THEMIS SWG,12/18/04 THEMIS E/PO THEMIS E/PO N. Craig, L. M. Peticolas, V. Angelopoulos URL: A Quest to Understand the Onset of Auroral Substorms

THEMIS SWG,12/18/04 THEMIS E/PO Overall Management and Partnership Structure for THEMIS E/PO. Principal Investigator Vassilis Angelopoulos EPO Science Content Advisors J. Bonnell, C. Russell, S. Mende Systems and office support (part time from SECEF) E/PO Administrative Coordinator Amy Shutkin (part time from sprg) EPO Lead Nahide Craig EPO Specialist Laura Peticolas Montana State Space Grant Donna Minton Graphic Designer Teacher Consultants Tom Sheffler & Lonny Villalobos L. H. S Carolyn Willard Allan Gould 10 GEONS Teachers Cornerstone Eval. Assoc. Allyson Walker Astronomy Café Sten Odenwald SACNAS Ramon Lopez Alaska GBOs McGrath & Kiana Schools UCLA GMAG

THEMIS SWG,12/18/04 THEMIS E/PO Place research-grade magnetometers in 10 schools around U.S. {Geomagnetic Event Observation Network by Students (GEONS) } Inspire these communities Provide professional development, lesson plans, and data (via web and on site) to the GEONS teachers regularly Use this GEONS program as a test-bed to reach more teachers at professional development workshops at local, regional, and national science teacher conferences Use this GEONS program and data web developments to provide data to the Student Observation Network (SON) program to reach more teachers via the web. Formal Education

THEMIS SWG,12/18/04 THEMIS E/PO Magnetometer Schools in 10 States Petersburg City Schools: Vic Trautman Petersburg, Alaska Chippewa Hills High School: Cris DeWolf Remus, Michigan Hot Springs High School: Sean Estill Hot Springs, Montana Western Nevada Community College: Robert CollierCarson City, Nevada Fort Yates Public School: Daryl Brahos Fort Yates, North Dakota Ukiah School: Laura Orr Ukiah, Oregon Northern Bedford County High School: Keith Little Loysburg, Pennsylvania Red Cloud High School: Wendell Gehman Pine Ridge, South Dakota Shawano Community High School: Wendy Esch Shawano, Wisconsin North County Union Jr. High School: Holly WilleyDerby,Vermont Mags installed

THEMIS SWG,12/18/04 THEMIS E/PO Fluxgate Magnetometer Setup Fluxgate Sensor Installed in Ground Carson City Fluxgate Magnetometer Electronics Circuit Board EPO Magnetometer Chassis Atop Magnetic Shield Calibration System UCLA provides technical users’ manuals along with GMAG unit – Installed five magnetometers in Summer ’04, and will install five in Summer ’05 – Will provide ground data processing, data access, and archiving procedures – Will provide common data packets from all sites by end of December

THEMIS SWG,12/18/04 THEMIS E/PO Carson City Magnetometer Installation Special workforce from SSL!Magnetometer sensor cable in the trench David attaching GPS receiver to a pipe. Our teacher Terry, with his feathery friend, gave moral support! Magnetometer in the classroom David, hooking the monitor to its computer Carson City FIRST Data!

THEMIS SWG,12/18/04 THEMIS E/PO EPO Magnetometer Data Flow Non-Validated Data UCLA EPO #1EPO #2EPO #3EPO #10 Internet UC Berkeley Validated Data U of Alberta Archival GBO #1 GBO #2 U Calgary Non-Validated Data

THEMIS SWG,12/18/04 THEMIS E/PO Communications, Dissemination since April 2004 Monthly E/PO partners telecon YAHOO site established for GEONS Teachers –Good tool for communication and sharing information –Weekly exchanges on auroras, updates, installations –Teacher-to-teacher postings –Lessons of the week Teacher Professional Development –NSTA Teacher Workshop - April, Atlanta, GA –GEONS Workshop - July Berkeley, CA –CSTA Workshop - 84 teachers –NASA w/ LWS – Anchorage 300 teachers + –AISES –Anchorage - 10 teachers –SACNAS – 22 teachers –Idaho Falls 7,000 students, 300 teachers, 3 day looong “Expo”

THEMIS SWG,12/18/04 THEMIS E/PO Good Press, Conferences, and a Patch PRESS RELEASE SENT TO SCHOOLS FOR THEIR LOCAL NEWSPAPERS –Bismarck Tribune - Fort Yates E/PO Magnetometers: April 14, Bismarck ND –WESTWIND - Western Nevada Community College Newsletter: Sept. “Carson City Students, WNCC, NASA Partner to study Northern Lights” “High school and middle school students in CC will collaborate in a unique scientific investigation to understand the onset of auroral substorms, little understood events that break up the Aurora Borealis into beautiful and mysterious dancing lights.” –Rapid City Journal – Oct. 11, “Red Cloud to study northern lights” PINE RIDGE – “A new piece of equipment that will help scientists study the colorful northern lights is to arrive Thursday at Red Cloud Indian School. Red Cloud is one of 10 schools in the nation and the only South Dakota school selected to receive a $20,000 magnetometer installation. The magnetometer will measure changes in the Earth's invisible magnetic field, according to a school news release. Wendell Gehman, a high school science teacher at Red Cloud, submitted the proposal that resulted in Red Cloud's selection for the THEMIS program. Gehman will use the information collected by the magnetometer and accompanying equipment in his science classes. Students at Red Cloud High School will help install the equipment Thursday.” –The Nevada Appeal – Oct. 15, “Kids attracted to science project like magnet” “The students are studying magnetism as part of their involvement with a NASA project that examines the interaction of solar storms and Earth’s magnetosphere.” CONFERENCES AGU May, Montreal – “THEMIS Ground-based magnetometer arrays and their education and public outreach potential ” AAS – June, Denver –“ Education and Public Outreach with THEMIS Ground-based research grade magnetometers” – December, SF – “Partners and Networks in the THEMIS E/PO program” THEMIS PATCH - designed and printed 10,000 copies for distribution

THEMIS SWG,12/18/04 THEMIS E/PO Feedback from teachers INSPIRATIONAL - ONLY NASA CAN “We also recently got some positive press from our local paper as well. They did a front page article a few weeks ago about our involvement with the mission. They did mess up on the science a bit though, saying that the magnetometer detected changes in our atmosphere rather than in the magnetosphere! This really opened some of my students eyes. They have had the impression (possibly passed on from parents who attended in troubled times when we had labor disputes and funding problems) that we are a 2nd rate school. Now they are beginning to see that they can be as good a school as any - if they take advantage of the opportunities that are open to them.” Chris De Wolf, GEONS teacher Chippewa Hills High School. Remus MI

THEMIS SWG,12/18/04 THEMIS E/PO In Progress AAPT in January Installation of the remaining 5 E/PO Magnetometers Carson City 2 nd GEONS Workshop June NEW GEMS Carson City, NV June Collaborating w/ NASA E/PO proposals related to magnetometers Evaluator started working w/ teacher interviews WORKSHOPS FebruaryFresno State Teachers Teacher Workshop at SSL WORKSHOP MarchIdaho Falls 2 District Teacher Workshop? WORKSHOP April Cal Day WORKSHOP May Teacher Workshop at SSL WORKSHOPS JuneGEONS II workshop CC GEMS Workshop Exploring Magnetism Teachers Guide – “exemplary material” First printing 5,000 copies, March Updated 2 nd printing 10,000 copies for CORE, November