Browsing all posts in Projects.

IYA taking shape

About a year ago I got a random email from Doug Isbell asking me if I’d be interested in being part of the International Year of Astronomy (IYA). I’d previously heard about this project, but having gotten a good last out of the non-event that was the World Year of Physics, I have to admit [...]

Looking for Questioning (HS) Teachers

Some of the coolest moments in teaching only occur when your students realize they can safely ask anything. On random days, at random times, (during some unpredictable moment) one student will suddenly raise their hand and ask a question along the lines of “What you just said reminds me of something on TV.” They will [...]

ASP-EPO: Day One

(I’m on a bad connection and will add links later.)
Another day, another conference. From Dragon*Con, I crossed half-way across the country to Chicago to attend the 119th Meeting of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific on “EPO and a Changing World.” This morning I’m sitting in a session presented by astronaut George “Pinky” Nelson (the [...]

Up, Up and Away

There are certain days as a teacher when you know you have done your job right. For me, one of those days was today. One of the classes I teach is “Space Physics.” In this 3 credit class, my students and I go on a tour de force of the history of spacecraft and exploration of our solar system. At the beginning of the semester, none of my six students had ever watched a space shuttle launch on TV, and their interest in the class existed, but let’s just say they didn’t seem eager and excited to learn as much as they could. But today, the last day of the semester, I saw that all this had changed. These were excited students, ready to take what they had learned and run (or rather fly) with it as far as they could. For some of them, that distance was a few hundred feet straight up.