January 2010
Inspired by her work with Spitzer, a
few semesters ago, Mrs. Sepulveda enrolled in an online astronomy master's program at
James Cook University.
She reports that one of her students, B. Remlinger, was accepted to M.I.T.,
and feels his involvement in the Spitzer program helped him get accepted.
October-December 2008
Mrs. Sepulveda and her students from Lincoln High School (LHS) attended the SSC in August to work on data analysis for the NGC 4051 project. Since their visit, several new students have joined the research team. New student researchers include Brian Remlinger, Daniel Keen, and Daniel Wu. Former team members Amanda Taylor and Nidhi Tiyyagura have pursued other academic and extracurricular interests and are no longer participating in the project. The LHS research team met after school to continue with the data analysis. They reformatted the spreadsheet and generated light curves for the visible and IR bands. Mrs. Sepulveda, with the help of team members, put together the education poster for the project. The poster was presented at the Long Beach AAS on Wednesday, January 7th. Now that the AAS is over the LHS team plans to continue work on the project. Our goal is to do new photometry measurements in the optical bands and IR bands to verify our previous results.
In addition, the students spent most of their winter break (including Christmas and New Year's Eve!) collecting data using the remote telescope at New Mexico Skies Observatory. The students collected optical images of IC 1396 using R, V, IR and H alpha filters. The data will contribute to a study IC 1396.
July-September 2008
Babs Sepulveda and her students from Lincoln High School (LHS) attended the SSC in August to analyze data for the NGC 4051 project. Prior to their visit the students helped collect optical data for the project using the remote access telescope at New Mexico Skies. During their visit team members learned how to use the Aperature Photometry Tool to measure the brightness of the AGN and reference stars. The students divided the data into sets in order to complete the photometry measurements at the SSC.
Since their visit the students have been meeting after school on a weekly basis to continue their analysis. They have finished calculating the average brightness and the brightness ratios for each image. They are currently preparing to generate light curves.
Mrs. Sepulveda has recruited several new students to work on research projects. They have been meeting after school to learn about Spitzer. They have learned how to use the APT photometry tool and are currently working on verifying the data analysis done by the first team. In addition, Mrs. Sepulveda is working on the education poster the team hopes to present at the January AAS.
October 2007 - January 2008
Ms. Sepulveda was invited to attend the meeting for the new Spitzer teachers at the AAS. She presented a lecture on how to conduct a professional development workshop. She also introduced the SOFIA infrared teaching kits explaining the components of the kit and how they can be used both in professional development workshops and in the classroom. Ms. Sepulveda also met with a team of new Spitzer teachers to collaborate on a proposal for a new research project led by Dr. Steve Howell.
She helped present a poster at the AAS on the wiki developed by her Spitzer team. The wiki was developed as a tool that can be used by teachers and students doing research. Lincoln High School student Esseim Sharma, who helped write the Research Tools section of the poster, also attended the AAS. This was the first time a student from Lincoln High School has attended the AAS. Esseim felt the experience was invaluable because it gave him the opportunity to meet and talk with scientists, teachers and students from across the country. He was able to experience first hand the process of sharing the results of research directly with the scientific community.
Ms. Sepulveda recruited four new students to participate in the Spitzer Research project. These students are either enrolled in her physics or astronomy classes. They meet after school two days per week. The students have been taking a crash course in learning about Spitzer, light, and image processing. They will be part of a team of students making long-term I, R, V, B, U and H-alpha observations of some of the candidates using remote telescopes. Esseim Sharma, who has been part of the team for two years, helped to write the Research tools section of the wiki and is mentoring the new team members.
Due primarily to her involvement with NOAO and Spitzer Ms. Sepulveda now teaches Physics Based Astronomy at Lincoln High School. The students at Lincoln are very excited about the astronomy course and it appears to be a success. Rick Mielbrecht, a retired astronomy teacher from San Joaquin Delta College was invited to give a presentation to students in the class. It was an overwhelming success and Mr. Mielbrecht will visit again later this spring. Ms. Sepulveda has established contact with the Stockton Astronomical Society who have been very helpful. Their first star party is planned for late January.
The proposal that Ms. Sepulveda submitted with Theresa Roelofsen to present at this year's NSTA national convention in Boston was accepted. They are currently working to put together a presentation that will share their experience with NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope Observing Program for Teachers and show teachers how to integrate it into the classroom. They will give specific instructions and demonstrate techniques for working with Spitzer data.
April-June 2007
Ms. Sepulveda has been working on the curriculum for the new research-based astronomy class being offered at Lincoln
High School this fall. She submitted a small grant proposal and was awarded 7 more classroom computers. This brings
the total to 15 computers which will allow her astronomy students to utilize the computers on a daily basis if needed.
Ms. Sepulveda also purchased an image processing program for the school. She is currently working through the modules to
become familiar enough with the program to teach the students in the fall. They will be doing research projects as
part of the course.
