Lots of Astronomy Sites and Activities

Is your student interested in astronomy?

Sites 

One place to start: the UW Astronomy Department's Astronomical Links for Everyone.

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Stardate "is the public education and outreach arm of the University of Texas McDonald Observatory. Our radio program airs daily on almost 300 stations. And our popular bimonthly astronomy magazine is the perfect skywatching companion for anyone interested in astronomical events and space exploration. We also offer astronomy resources to teachers, the media, and the public." Check out the Classroom Activities page.

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The Jet Propulsion Laboratory at Caltech has a page for the Spitzer Space Telescope. There are lots of images, animations, and videos. I think it's cool that they have a page of models. Two are paper models: you print out the PDFs then follow the instructions to cut and assemble the models of a space telescope and a rocket. There are also instructions to make a model of the space telescope out of LEGO!

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Hubblesite's Explore Astronomy page has a lot of interesting content. It's from the NASA team that created and manages the Hubble Space Telescope.

Amazing Space, "uses the Hubble Space Telescope's discoveries to inspire and educate about the wonders of our universe." The Homework Help page asks kids if they want to:

• Answer a question?
• Dig up a definition?
• Find resources for a project?
• Write a story?
• Get the latest scoop on space?
• Earn extra-credit points?
• Shed light on another subject?
• Compare cosmic objects?
• Study for a test?
• Debate an idea?
• Build a model?

. . . And then links to sections that will help them with those tasks.

Tonight's Sky has a movie telling you what constellations to watch for (in the Northern Hemisphere) each month.

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Cornell hosts Curious About Astronomy? Ask an Astronomer which has information and podcasts.

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Activities in Seattle

Astronomy events at the UW

• The Theodor Jacobson Observatory has free talks on the first and third Wednesdays of the month April-October. If the sky is clear, they open up the roof and let visitors look through the old telescope.
• The UW Planetarium welcomes "school groups studying astronomy, public groups (astronomy clubs, scouts, etc), and on-campus groups to visit the planetarium on Fridays during the regular University school year."
• Anyone can go see the sundial on the wall of the UW's Physics Astronomy Building. Learn about it here

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The Seattle Sundial Trail has a map and directions to help you visit other sundials here. It also has pictures and explanations of how they work. Like sundials? See the North American Sundial Society site. The Sundial Atlas has different styles of paper sundials, customized to your location. You plug in some information and a program draws a PDF that you then print. Making and comparing a few different sundials could be a good summer project.

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Seattle Astronomical Society

The Seattle Astronomical Society hosts public star parties. Members set up their telescopes in a park and anyone who comes can look through them and learn a little about what they're seeing, There's a site at Green Lake and one in Shoreline (Paramount Park, NE 158th and 8th NE). They happen about once a month, weather permitting. The next one is Saturday, May 18.

Careers

The American Astronomical Society has a page about Careers in Astronomy. Other pages about careers:

• Curius About Astronomy Ask an Astronomer: Careers in Astronomy
• National Optical Astronomy Observatory career page
• Occupational Outlook Handbook, Physicists and Astronomers

Eagle Snatches Baby from Park

Someone happened to be taking a video in a park in Canada when an eagle swooped out of the sky and grabbed a baby. Fortunately the eagle dropped the baby, who seemed to be all right. Millions of people have seen this amazing video on YouTube.

But the event never happened.

See the video and read or listen to the story: 'Golden Eagle Snatches Kid’: Canadian Student Project Fools the World , PRI's The World, Dec. 20, 2012. Things to talk about:

• Isn't that an amazing video? Would it fool you?


• How can you tell what to believe on the Internet? Do you think other people are trying to fool you? Do you think people are sometimes just wrong?


• The students who made the video are in a program where they will get bachelor's degrees in 3D animation and digital design. In a press release about the video, the school said, "The production simulation workshop class, offered in fifth semester, aims to produce creative projects according to industry production and quality standards while developing team work skills." This video (3:21) shows clips from many students' work. Is that something you could imagine doing one day? What skills do you think you'd need in a program like that?


• The four students who made that one-minute eagle video estimate that they spent about 400 hours working on it. Do you think it was worth it? What sort of projects would you be willing to work that long on?

