Astrophysics Missions, Grants, and Forum Nuggets for December 2011

2 Contact: Dr. Jatila van der Veen, Planck E/PO Lead web.physics.ucsb.edu/~jatila Cosmology: A Curricular Companion for Community Colleges Release of preliminary version of new materials by Planck Scientist, Professor Bruce Partridge, Haverford College Cosmology: A Curricular Companion for Community Colleges Release of preliminary version of new materials by Planck Scientist, Professor Bruce Partridge, Haverford College Professor Bruce Partridge is a world-renowned cosmologist and radio astronomer, and award-winning professor of physics at Haverford college. These modules are intended to help community college instructors with little to no background in astronomy or cosmology to teach basic cosmology in their ‘Astro 101’ courses. Initial release: December, Modules sent directly to instructors and posted on the SEPOF workspace for feedback.

3 Contact: Dr. Jatila van der Veen, Planck E/PO Lead web.physics.ucsb.edu/~jatila Public Lecture by Planck Scientist, Professor Lloyd Knox, and release of new Dark Energy Music Video Professor Lloyd Knox is a popular physics professor with students at the University of California Davis, one of the Planck core-team scientists, and a science singer-song writer. On October 6, 2011 he gave a public lecture at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, which was attended by many of the Santa Barbara Community College astronomy students. At this public event he also unveiled his new music video, The Dark Energy Song. Watch video at: Lyrics available at: virgo.physics.ucdavis.edu/~knox/DarkEnergy.html Watch video at: Lyrics available at: virgo.physics.ucdavis.edu/~knox/DarkEnergy.html

4 NASA Center for Astronomy Education* CAE Breaks Ground with New Faculty Members in Maryland * Sponsored by the Exoplanet Exploration Program CAE Directors, Ed Prather and Gina Brissenden (University of Arizona), presented an interactive talk on creating highly interactive lectures and three one-hour workshops on implementing Lecture-Tutorials in College Park, Maryland, as part of the AAPT/AAS/APS New Faculty Workshop for new Astronomy and Physics Faculty. 55 participants attended. College Park, MD November 17-20, 2011

5 Answering the Big Bang Challenge: Two workshops presented at the Conference for the Advancement of Science Teaching (CAST) - November 19 & 20, 2011, Dallas, TX CAST is the annual meeting of the Science Teachers Assoc. of Texas – This workshop on the Big Bang was presented twice by McDonald Observatory/University of Texas and targeted secondary school teachers. The workshop was funded by a NASA grant to Dr. Milos Milosavljevic (UT Austin) based on his parent research project (The Observational Signature of the First Black Holes). 97 middle school and high school teachers participated in one of two workshops on the Big Bang. The workshops included hands-on activities focused on critical thinking about the Big Bang, understanding student misconceptions, and tips for helping students deal with big numbers. Online: mcdonaldobservatory.org/teachers/profdev/mcdonaldobservatory.org/teachers/profdev/ Participant Quotes: I realize now that I am teaching the Big Bang all wrong. Thank you for an eye opening experience. I think the activity on using salt to show scientific notation was cool. My kids have a hard time ‘seeing’ the numbers when relating space and distance, and this will let them have a better idea.

6 Spectroscopy – A Tool for Astronomy: A workshop presented at the Conference for the Advancement of Science Teaching (CAST) - November 19, 2011, Dallas, TX CAST is the annual meeting of the Science Teachers Assoc. of Texas – This workshop on spectroscopy was presented by McDonald Observatory/University of Texas and targeted secondary school teachers. The workshop was funded by a NASA grant to Dr. Dan Jaffe (UT Austin) based on his parent research project (Optimizing the performance and manufacturability of silicon diffractive gratings). 31 middle school and high school teachers participated in this workshop where they were presented with hands-on activities about spectroscopy, using diffraction gratings, and tips for teaching light and optics in their classes. Online: mcdonaldobservatory.org/teachers/profdev/mcdonaldobservatory.org/teachers/profdev/ Participant Quotes: The spectrum with the cards activity was very interesting. It will help students look closely at the spectrum and for a longer time. I enjoyed the workshop. I learned a lot about spectroscopy. This will be very helpful in my job!