1. Astrophysics Missions, Grants, and Forum
Nuggets for July 2011

2. Light and Optics A Teacher Professional Development Workshop
NASA funding helped bring secondary school teachers to McDonald Observatory in West Texas for an immersion into astronomy in a 3-day, 2-night workshop
Content: Activities on electromagnetic radiation, optics, and instrumentation for infrared telescopes.
Relation to NASA: The parent research project of Dr. Dan Jaffe (Optimizing the performance and manufacturability of silicon diffractive optics) consists of design and development of infrared instrumentation for NASA ground-based (IRTF), airborne (SOFIA), and space (JWST) facilities.
Online: mcdonaldobservatory.org/teachers/profdev/
Teachers toured Observatory research telescopes, interacted with astronomers, learned through a series of hands-on science activities by day, and observed the cosmos by night.
June 23-25, 2011
15 teachers (CA, MD, NJ, OR, and TX)
“It was exciting to have contact with ‘real science’ which gets teachers excited, and through teachers, the excitement will engage students.” – teacher quote

3. From the Big Bang to Black Holes A Teacher Professional Development Workshop
NASA funding helped bring secondary school teachers to McDonald Observatory in West Texas for an immersion-based 3-day, 2-night workshop
Content: Activities on cosmology, black holes, and modeling as used in science.
Relation to NASA: The parent research project of Dr. Milos Milosavljevic (The Observational Signature of the First Black Holes) is a NASA Astrophysics Theory and Fundamental Physics project addressing the strategic NASA goal to “discover the origin, structure, evolution, and destiny of the universe” (Sub-goal 3D).
Online: mcdonaldobservatory.org/teachers/profdev/
Teachers toured Observatory research telescopes, interacted with astronomers, learned through a series of hands-on science activities by day, and observed the cosmos by night.
June 27-29, 2011
14 teachers (AZ, CA, FL, OK, & TX)
13 teachers from schools with high fraction of underrepresented minorities
“The workshop has given us more in-depth knowledge and supplied us with both basic and higher-level inquiry based activities to use in the classroom.” – teacher quote

4. Website continues to feature a new weekly image:
The WISE E/PO Team successfully submitted the lesson plan “Inverse Square Law of Light” to NASA Product Review. The lesson received great ratings overall and the panel recommended it for distribution.
Website continues to feature a new weekly image: .
(L to R): NGC 2174, NGC 1491, NGC 2259, Heart of Cygnus.
(L to R): IC 1396, GUM 22, CG 4. .

5. From Earth to the Solar System (FETTSS), a bilingual NASA EPOESS-funded traveling image exhibition project for NASA’s Year of the Solar System was exhibited outside the National Air & Space Museum (NASM) in Washington D.C. from June-July 11, Daily tours by docents were provided twice every weekday morning on themes of Cosmic Weather, and Myriad Moons.
FETTSS was included in the Astronomy Night on the National Mall on July 9, 2011 in partnership with Hofstra University, and NASM. Astronomy Night had approximately 1,000 visitors. Chandra EPO staff participated in the event and recorded a timelapse video (click to launch )

6. AMAZING SPACE PRESENTATION AT THE 218TH AAS MEETING
OPO’s Amazing Space website is an online resource for communicating Hubble discoveries and other astronomical wonders to students and teachers everywhere. OPO’s Education team has developed a broad suite of materials, readings, activities, and visuals that are not only engaging and exciting, but also standards-based and fully supported so that they can be easily used within state and national curricula. On Wednesday, May 23, OPO scientist Frank Summers presented information about Amazing Space during a special panel session at the 218th AAS meeting in Boston. The panel session focused on demonstrating multi-modal and multi-sensory approaches to teaching astronomy and making astronomy accessible to a variety of learners – such as live performances, games and simulations, and tactile resources for the non-sighted and sighted alike. Amazing Space products for various learners include stunning imagery, grade-level appropriate science content readings, online interactives, and tactile images. We are currently exploring the potential use of scientific visualizations and stereo 3D in astronomy education.