More information about computer animation careers:

• Department of Labor Occupational Outlook Handbook, Multimedia Artists and Animators
• Department of Labor statistics
• Animation Career Review. (Site includes a directory of art schools with animation programs.)
• To find programs in Washington State, go to Washington Career Bridge, click on Find Education, then use the Job Title menu to select Multimedia Artists and Animators. You'll see there are different types of programs at different types of colleges and universities.

Health Careers

ExploreHealthCareers.org has lots of information about a wide variety of careers, including LOTS beyond doctor and nurse—acupuncture practitioner, massage therapist, medical librarian, dental hygienist, environmental health specialist, athletic trainer, . . . even crime scene investigator!

The site also has search feature where you look for careers based on how long you want to be in school and how much money you would like to earn. (It shouldn't be a big surprise that the careers that pay the most often require the most training, e.g., college and medical school.)

If you are a student thinking about possible careers—or if you are a tutor looking for good information to share with your student—this is a great site to explore.

Washington State Kids Going to College

The Seattle Times reports that Washington State is near the bottom in the rate of students going to college (two-year or four-year) after high school. There's a companion story about an elementary school in Kent that's trying to get kids thinking about college from the very beginning.

• Why Washington's kids aren't going to college, Seattle Times, Sept. 22, 2012
• In Kent, the path to college begins in elementary school, Seattle Times, Sept. 22, 2012

Washington has a higher percentage of adults who have gone to college than average and yet a low percentage of young people who go. Why? Because a lot of well-educated people move here. See Trends: Washington state's higher-education paradox, Seattle Times, Sept. 22, 2012. Wouldn't it be great if our own students could get the educations they need to work at Microsoft, Nintendo, Boeing, Amgen, Genentech, and so on?

We need to remember vocational programs in community colleges and technical schools, too. I know a young man who is finishing a two-year welding program at a community college, and he should be able to get a job and make a good living. We need good mechanics, carpenters, chefs, electricians, nurses, medical technicians, dental hygienists, and more. To get training for these fields, students still need to get through high school and enroll in a program. Study skills, reading, math, and language arts will be important to them, even if they don't choose to go to a four-year college.

I have sometimes tutored a teenager who didn't have enough homework for the hour and yet did not want to read a book. If your student is like that, you try reading these articles together and talking about them, for a little reading practice and an opening to talk about what comes after high school. There are some math skills to practice, too—reading charts, talking about percentages.

If your or your student like Vocabulary.com, try this list based on these news stories.

More Science Videos

There are lots of short and fun science videos on the web. Here are some links:

Science News from the National Science Foundation. Includes:

• Science of Speed (12 videos - physics of NASCAR)
• Sept. 11 Anniversary (videos on airport screening, using robots for rescue, studies of attitudes in Mideast)
• Science Nation (128 videos - so far! - on many different topics)
• Profiles of Scientists and Engineers (thinking about careers, anyone?)

NASA's Video Gallery (space and planets and astronauts and rockets!)

Smithsonian Videos (not just science!). Science videos include:

• Meet Our Scientists (20 videos)
• Science & Technology (over 100 videos)

MIT Video (over 11,000 videos!). Includes:

• Demonstrations (over 250 videos)
• MIT + K12 (videos especially of interest for grades K-12)
• Profiles of Faculty, Students, and Researchers (thinking about careers and college?)

The Mechanical Universe (a series of videos about physics by CalTech)

Inside the Mind of Google

Most of our students watch a lot of video—broadcast TV, cable, DVDs, streaming video via Netflix, videos on the Web. I've often tried to talk a student into substituting just a little TV time with some reading time. It's a hard sell. I'm not giving up on that, but I'd like to branch out and encourage students to watch some video that might help them learn about something they're interested in.

Inside the Mind of Google, a 2009 documentary from CNBC, might appeal to some students. Of course they all use and love Google. So where did it come from? Who started it? What's it like to work at Google? Why do people talk about privacy issues? How does Google make money? You can watch it online here. It's also available streaming from Netflix (for students like the one I talked to who watches Netflix on his WII).

Why Study Geometry?

