ED13D-0738 INVITED 1340h
Comparing the Earth and its Neighbors: Examples from Earth and Space Science Education Projects
There are a number of education and outreach projects that utilize planetary comparisons and solar system exploration to engage and educate formal and informal education audiences. For example, NASA's Solar System Exploration Education Forum has promoted an "Extreme Exploration" theme to tie current events in Solar System exploration to reviewed, standards-based classroom materials. Often, the "wow" factor of an event such as rovers on Mars, Venus transiting the sun, or a volcanic eruption on Earth serves a hook to motivate learners to invest the time to explore a topic. Students are then provided the opportunity to study concepts such as earth systems science, geologic processes, and climate change. This paper will highlight the efforts of earth and space science education and public outreach projects that use the theme of Earth and it's celestial neighbors to teach a variety of concepts. It will review a number of examples including: 1) an education module that utilizes prototype 3-D representations of Olympus Mons and the Hawaiian Islands as a tool to teach middle school students topographic concepts and geologic processes; 2) a unit on impact craters that also introduces earth-based remote sensing platforms; 3) an earth systems science museum exhibit that engages visitors to explore earth's atmosphere through comparison with Venus, Mercury and Mars; 4) a thematic unit on ice in the Solar System that delves into the properties of ice and water; and 5) a series of bridging activities designed to connect NASA earth and space science research for informal educators.
ED13D-0739 INVITED 1340h
Using the Digital Library for Earth System Education (DLESE) to Facilitate a Fuller Understanding of the Earth through Comparisons with Other Planetary Bodies
The study of the Earth as a system by scientists has been enhanced by studies of our solar system made possible by the use of planetary probes. While these missions suggest many questions that scientists would like to answer, they also help scientists reach a fuller understanding the processes that produce the vastly different environments of the various planets, and thus a better understanding of the processes that shape the environment of the Earth. In response to the call to bring this scientific knowledge to students there have been many educational resources developed to help students understand the similarities and differences of the various planets and the processes that produce them. Through the use of these resources students will be in a better position to understand the processes that shape the Earth's environment and how it might change in response to both natural and man-induced effects. The Digital Library for Earth System Science (DLESE, www.dlese.org) makes many of these resources available to educators and students. This presentation will demonstrate the capabilities and services of DLESE including 1) the discovery system and how it can be used to identify resources that focus on comparing the various planets, 2) the ability to provide customized search interfaces to specific communities, such as the planetary science community, for use by educators, and 3) the facilitation of the use of planetary science data and data analysis tools by students through the creation of Earth Exploration Toolbook (serc.carleton.edu/eet) chapters with those data and tools.
http://www.dlese.org
ED13D-0740 1340h
Hands-on Activities for Exploring the Solar System in K-14 Formal and Informal Education Settings
Introduction: Activities developed by NASA scientists and teachers focus on integrating Planetary Science activities with existing Earth science, math, and language arts curriculum. Educators may choose activities that fit a particular concept or theme within their curriculum from activities that highlight missions and research pertaining to exploring the solar system. Most of the activities use simple, inexpensive techniques that help students understand the how and why of what scientists are learning about comets, asteroids, meteorites, moons and planets. The web sites for the activities contain current information so students experience recent mission information such as data from Mars rovers or the status of Stardust sample return. The Johnson Space Center Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science education team has compiled a variety of NASA solar system activities to produce an annotated thematic syllabus useful to classroom educators and informal educators as they teach space science. An important aspect of the syllabus is that it highlights appropriate science content information and key science and math concepts so educators can easily identify activities that will enhance curriculum development. The outline contains URLs for the activities and NASA educator guides as well as links to NASA mission science and technology. In the informal setting, educators can use solar system exploration activities to reinforce learning in association with thematic displays, planetarium programs, youth group gatherings, or community events. In both the informal and the primary education levels the activities are appropriately designed to excite interest, arouse curiosity and easily take the participants from pre-awareness to the awareness stage. Middle school educators will find activities that enhance thematic science and encourage students to think about the scientific process of investigation. Some of the activities offered may easily be adapted for the upper levels of high school and early college, as they require students to use and analyze data. Syllabus Format: The Exploring the Solar System Syllabus of Activities starts with a variety of solar system scale activities that fit different settings and equipment. The early solar system formation activities are focused on asteroids, meteorites and planet formation. The theme of how and why we explore our solar system encompasses activities that engage the language and creative arts. Further activities highlight the Sun and planetary geology. A key aspect of the usefulness of the syllabus is that it provides easy access to solar system content, activities, related links and the thematic context for the classroom teacher or group leader. Conclusion: The Exploring the Solar System Syllabus of Activities is a concentrated resource of activities and links that allows educators to comfortably and inexpensively share the excitement and science of solar system exploration with students and members of the public. Additional Information: Some of the activities included in the Exploring the Solar System Syllabus of Activities are in the following NASA developed guides. http://ares.jsc.nasa.gov/Education/index.html
ED13D-0741 1340h
Using Comparative Planetology in Exhibit Development
It is critically important for the public to better understand the scientific process. Museum exhibitions are an important part of informal science education that can effectively reach public audiences as well as school groups. They provide an important gateway for the public to learn about compelling scientific endeavors. The Space Science Institute (SSI) is a national leader in producing traveling science exhibitions and their associated educational programming (i.e. interactive websites, educator workshops, public talks, instructional materials). The focus of this presentation will be on three of its exhibit projects: MarsQuest (currently on tour), Alien Earths (in fabrication), and Giant Planets (in development). MarsQuest is enabling millions of Americans to share in the excitement of the scientific exploration of Mars and to learn more about their own planet in the process. Alien Earths will bring origins-related research and discoveries to students and the American public. It has four interrelated exhibit areas: Our Place in Space, Star Birth, PlanetQuest, and Search for Life. Exhibit visitors will explore the awesome events surrounding the birth of stars and planets; they will join scientists in the hunt for planets outside our solar system including those that may be in "habitable zones" around other stars; and finally they will be able to learn about how scientists are looking for signs of life beyond Earth. Giant Planets: Exploring the Outer Solar System will take advantage of the excitement generated by the Cassini mission and bring planetary and origins research and discoveries to students and the public. It will be organized around four thematic areas: Our Solar System; Colossal Worlds; Moons, Rings, and Fields; and Make Space for Kids. Giant Planets will open in 2007. This talk will focus on the importance of making Earth comparisons in the conceptual design of each exhibit and will show several examples of how these comparisons were manifested in the MarsQuest & Alien Earths exhibitions.
