HR: 17:47h
AN: ED14A-08    [Abstracts]
TI: Design of a Teacher-Student Research Program Using the Spitzer Space Telescope
AU: * Pompea, S M
EM: spompea@noao.edu
AF: National Optical Astronomy Observatory, 950 N. Cherry Ave., Tucson, AZ 85719 United States
AU: Daou, D
EM: daou@ipac.caltech.edu
AF: Caltech, MS100-22 1200 E. California Blvd Spitzer Science Center , Pasadena, CA 91125 United States
AU: Thaller, M
EM: thaller@ipac.caltech.edu
AF: Caltech, MS100-22 1200 E. California Blvd Spitzer Science Center , Pasadena, CA 91125 United States
AB: Under the sponsorship of the NASA Spitzer Science Center, we have designed a program for teacher and student research using observing time on the Spitzer Space Telescope. The participating teachers attended a fall, 2004 workshop to become familiar with the Spitzer Science Center Archives, observation planning process, and telescope and instrument capabilities in order to plan observations. They also received fundamental training in infrared astronomy and infrared observational techniques, before they began planning their observing program. This program has as its goals the fundamental NASA goals of inspiring and motivating students to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics as well as to engage the public in shaping and sharing the experience of exploration and discovery. Our educational plan addresses the OSS/NASA objectives of improving student proficiency in science and improving science instruction by providing a unique opportunity to a group of teachers and students to observe with the Spitzer Space Telescope and work with infrared archival data. This program allows a team of 12 teachers and their students to utilize up to 3 hours of Director's discretionary observing time on the Spitzer Space Telescope for educational observations. With the goal of leveraging on a well-established teacher professional development, the program serves teachers in the NSF-sponsored Teacher Leaders in Research Based Science Education (TLRRBSE), an ongoing Public Affairs and Educational Outreach Department program at the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) in Tucson. The program touches the formal education community through a national audience of well-trained and supported middle and high school teachers. There are currently 68 teachers (and their students) participating in TLRBSE with an additional 57 teachers in the still-supported precursor RBSE program. The Spitzer educational research program also reaches an additional national audience of students through an informal education program based at the University of Arizona's Astronomy Camp, directed by Dr. Don McCarthy, who has been active in both the RBSE and TLRBSE programs. The TLRBSE Project is funded by the National Science Foundation under ESI 0101982, funded through the AURA/NSF Cooperative Agreement AST-9613615. NOAO is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA), Inc. under cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation. JPL manages the Spitzer Space Telescope mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Science operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. JPL is a division of Caltech.
UR: http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu.
DE: 0805 Elementary and secondary education
DE: 0815 Informal education
DE: 0830 Teacher training
DE: 0845 Instructional tools
SC: Education and Human Resourcese [ED]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting