Moonwalking

Moonwalking, a set on Flickr.

GAVRT

GAVRT, a set on Flickr.

GAVRT Day 2

What an amazing day! We had to start it off by driving awhile out to Apple Valley in the Mojavi.  Honestly, it was a lot like Phoenix with the dry heat and the barren landscape.  Of course it was really pretty, but nothing too shocking to me.  During our drive we all shared best practices and cool teaching strategies.  I even took notes on what one gentlemen in our car uses in his classroom.  I cant wait to try some of his strategies!  It is so wonderful to be with other teachers who have the same passions and enthusiasm to incorporate STEM (Science, technology, engineering, math) in any way they can to try and make an impact on their students.  I wish I could have conversation like that every day.  Who knows though, maybe I will this year!  Once we arrived to the main building we were in awe of the HUGE 34 meter radio telescope near where we parked.  It was quite a sight seeing all these teachers with their necks arching back to try and soak up what was in front of them, including myself.  However, this telescope would seem pretty small compared to the Mars telescope that we would see later.  It is 70 meters across and makes you feel like a small bug in comparison.  It is so amazing to know that the object in front of us is able to talk to satellites next to the sun and over a billion miles away where Voyager 1 and 2 are.  We talked to great scientists today, saw really cool desert wildlife (wild donkeys! Who knew?) and even got to go below the telescope to see all these different experiments, and then climb almost to the very top.  What a view!  I can't wait to share all of this with my students and start getting them excited for their own radio telescope time.  More to come tomorrow!

GAVRT Day 1

What is genuine science?  That is something we were asked today and it really made me stop and think about it's meaning and how I teach it in my classroom.  Some of the responses were that it is a way of thinking, looking at different viewpoints, problem solving, inquiry.  All of them great answers, but I really loved Dr. Steve Levin's answer which was that the universe teaches you, and it shows you you are wrong.  We are curious so we ask questions, try to figure them out, and we are proven wrong time and again.  However, having the perseverance to keep trying to figure the problem is what can eventually lead us to the right answer.  That is what science is and it is such an amazing journey and experience.  I had this personal experience for the first time during our zero gravity experiment and I wished they had taught us this way of thinking in college.  However, at least I learned it somewhat early on in my teaching career.  It is only the first day of the Goldstone NASA Explorer school opportunity and I am already loving every minute of it.  This morning we also talked about the magnetic spectrum, the radio telescopes (tried to calibrate them, but not really behaving), and learned a lot about the Juno satellite that will be leaving for Jupiter in August.  The teachers here are amazing and I am already learning so much from them.  Each person has wonderful information and experiences to share that I can take back to the classroom.  I am so blessed.  Tomorrow we head out to the actual telescopes and I will be sure to post pics! Ask yourself today, what is genuine science?

Flight 2

Well, we got the experiment all set up in the zero g plane for the rest of the team.  The second group consisted of Mary Lara from Flagstaff, Ronnie Thomas and Bejanae Kareem from Atlanta.  What a great group!  It was fun to see the plane take off knowing they were going to have the time of their life.  Once they returned they were all smiles!!  It was fun to hear their stories and only a couple from other teams had lost their cookies.  This was the last day so it was a little emotional to leave the hangar where we had worked for six days and had the time of our life. However, it was time to start swapping data and video footage for the students to analyze when we get back.  It was a little disappointing to see some of the video footage because we weren't getting the entire box to actually see the bubbles and how they were moving around in zero g.  Some of the angles were off or cameras got bumped or kicked from transitions from zero to hyper-g.  It was definitely a HUGE learning experience as far as learning more about the scientific method and conducting research in general.  Sharing these experiences with the students is going to be a huge deal and I hope they realize that in the end that even the best plans and the best science doesn't always work perfectly the first time.  I will be sure to post more after I work with the students to share their reactions!

Flight 1

Flight 1, a set on Flickr.