installed "distance learning" equipment
(video and audio) so that the 4 schools in our district can share
teaching resources. I have already been asked by two of the three
other schools to contribute to their astronomy classes, in particular
about the SOFIA and NITARP experience and future possibilities
(probably affecting 60-100 students in addition to my own).
May 2011
Ms. Piper flew on SOFIA as part of the inaugural Airborne
Ambassadors program!
January 2011
Ms. Piper presented the results of her 2010 team's work at the
Seattle AAS in January 2011. Here is the team's science poster and education poster. Ms. Piper
was the first author on the education poster. Please see
the AAS 2011 page for a
summary of this team's activities.
Ms. Piper very much enjoyed her second AAS. She writes:
Attending the AAS in Seattle with my students was an incredible
experience. I got a chance to step back and see [my students] interact
confidently with their peers, other educators and professional
astronomers from all over the world. We started this journey exactly a
year ago and have come a long way. Learning scientfic concepts and
doing authentic scientific research was only part of the experience,
we also learned to communicate across the country. [...]
Our kids did a fantastic job of interacting with the many astronomers
and educators that came to see our poster. They were poised and
knowledgeable and handled questions with ease. I heard many
compliments not only about the students explanation of our work, but
also about the great job they did constructing their poster.
We didn't get quite as much traffic at the science poster which
allowed us to visit near by posters. How cool for the kids see a
poster right next to theirs being presented by three university
professors on one side and a graduate student on the other.
The team also got some good local media coverage of their trip.
October 2010
Keynote talk at Academic Awards night to LWN students and parents, related
suceeding with passion, and passion with, ta da, Astronomy. Gave a brief tutorial
on light, em spectrum, ir light, spitzer, images, and in particular, our work on
variable stars through NITARP.
Astronomy event for local elementary school children and parents as well as LWN
students. Gave similar talk/tutorial with more emphasis on getting an end product
(finding asteroids, producing light curves). Ended with viewing of Jupiter and
participation in the Great World Wide Star Count.
August 2010
Ms. Piper visited IPAC in August 2010 with her students.
Please see the Summer 2010 visits page.
June 2010
Ms. Piper was named Teacher of the Year at her school!
Congratulations!!
January 2010
Ms. Piper is a new NITARP teacher this year, and has just started with her team.
She is excited about getting kids involved in the program.
She really enjoyed attending the January 2010 AAS and hearing about Kepler's new results. She
has also signed up with the NASA/WISE Asteroid Search program.
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
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Lauren Chapple
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Joseph Childers
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Howard Chun
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Wendy Curtis
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Richard DeCoster
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Stacy DeVeau
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Harlan Devore
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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
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Ardis Herrold
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Vivian Hoette
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Chelen Johnson
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Virginia Jones
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Adam Keeton
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Susan Kelly
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Marcella Linahan
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Thomas Loughran
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Carolyn Mallory
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Anthony Maranto
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Christoper Martin
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Kevin McCarron
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Matthew McCutcheon
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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
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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