Here's an interesting comment I just read:

Younger people may not have taken a geometry class. The subject was reclassified as optionl some years go in the mistaken belief that it was no longer sufficiently relevant to tody's world, a view that demonstrates the ignorance of many of the people who make such decisions. Although it is true that hardly anyone ever makes direct use of geometrical knowledge, it was the only class int he high school curriculum that exposed children to the important concept of formal reasoning and mathematical proof. 

Exposure to formal mathemtical thinking is important for at least two reasons. First, a citizen in today's mathematically based world should have at least a general sense of one of the major contributors to society. Second, a survey carried out by the U.S. Department of Education in 1997 (the Riley Report) showed that students who completed high school geometry performed markedly better in gaining entry to college and did better when at college than those students who had not taken such a course, regardless of the subjects studied at college. As the survey organizers pointed out, the major factor was not how well the students do in such a course. Merely completing it gives them a tremendous advantage in all their other courses.

Keith Devlin, The Math Gene: How Mathematical Thinking Evolved and Why Numbers Are Like Gossip (New York: Basic Books, 2000), p. ___, note 2 (italics are in the original; the large font is my emphasis).

That led me to a speech by then Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley, The State of Mathematics Education: Building a Strong Foundation for the 21st Century, Notices of the AMS, vol. 45, p. 487, April 1998. A couple of key paragraphs:

[A]lmost 90 percent of new jobs require more than a high school level of literacy and math skills. An entry- level automobile worker, for instance, according to an industry-wide standard, needs to be able to apply formulas from algebra and physics to properly wire the electrical circuits of a car. Indeed, almost every job today increasingly demands a combination of theoretical knowledge and skills that require learning throughout a lifetime. 

That is why it is so important that we make sure that all students master the traditional basics of arithmetic early on as well as the more challenging courses that will prepare them to take physics, statistics, and calculus in much larger numbers in high school and college.

And:

A recent U.S. Department of Education report demonstrates that a challenging mathematics education can build real opportunities for students who might not otherwise have them. 

It found, for example, that young people who have taken gateway courses like Algebra I and Geometry go on to college at much higher rates than those who do not—83 percent to 36 percent. The difference is particularly stark for low-income students. These students are almost three times as likely—71 percent versus 27 percent—to attend college. 

In fact, taking the tough courses, including challenging mathematics, is a more important factor in determining college attendance than is either a student’s family background or income.

And here's a final point to ponder:

There is a disconnect about mathematics in this country. A recent Harris poll revealed that while more than 90 percent of parents expect their children to go to college and almost 90 percent of kids want to go to college, fully half of those kids want to drop mathematics as soon as they can.

Career Info for Young Students

Paws in Jobland is an interactive website that helps elementary school students explore different jobs. It has information about over a hundred jobs. In Jobland, they're grouped by location. For instance, a building site has an archtitect, a bricklayer, a drafter, an electrician, and more. Jobfinder helps students find jobs to look at by asking them a series of questions ("Do you like math?" "Do you like acting?").  You'll never guess how the jobs are arranged in the ABC Search section of the site.

You can run it with or without sound. Without sound, there's more reading, of course.

(Adults will notice that the voices in Jobland have a Canadian accent. The program was originally developed in Denmark, then adapted for England, then adapted for North America—and the North Americans were Canadian. The parent site is by XAP, a company that offers licensed career materials for students, educators, and adults. XAP does business in the US and Canada.)

Occupational Outlook Handbook

The Occupational Outlook Handbook has few pages a out each of hundreds of jobs. For example, the section on Registered Nurses has sections on what nurses do, their work environment, the education needed, the pay, and what the outlook for the profession is. Finally, you get a list of links for more information—professional associations, such as the American Nurses Association.

Career Bridge

Career Bridge has lots of career information, focused on Washington State.

If you don't know where to start, take the career quiz: you check off the things you like to do and some words about what you're like, and then you get scored on different types of jobs (for example, law and law enforcement or architecture and construction).

You can search for education programs using keywords about the career you're interested in. In just a couple of clicks, you can find out what schools offer programs, how much they cost, how long they take, and more. You can even find out how the programs graduates do: do they get jobs? how much money do they get?

In the Job Trends section, you can find out about earnings for different occupations and whether experts expect there to be a lot of openings in the next several years.

This page lists job programs for youth (depending on the program, middle school to age 25).