Author Archives: davidvblack

About davidvblack

I teach courses in multimedia, 3D animation, Earth science, physics, biology, 8th grade science, chemistry, astronomy, engineering design, STEAM, and computer science in Utah schools. I've won numerous awards as an educator and am a frequent presenter at state and national educator conferences. I am part of the Teachers for Global Classrooms program through the U.S. Department of State and traveled to Indonesia in the summer of 2017 as an education ambassador. I am passionate about STEAM education (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics); science history; photography; graphic design; 3D animation; and video production. My Spaced-Out Classroom blog is for sharing lessons and activities my students have done in astronomy. The Elements Unearthed project (http://elementsunearthed.com) combines my interests to document the discovery, history, sources, uses, mining, refining, and hazards of the chemical elements. My third blog site, https://science-creativity.com is to provide resources for teaching creativity through student-created digital media projects in STEM classes.

A Brief History of Education Programs at NASA

Posted on March 4, 2025 by davidvblack

Two weeks ago I had the opportunity to present at the monthly meeting of the Utah Astronomy Club. One of Clark Planetarium’s board members had seen my biography on the planetarium’s website and that I have participating in a number … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged aesp, education, epo, jet propulsion laboratory, nasa, nasa education, NASA vans, newmast, science, solar system educator program, space, spacemobile | Leave a comment

Solar Eclipse: April 8, 2024

Posted on June 3, 2024 by davidvblack

After all of our work getting ready for the annular solar eclipse of Oct. 14, 2023 I knew what to expect for the next eclipse, which would take place about six months later. This one would be total for a … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged astronomy, clark planetarium, corona, eclipse, eclipse glasses, eclipse party, moon's orbit, partial eclipse, path of totality, pinhole projectors, PUNCH mission, solar eclipse, sun, sun moon earth alignment, sunspot | Leave a comment

Outreach Visits for Clark Planetarium

Posted on May 15, 2024 by davidvblack

Now that the 2023-24 school year is drawing to a close, it is time to look back at the outreach visits to schools I’ve done as part of my job at Clark Planetarium. I am a full-time Education Program Specialist, … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged astronomy, clark planetarium, education, highway 89, informal STEM education, kinesthetic learning, kingston canyon utah, outreach visits, science, solar system model, solar-system, space science education, stem education, teaching, utah schools, utah seed standards, zion canyon | Leave a comment

Annular Eclipse

Posted on December 3, 2023 by davidvblack

During the first few days of my new job at Clark Planetarium, my supervisor, who would soon be leaving for another position, handed off a rather large project to me as something to complete over the summer during our slower … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged 6th grade SEEd standards, annular solar eclipse, april-8-2024, clark planetarium, crescent sun, eclipse, moon, pinhole projector, sun, utah space science standards | Leave a comment

Starting Work at Clark Planetarium

Posted on October 20, 2023 by davidvblack

It is far too long since I have posted on this blog. I have been neglecting things; what with working toward my dissertation research and life in general, I have put aside these blog posts. It is finally time to … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged annular solar eclipse, astronomy, astrovan, clark planetarium, informal science education, science communication, space science, student-created digital media projects, three-dimensional choice, utah seed standards | Leave a comment

Dissertation Progress Report and an Invitation to Participate

Posted on February 19, 2023 by davidvblack

Today’s post is to provide you with a progress report on how my doctoral dissertation research is going. Please read through this to the end, as I have a request to make of you that could be very beneficial for … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged browser-based media design software, project-based learning | Leave a comment

Two Famous Alien Abduction Tales

Posted on September 4, 2022 by davidvblack

In this blog post I will share two essays written by students in my astrophysics class this summer as an exercise in critical thinking and making claims based on evidence. They both report alien abduction cases that became quite famous, … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged alien abductions, betty and barney hill, fire in the sky, travis walton, zeta reticulli | Leave a comment

Famous UFO Incidents: 1948-1954

Posted on August 31, 2022 by davidvblack

The UFO craze of 1947 wasn’t the last incident of URO sightings. It was just the beginning of what would be a long series of incidents through the 1950s and 1960s. The U.S. Air Force was concerned enough to begin … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged mass sightings, migrating spiders, ufo, v2 rocket tests | Leave a comment

The 1947 UFO Craze

Posted on August 28, 2022 by davidvblack

During June and July of 1947 there was a wave of UFO incidents, many of which made national news and have become the sources of persistent popular beliefs regarding UFOs, flying saucers, and Little Green Men. As a final project … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged flight 105, maury island incident, men in black, roswell incident, ufo | Leave a comment

UFO Incidents: Battle of Los Angeles and Foo Fighters

Posted on August 19, 2022 by davidvblack

Over the next several days I will be posting a series of short articles written by my astrophysics students this summer. As our final assignment, I asked the students to investigate various famous UFO sightings and alien abduction incidents and … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged battle of los angeles | Leave a comment