Astrophysics Missions, Grants, and Forum Nuggets for December 2012

2 Mary Kay Hemenway & Marc Wetzel & Online: mcdonaldobservatory.org/teachers/profdev/mcdonaldobservatory.org/teachers/profdev/ Answering the Big Bang Challenge: Teacher Workshop presented at the Conference for the Advancement of Science Teaching (CAST), Nov. 8 – 10, 2012, Corpus Christi, TX CAST is the annual meeting of the Science Teachers Association of Texas – This one-hour workshop on the Big Bang was presented by McDonald Observatory / Univ. of Texas at Austin and targeted secondary school teachers. This workshop was funded by a NASA grant to Dr. Milos Milosavljevic (UT Austin) based on his parent research project on black holes (The Observational Signatures of the First Black Holes, NASA grant #NNX09AJ33G). 43 middle school and high school teachers participated in this workshop on the Big Bang. The workshop included hands-on activities focused on critical thinking about the Big Bang, understanding student misconceptions, and tips for helping students deal with big numbers. All activities were keyed to NSES standards and NASA origins connections. Participant Quotes: “This was a very informative workshop and cleared up some misconceptions I had.” and “Good resources for teachers and students, and good explanations of the Big Bang that I can use in the classroom.”

3 Mary Kay Hemenway & Keely Finkelstein & Online: mcdonaldobservatory.org/teachers/profdev/mcdonaldobservatory.org/teachers/profdev/ COMETS! Teacher Workshop presented at the Conference for the Advancement of Science Teaching (CAST), Nov. 8 – 10, 2012, Corpus Christi, TX CAST is the annual meeting of the Science Teachers Association of Texas – This one-hour workshop on Comets was presented by McDonald Observatory / Univ. of Texas at Austin and targeted secondary school teachers. This workshop was funded by a NASA grant to Dr. Anita Cochran (UT Austin) based on her parent research project “Spectroscopic Studies of Comets” (NASA grant #NNE08A052G). 25 middle school and high school teachers participated in this Comets workshop. The workshop included hands- on activities related to what comets are, how they form, and solar system formation. All activities were keyed to NSES standards and NASA origins connections. Participant Quotes: “This was very well done! Great information I can take back and use NOW.” Just what I needed!!” and “I really liked it. I will go back and give a professional development session to my science teachers to use in their 6 th grade classes.”

4 Keely Finkelstein Online: mcdonaldobservatory.org/teachers/profdev/ mcdonaldobservatory.org/teachers/profdev/ Solar Systems Uncovered Teacher Workshop presented at the Conference for the Advancement of Science Teaching (CAST), Nov. 8 – 10, 2012, Corpus Christi, TX CAST is the annual meeting of the Science Teachers Association of Texas – This one-hour workshop on exoplanets was presented by McDonald Observatory / Univ. of Texas at Austin and targeted 5 th - secondary school teachers. This workshop was funded by a NASA grant to Dr. William Cochran (UT Austin) based on his parent research project “Doppler Tomography of Exoplanet Transits” (NASA grant #NNX11AC34G ). 12 middle school and high school teachers participated in this workshop on the study of extrasolar systems, and how planetary systems form, including our own. The workshop included hands-on activities focused on detection of exoplanets and solar system formation. All activities were keyed to NSES standards and NASA origins connections. Participant Quote: “Walked in thinking this might all be too high level for my 5 th graders. Not the case! I’m walking away with some great ideas.”

5 Mary Kay Hemenway & Keely Finkelstein & Online: mcdonaldobservatory.org/teachers/profdev/mcdonaldobservatory.org/teachers/profdev/ Spectroscopy Teacher Workshop presented at the Conference for the Advancement of Science Teaching (CAST), Nov. 8 – 10, 2012, Corpus Christi, TX CAST is the annual meeting of the Science Teachers Association of Texas – This one- hour workshop on spectroscopy was presented by McDonald Observatory / Univ. of Texas at Austin and targeted secondary school teachers. This workshop was funded by a NASA grant to Dr. Dan Jaffe (UT Austin) based on his parent research project “Optimizing the performance & manufacturability of silicon diffractive optics” (NASA grant #NNX10AC68G ). 13 middle school and high school teachers participated in this workshop on light, optics, and spectroscopy. The workshop included hands-on activities focused on properties of light and spectroscopy along with astronomy applications. All activities were keyed to NSES standards. Participant Quotes: “This improved my background knowledge to better explain to students how spectroscopy is used by scientists.” and “Excellent multi-disciplinary and interactive content!”

Kepler EPO—November 2012 A new Kepler Exhibit at NASA Ames Exploration Center was unveiled at a celebration of the end of the Kepler Baseline Mission 2012 Nov 14, 4pm-7pm. The celebration was also for the beginning of the Extended Mission. Featured in the exhibit is a Star-planet orrery light curve hands-on exhibit complete with hand-crank for moving planets in orbits, Build-A-Planet-System interactive kiosk, high quality posters (see next slide), and displays. Kepler scientists Steve Bryson (right) and Gregory Romine (center) joined Elisa Quintana, Tom Barclay, and EPO Co-I Alan Gould in running the Kepler booth, introducing hundreds of people to the mission, with our ever popular orrery-transit-light-curve demo and Uncle Al's Starwheels at the Bay Area Science Festival, 2012 Nov 3, at AT&T Park in San Francisco.

Kepler team group photo at the celebration of the new Kepler Exhibit at NASA Ames Exploration Center, end of the Kepler Baseline Mission 2012 Nov 14.

Not an official part of the Kepler Exhibit at NASA Ames Exploration Center, but just a bit of fun at celebration of the end of Kepler Baseline Mission 2012 Nov 14. Kepler team members pasted into Star Trek crew photo, including PI Bill Borucki, Dave Koch, Jon Jenkins, Natalie Batalha, Charlie Sobeck.