ED13D-0742 1340h
Using a Field Experience to Build Understanding of Planetary Geology
In the summer of 2004, the Lunar and Planetary Institute hosted 25 middle- and high-school teachers on a week-long field experience in Idaho and Montana. This workshop mixed field work with classroom experiences and provided educators and scientists the opportunity to interact. The educators investigated deposits associated with Glacial Lake Missoula floods and lava flows in the Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve. The participants applied what they learned about Earth-based processes to develop understanding of processes operating on Mars and the most recent results from NASA's missions to Mars. This was the most recent of five field-based experiences that used Earth-planet comparisons as a basis for experiential learning. These field experiences all are designed to strengthen content knowledge of geologic processes and planetary sciences. Learning geology through fieldwork enables participants to take ownership of the content through real-life experience; in essence, the teacher becomes the student. Establishing deeper knowledge of the content increases their confidence in facilitating inquiry-based science in their own classrooms. In addition to content, the educators are immersed in the process of science. Participants make observations, compile notes and illustrations, debate interpretations, draw conclusions, and communicate findings. Care was taken to separate observations and interpretations to help build an understanding of scientific reasoning. Discussions often involved questions without solutions, or with multiple solutions. While some participants expressed discomfort with these aspects of the nature of science, most were more comfortable with open-ended, inquiry based exploration by the close of the workshop. The field work is coupled with discussion and activities in the classroom. Participants reflected on the field sites and placed them in the context of the geologic history of the region. Observations and interpretations at individual field stops were related to planetary observations. The educators worked in small groups to develop a virtual tour of the different field stops, intended for use by their students. Development of the virtual tour allowed participants to solidify knowledge and enabled instructors to verify comprehension. The Web site became an educational tool, prompting further discussion and investigation. Field work was complemented by hands-on, inquiry based, standards-based classroom activities. Because the activities related directly to processes observed in the field, the participants were able to make detailed observations and were better able to make connections with the content. They were more confident in identifying where the activities served as strong models and where the activities failed to model the real world. The participants were more comfortable asking questions and experimenting with variables. In the next several months, the participants will be surveyed in an effort to track how the experience is incorporated into the classroom and leveraged across the educational community. We are grateful for support from NASA's Office of Space Science and Sandia National Laboratories.
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/education/other_programs/ed_fieldtrips.shtml
ED13D-0743 1340h
The Extremes of Volcanic Activity: Earth and Jupiter's Moon Io
Jupiter's moon Io is the solar system's most volcanically active body, and the only place that magmatic volcanic eruptions have been observed beyond Earth. One of the first images of Io obtained by NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft in 1979 shows a plume above one of its volcanoes. The NASA Voyager and Galileo spacecraft imaged many explosive eruptions of plumes and deposits - which travel hundreds of kilometers (farther than on the Earth or the Moon). Very hot lavas that are erupting from volcanic vents on Io may be similar to lavas that erupted on Earth billions of years ago. Understanding the physical processes driving volcanic eruptions is important for the understanding of terrestrial volcanoes, not only because of their potential hazards, but also as geologic resources, biologic environments, and for their role in shaping the surface of Earth and other planets. Volcanic eruptions are perhaps the most dramatic events on Earth, and are of intrinsic interest to students, youth, and adults. Topics involving volcanoes are a part of the national science education benchmarks for understanding the Earth's composition and structure for grades 6-8 (the process of creating landforms) and grades 9-12 (the effects of movement of crustal plates). Natural events on Earth coupled with exciting discoveries in space can serve to heighten the awareness of these phenomena and provide learning opportunities for real world applications of science. Educational applications for youth to compare volcanic activity on Io and Earth have been done through NASA-sponsored field trip workshops to places such as Yellowstone National Park (allowing educators to experience environments similar to those on other worlds), targeted classroom and hands-on activities, special interest books, and other resources. A sampling of such activities will be presented, and discussion invited on other related developmentally appropriate resources and activities.