Ms. Sepulveda and her student, Esseim Sharma, are waiting to hear from Tim Spuck (the IC 2118 team leader) to make
plans for long term observations of several of the stars in the nebula.
January-March 2007
Ms. Sepulveda met with the IC 2118 & M81 teams at the January AAS.
The teams presented a second science poster for IC 2118 and an educational poster for M81.
The IC2118 team met again at the Mt. Palomar Observatory where they did follow up observations (spectral analyses) of several
young star candidates in IC 2118. They are planning a conference call in the near future to discuss a project in which
students will be making observations of several of the young stars over an extended period to monitor their changes in brightness.
Babs Sepulveda has been working on the curriculum for the new research-based astronomy class being offered at Lincoln
High School this fall. As part of the course students will be learning how to work with Spitzer data. Unfortunately,
she will not be able to purchase MaxIm DL for the classroom therefore she is currently evaluating other image processing programs.
Ms. Sepulveda and Esseim Sharma are planning to make a presentation at Dinner with a Scientist, a meeting organized
by the San Joaquin County Office of Education. Each year, students and teachers from local schools are invited to attend
a dinner at which scientists are invited to discuss their careers or the research they are working on.
Ms. Sepulveda and Theresa Roelofsen submitted a proposal to present at next year's NSTA national convention in Boston.
If it is accepted they will share their experience with NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope Observing Program for Teachers
and show teachers how to integrate it into the classroom. They will give specific instructions and demonstrate techniques
for working with Spitzer data.
September-December 2006
Ms. Sepulveda added several new sections to the Spitzer Student Handbook. These sections include student background information on the IC2118 project, low-mass star formation, color-color diagrams, spectral energy distributions and working with MaxIm DL.
She proposed a new, year-long astronomy course for Lincoln High School. An important component of this course will be student research projects. The course was approved by her school board and will be offered next year.
Ms. Sepulveda started working on the Spitzer project with a new student, Esseim Sharma. Esseim was one of her physics students last year. He is currently a junior and plans to enroll in the Astronomy course next year. Esseim has worked through most of the sections of the Spitzer Student Handbook and has become familiar with both the IC2118 and M81 projects. He has learned how to make tri-color images and is now learning how to make color-color diagrams. Esseim is currently working on a proposal for a science project he can enter in the science fair. He would like to be involved in the long-term I, R, V, B, U and H-alpha observations some of the candidates using remote telescopes.
April-June 2006
Ms. Sepulveda gave a presentation at the TLRBSE summer session on how she incorporate doing authentic research with her students.
She has reviewed the new information on her Spitzer group's web site in preparation for the team's visit to the SSC this summer.
In the classroom, Ms. Sepulveda has
written several new sections for the Spitzer Student Handbook. The new sections are:
Working in MaxIm DL,
Student Background Information on the IC 2118 project,
Student Literature Search assignment for the IC 2118 project,
Student Background Information on low- mass star formation,
Student Background Information on spectral energy distributions,
Student Background Information on color-color diagrams.
She is planning to meet with the team next week to work on the round 2 data and begin working on developing instructional materials for other teachers.
March 2006
Ms. Sepulveda has altered her curriculum to incorporate infrared light activities (particularly from the IR teaching kit) in appropriate units of study in Physics and Earth Science. She and Cynthia Wheeler are working with their students to become more proficient at interpreting color-color plots. They have been comparing different color-color plots to see if the same stars are present in the same relative positions. They want to become more adept at distinguishing stars in one class from another and are also trying to see if we can identify the stars based on their SED's.
The two students currently involved in the project with Ms. Sepulveda (Andrew Hughes and Nikhil Sharma) will be graduating this June and will probably not participate any further. She has discussed the project informally with a couple of students who have expressed interest in it. These students are juniors in her physics class.
Ms. Sepulveda has altered her curriculum to incorporate infrared light activities (particularly from the IR teaching kit)
in appropriate units of study in Physics and Earth Science including:
Electromagnetic spectrum, Spectroscopy, Optics, and Stellar evolution.
January 2006
Ms. Sepulveda attended the January AAS in Washington D.C. where she and her group shared the results of their project.
She met with her teams to plan the next steps for their Spitzer projects.
The IC2118 group discussed the Round 2 proposal and what they would need to accomplish.
They also discussed ideas for developing teacher resource materials using the tools and technology we have learned by doing the project.
The M81 group met with the project scientists and discussed the timeline for the data collection.
They discussed possible dates to meet as a team and begin work on the data analysis.
October 2005
Babs Sepulveda along with Cynthia Weehler presented two workshops at CAST
(Conference for the Advancement of Science Teaching) in Houston, Texas.
February 2005:
Ms. Sepulveda and two of her physics students were interviewed by local newspaper (The Record) about their involvement with Spitzer.
She is currently teaching students about digital images and how to use the image processing software.
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
