| March – April 2010 / Vol. 3, Issue 2
Where kids and grown-ups have fun with science and
technology
News and Notes for formal and informaleducatorsThe Space
Place is a NASA website for elementary school-aged kids, their
teachers, and their parents. It ‛s
colorful!It‛s
dynamic!It‛s
fun! It‛s
rich with science, technology, engineering, and math content!It‛s
informal. It‛s
meaty. It‛s
easy to read and understand. It‛s
also in Spanish. And it‛s
free! It has 130 (and counting) separate modules for kids, including
hands-on projects, interac-tive games, animated cartoons, and
amazing facts about space and Earth science and technology.
Our Milky Way Galaxy is one of at least 100 billion galaxies in
the Universe. But that does not make our galaxy small or insignifi
cant. The Milky Way has 200 billion to 400 billion stars! We can’t
take a picture of our own galaxy, but we can study other galaxies we
believe are similar, such as our neighbor, the Andromeda Galaxy. The
Space Place has a lot of material to offer about our galactic home.
What’s new on spaceplace.nasa.gov . . . The
Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 space-craft, launched in 1977 and still
going strong, are about to break free of our solar system and be the
fi rst human-made ob-jects to reach interstellar space. They will be
galactic explorers! Although they aren’t expected to keep
transmitting informa-tion much beyond 2025, they will still keep
going. A new Amazing Fact page on The Space Place (http://tiny.cc/vgr)
imagines what it might be like if some extra-terres-trials fi nd one
of the Voyagers someday and play its Golden Record. Find out what is
on the record that brings news of Earth to an un-known listener.
Spotlight on Dr.
Marc’s offeringsThe
expert science advisor for The Space Place, Dr. Marc Rayman, loves
to talk and write about astronomy. Marc was only 14 when he joined
an adult astronomy club and met his fi rst real astronomer. His
favorite galaxy, the Milky Way, is a topic in his "Phone Dr. Marc"
archives. He speculates on the number of solar systems in our galaxy
(http://tiny.cc/drmarc). He also explores the constellations, also
all part of our galaxy (http://tiny.cc/drmarc526). In a Podcast
(also available in transcript and MP3 form), Marc dis-cusses how the
Milky Way got its name (http://tiny.cc/marcpod). All Dr. Marc’s
explanations are in simple language so that educators can themselves
answer these fascinating questions when curious students ask.Space
Place en españolWith
help from Engi-neer Ruth Fragoso, Dr. Marc’s discussion of solar
systems and constella-tions in our galaxy are also available in
Span-ish at http://tiny.cc/ss279 and http://tiny.cc/constel,
respectively.For the
ClassroomWe would
love to be able to offer you a giant poster with a highly detailed
and high-resolution Hubble Space Telescope, Spitzer Space Telescope,
or Galaxy Evolution Explorer image of the beautiful barred spiral
galaxy we call the Milky Way. Unfortunately, we’re just a little too
close to get a good NASA
Space Place: News & Notes Vol. 3, No. 2: March - April 2010
www.nasa.gov
shot of it! But, next best thing, we have several largehigh-res
images you can download of the Androm-eda Galaxy, M31. Andromeda is
our nearest galactic neighbor and is thought to be similar in
appearance to our own Milky Way (although it’s about twice as
large). You can download all these fi les at http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/en/educators/posters.First
is a poster with an ultraviolet view of An-dromeda, captured by the
Galaxy Evolution Explorer.Articles on the back of the poster explain
how tele-scopes see back in time and why the night sky is black, in
spite of 200 billion suns shining right here inthe Milky Way galaxy.
Activities include crossword anword fi nd puzzles based on
vocabulary in the articlesas well as a creative writing activity.
The poster front is available in .pdf format for professional
printing at full-size (22 x 26).Second is an 8½ x11 lithograph, with
another even more dramatic view of the ultraviolet M31. On the back
of the litho is a description of the galaxy andthe special insights
provided by the UV view.The third print product is a large poster
(25½ x 22) with multiwavelength views of Andromeda. It shows why we
need telescopes that see at different wavelengths, because the
information from visible, infrared and ultraviolet light, in
different combinations, reveal very different characteristics of the
galaxy. On the back of the poster are classroom versions of the two
experiments that originally spawned the discoveryof infrared and
ultraviolet light at the turn of the 19 th
century.
For After SchoolPrint
and read aloud "Lucy’s Planet Hunt: Or, how to see things in a
different light." It is the story, in verse and cartoon
illustrations of a girl who dreamed of fi nd-ing other Earth-like
planets in our galaxy. She made her dream come true by becoming a
sci-entist and helping to design and build an infrared space
telescope! (http://tiny.cc/lucy208).Time
to Celebrate March is
Listening Awareness Month.
One can learn a lot by just listening, especially to such rich
material as in the Podcasts at The Space Place (http://tiny.cc/marcpod).d
March 15: Absolutely
Incredible Kid Day. We love , this "holiday" at The Space Place! We
wish we could write a letter of support and encouragement to every
one of our Web site visitors. We can’t. But you can—at least to some
of them!March 20:
International Earth Day. Make "Gummy Greenhouse Gas" molecules and
learn about the greenhouse effect on our planet. Also in Spanish.
(http://tiny.cc/gumdrop).April
10: Encourage a Young Writer Day. Ask them to write about a
black and starry night or a brilliantblue-sky day. (http://tiny.cc/bluesApril
19: Humorous Day. Read the online or print version of "The First
Annual Planet Awards." A cross between the Miss America Pageant and
the Os-cars, this "award show" gives each planet a chance to prove
its worthiness for an award. (http://tiny.cc/planetawards).April
24: Astronomy Day. A good day to play the Spitzer Concentration
game and learn to recognize some exciting astronomical objects in
our galaxy. Also in Spanish. (http://tiny.cc/concentration822) .And
another thing . . .Our
Scouting pages have found wider uses than only for Scouts and their
leaders. Teachers, as well, have told us this resource has given
them ideas for rewarding projects for their students. In cooperation
with the scouting organizations, we have identifi ed activities on
The Space Place that partially or completely fulfi ll specifi c
achievement requirements. Visit http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/en/kids/scouts.shtml.
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Highest
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