Astrophysics Missions, Grants, and Forum Nuggets for January 2012

The bilingual (English/Spanish) NASA EPOESS-funded From Earth to the Solar System (FETTSS) traveling exhibit was on display outside Space Center Houston for December Over 70 locations worldwide have hosted or have signed up to host a FETTSS event using the online repository. ( FETTSS-Braille, funded by Hinode with Chandra, continues to be distributed to visually-impaired groups. (

3 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

NASA Center for Astronomy Education* CAE Brings Professional Development to the 219 th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Austin! * Sponsored by the Exoplanet Exploration Program Austin, TXJanuary “Wall of Burning Questions” 39 Participants attended the CAE Tier I Introductory Workshop on Improving College Introductory Astronomy Through Active Engagement. Of those participants: - 25% were Faculty - 40% were Postdocs - 35% were Graduate Students 11 Participants attended the Tier II Special Topics in Technology Workshop and of those people: - 66% were Faculty - 33% were Postdocs Left: Participants practice as students using Think-Pair-Share. Right: Participants practice as instructors implementing Lecture-Tutorials. Below: Wall of Burning Questions where participants post their teaching-related questions to be answered throughout the workshop. Educator Evaluation Responses: “The role-playing/active participation aspects were very helpful. Always good to practice in a safe space.” “I learned a lot. I think it will help to make me a better teacher when I get to that point in my career.”

NASA Center for Astronomy Education* CAE & its Collaboration of Astronomy Teaching Scholars (CATS) Share a Plethora of Astronomy Education Research at the Austin AAS Meeting * Sponsored by the Exoplanet Exploration Program Austin, TX January CAE made a grand appearance at the 219 th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Austin, Texas, in early January. With nine posters and nearly constant foot traffic, the Collaboration of Astronomy Teaching Scholars (CATS) debuted new research results. Moreover, three collaborators gave talks during the oral session, and the talks were attended by over one hundred meeting attendees. Ed Prather, Gina Brissenden, & Colin Wallace (Univ. Arizona), Kevin Lee (University of Nebraska – Lincoln), Rica French (MiraCosta College) and Paul Robinson (Westchester Community College) also presented two CAE workshops at the meeting.

6 WISE –Jan WISE website continues to routinely post featured images: Left to right: IC 4601, IC 4592, Puppis A, Barnard 3. This enormous section of the Milky Way Galaxy is a mosaic of images from WISE, totaling nearly 30 billion pixels.

7 WISE –Jan The WISE Mission presented 2 teacher professional development workshops at the Conference for the Advancement of Science Teaching (CAST) in Dallas, TX on November 17-19, The first workshop – “Size and Scale of the Universe” – featured an awe-inspiring hands-on activity that helps students grasp the size and scale of the different realms of the Universe, from Earth all the way out to Galactic Superclusters and the Observable Universe. 44 middle and high school teachers attended. The second workshop – “More Than a Pretty Picture: Using Astronomical Data in the Classroom” – covered several classroom activities that use NASA data and image processing programs. The focus was on how to find and download actual WISE data and use it to teach key concepts in astronomy and digital images. 20 high school teachers attended. Evaluation was conducted at both workshops and showed very positive results.