ED13D-0744 1340h
The Astrobiology Field Guide in World Wind
In collaboration with the Australian Centre for Astrobiology (ACA), and NASA Learning Technologies (NLT), and utilizing the powerful visualization capabilities of their "World Wind" software, the NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI) is crafting a prototype "Astrobiology Field Guide" to bring the field experiences and stories of astrobiology science to the public and classrooms around the world. The prototype focuses on one region in particular - The Pilbara in Western Australia. This first Field Guide "hotspot" is an internationally recognized area hosting the best known example of the earliest evidence of life on Earth - a stromatolitic chert precipitation in the 3.45 Ga Warrawoona Group. The goal of the Astrobiology Field Guide is to engage students of all ages with the ongoing field expeditions of today's astrobiologists as they explore the ends of the Earth searching for clues to life's origin, evolution, and distribution in the Universe. The NAI hopes to expand this Field Guide to include many more astrobiologically relevant areas across the globe such as Cuatro Cienegas in Mexico, the Rio Tinto in Spain, Yellowstone National Park in the US, and the Lost City hydrothermal vent field on the mid-Atlantic ridge - and possibly sites on Mars. To that end, we will be conducting feasibility studies and evaluations with informal and formal education contacts. The Astrobiology Field Guide is also serving as a cornerstone to educational materials being developed focused on the Pilbara region for use in classrooms in Australia, the UK, and potentially the US. These materials are being developed by the Australian Centre for Astrobiology, and the ICT Innovations Centre at Macquarie University in Sydney, in collaboration with the NAI and the Centre for Astronomy and Science Education at the University of Glamorgan in the UK.
http://learn.arc.nasa.gov/worldwind
ED13D-0745 1340h
Methane on Mars- Origin, Loss, Implications for Extinct or Extant Life
Detections of methane on Mars have been reported by two ground-based and one orbiter spacecraft. The global mixing ratio, 10 ppbv, is nearly a factor of 200 smaller than in the earth's atmosphere. On earth, the ultimate source of methane is predominantly biological. Biogenic source is a tantalizing possibility for the martian methane as well. Chemolithotrophic microbes, especially methanogens, that utilize CO and/or H$_2$ of the martian atmosphere or H$_2$ produced in sepentinization, i.e. hydration of ultramafic silicates, can produce CH$_4$ as a product of their metabolism. Cometary impacts are the most significant exogenous source of methane, but they fail to maintain a "steady state" mixing ratio CH$_4$ on Mars, considering an impact rate of 1 in 62 million years. On the other hand, an impact a few hundred to thousands of years in the past is not unlikely. We find that an impact of a ~160 m radius comet 100 years ago or a ~360 m radius comet 2000 years ago, for example, could supply sufficient CH$_4$ so that it would have steadily declined to the present global value of 10 ppbv. Hydrothermal processes now or in the past are also capable of producing methane on Mars. If aquifers exist or existed below the martian permafrost, numerical models show that up to 10$^{15}$ tons of CH$_4$ could have been produced in the process of alteration of the martian basalt at T$<$150 C. Water-rock reactions at higher temperature of 350-400 C produce methane, and are seen as black smoker vents several kilometers deep in the oceans on earth. Such methane producing processes could be occurring in the martian interior as well. It is important to note that despite the relatively short 400-1000 year lifetime of methane on Mars, its source need not be current, if a stable CH$_4$ -hydrate formed following abiotic (hydrothermal) or biogenic production (extinct microorganism metabolism) process. In that case methane could gradually leak out through hot spots. Any variation of CH$_4$ over Mars may be indicative of either currently active microbial colonies or localized subsurface hot spots but probably not a cometary source, unless a non uniform surface loss mechanism exists. The presence of oxidants in the surface, such as hydrogen peroxide produced due to triboelectric fields in dust devils and storms (Atreya et al., this meeting), may accelerate the removal of methane from Mars. EPO implications of such work will also be discussed.
ED13D-0746 1340h
New Features in the ADS Abstract Service
The ADS now provides a search system for close to 4 million records. The data are organized in 4 databases, Astronomy/Planetary Sciences, Physics/Geophysics, Instrumentation, and ArXiv Preprints. The ADS is a NASA funded project and is free to use for everybody world-wide. We have recently extracted a large number of references from article reference lists. We now have over 16 million citing/cited reference pairs. This provides a very comprehensive citation database. During the last year we implemented a full text search system. This allows you to search the full text of all journals that we have scanned. This provides a unique way to find information, especially from the older literature. We recently implemented a customized notification service, called myADS. This service lets you specify several queries that are executed against new entries in the database whenever the database is updated. It also informs about new citations to your articles and new preprints, as well as what other articles are of interest to the users of the ADS. The ADS can be accessed at http://ads.harvard.edu
http://ads.harvard.edu