HR: 1340h
AN: ED13C-0731    [Abstracts]
TI: Dawn Mission E/PO Use of NASA Archived Images
AU: * Wise, J
EM: jwise@newroads.org
AF: Center for Effective Learning, New Roads School, 3131 Olympic Blvd, Santa Monica, Ca 90404 United States
AB: The Dawn Mission is a mission in time to the very origins of the solar system. We will orbit both Vesta and Ceres for extended periods of time, collecting data that we hope will answer fundamental questions about the formation of planet earth and the solar system in general. Because of the length of this mission, our EPO plan has a unique opportunity to involve students, teachers, parents, and the general public in the anticipation and excitement of the cruise, arrival, and exploration of these asteroids. This presentation focuses on the Clickworkers activity of the Dawn EPO because of its extensive repurposing of NASA images as EPO resources. Clickworkers was designed by Bob Kanefsky at NASA AMES. Currently, it engages the public in counting and classifying craters using NASA images of Mars. The Dawn mission is developing and extending the curricular material within the existing Clickworkers activity as well as adding images of Eros and of course eventually, Vesta and Ceres. Our plan is to use the Clickworkers activity and accompanying curricular material to inform and educate the general public in preparation for the first images from Vesta and then Ceres. For example, what can be learned from counting and classifying craters. We are also informing people of the scientific process by using images from several of NASA's missions to demonstrate the accumulation of facts and information that is the process of science. We will present and discuss our difficulties: . First of which is preparing appropriate information about cratering for people. Scientists have developed an understanding of crater counting, classification, and analysis over years of study and research. How do we scaffold enough information to make the activity meaningful and a learning experience for our clients. . Another difficulty is communicating key concepts in terms that are accessible to space science neophytes. The scaffolding may be correct, but not in terms that the general public can relate to. It is important that people do not go away from this activity with misconceptions. . Where does the program reside? Managing input from 1000's of participants. Keeping it meaningful for participants. Eros pictures had not been "resized" to square the pixels. . Data access needs are very simple, but proved to be difficult. The Clickworkers software only needs a URL for each image to be accessed. That sounds easy in principle, but getting the URL's and the images into the correct format has taken over a year. And our expected outcomes: . We hope to demonstrate that people using clickworkers gain an appreciation for what surface features can tell us about planetary objects. . We hope to show that people increase their anticipation for Dawn's arrival at Vesta. . We hope to increase people's expectation of Dawn's arrival by informing them of theories that will be tested by studying these asteroid's surface features. . We hope to improve people's understanding of how scientific findings build to produce theories and "scientific fact."
DE: 5420 Impact phenomena (includes cratering)
DE: 6205 Asteroids and meteoroids
DE: 0845 Instructional tools
SC: Education and Human Resourcese [ED]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting