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Category Archives: Uncategorized
Students as Teachers
One of the cornerstones of my education philosophy is that students learn best when they are expected to teach concepts to others. I’ve talked about this at some length on my other blog site at: https://elementsunearthed.com/2011/03/01/second-round-of-chemistry-demostrations/. It is based on the … Continue reading
MESSENGER of the Gods
My second semester astronomy class during the 2014-15 school year at Walden School of Liberal Arts focused on planetary science. Our trip to the American Astronomical Society conference in early January had been the final project of our first semester … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged astronomy education, central utah science and engineering fair, enhanced color images of planets, impact features on mercury, lermontov crater, mercury, mercury dual imaging system, messenger, messenger space probe, planetary science, rachmaninoff basin, students as scientists, using authentic data in the classroom, volcanic features on mercury
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Publishing a 3D Illustration of SOFIA
The second semester of the 2014-15 school year was incredibly busy. I was elected to the Utah Science Teachers Association board, representing science teachers from Charter, Private, Home, and Online schools. I traveled to Chicago for the National Science … Continue reading
Returning from the AAS: Thursday, Jan. 8, 2015
Our last day in Seattle we had a later flight than most of the other teams, so I packed up my bags and met my remaining three students down in the lobby. Kendall had already departed for Washington, D.C.. I … Continue reading
AAS in Seattle: Wed., Jan. 7, 2015
On this third full day of the American Astronomical Society conference in Seattle, we had a lot going on. This was the big day for our students to present the science results of their NITARP study and the poster we … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged aas, american astronomical society, astronomy education, crepes, gravitational waves, hubble bubble, ligo, many worlds theory, mathematical universe, max tegmark, merging black holes, multiverse, nasa astrophysics missions, nasa budget, nasa decadal survey, nasa education, nitarp, occam's razor, paul hertz, search for galactic civilizations, seattle
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AAS in Seattle: Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2015
Note: I am writing this almost two years after the fact. Life has been busy and events carry one onward, but for the next week I hope to do some catching up on this blog. Fortunately, I took good notes … Continue reading
2015 AAS in Seattle – Day 2: A Sampler of Sessions
On the first full day of the American Astronomical Society Conference in Seattle, my students and I attended a variety of plenary sessions, poster sessions, parallel sessions, and a follow up meeting of all the NITARP groups. I also had … Continue reading
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Tagged aas, american astronomical society, astronomy conference, astronomy education, dyson swarm, exoplanet atmospheres, future of space exploration, heds, hubble telescope servicing mission, human exploration and development of space, hypervelocity stars, john grunsfeld, kic 8462852, megastructure, nasa policy, nitarp, ophiucus stream, planet hunters, sagittarius dwarf, seattle, space policy, tabby's star, tabetha boyajian, tim spuck, val allen belts
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Astronomy in Seattle: 2015 AAS Conference Day 1
From January 4th through 8th, 2015, I travelled with four of my students to Seattle to present posters at the American Astronomical Society Conference. Our experiences will be detailed in the next several posts. Not many high school teachers … Continue reading
Making Spectral Energy Distributions
During our training at Caltech in the summer of 2014, my NITARP students and I learned how to create spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of our target K-giant stars. I wanted to develop a more general lesson plan for my astronomy … Continue reading
The Distance Modulus Method
One of the fundamental requirements for astronomy to work as a science is the need to accurately measure the distances to objects. Astronomers have developed a series of methods for measuring stellar and cosmic distances, which fit together and inform … Continue reading
The Spaced-Out Classroom 