Dark Skies Awareness
http://www.darkskiesawareness.org/

This web site provides links to a wide variety of content and hands-on activities related to increasing awareness of the value of preserving dark skies.  Included are links to the Globe at Night program, a citizen science program in which students can make observations of the degree of light pollution in their local sky and contribute their date to a global data base, and Dark Sky Rangers, providing a series of activities relating to dark skies awareness suitable for the classroom. 

Four Hundred Years of the Telescope
http://www.400years.org/en/

This PBS-aired film, produced by Interstellar Studios, chronicles the history of the telescope and how it has changed our view and understanding of the universe.  This web side include much useful information and a “For Teachers” section that provides lots of good activities and materials related to the telescope, Galileo’s observations, and topics covered in the film.

IYA Discovery Guides
http://www.astrosociety.org/iya/guides.html

These downloadable sets of materials, activities, and brief videos were designed for use by amateur astronomers engaged in astronomy outreach, but can also provide hands-on activity opportunities adaptable for the classroom.  Originally organized by theme, featured object and month during 2009, these resources will be repackaged as education sets organized by theme.  In the meantime, feel free to explore, download and use.

Cosmic Clearinghouse
http://www.cosmicclearinghouse.org/

Cosmic Clearinghouse serves as an educational clearing house for the best astronomy outreach resources, activities, images, materials, guides, facilities and events for a variety of target audiences from the casual enthusiast to the professional educator, including a section for classroom teachers.  Come back often, watch it grow, and explore!

Galileo: The Man and His Science
http://www.cosmicclearinghouse.org/articles/view/146307/

This resource list constitutes a guide to Galileo-related books, articles, and other materials in English. It's designed to help introduce beginners to the life and work of the great scientist, who, in many ways, was both the founder of science and the first systematic observer with a telescope.
 
Best Astronomical Images on the Web
http://www.cosmicclearinghouse.org/articles/view/146303/

A selected guide to web sites containing many of the best astronomical images available online.

GTTP Workshops Currently Scheduled in 2010

March 14 – 15:  Northrup-Grumman is hosting a GTTP workshop at its Redondo Beach, California facility.  The workshop includes a tour of the James Webb Space Telescope facility, and explores themes about our expanding sense of the scale of the universe since Galileo.  This workshop is full.

April 24, 2010:  With support from NASA’s Lunar Science Institute at NASA Ames Research Center, a GTTP workshop will take place at Foothill College, on the San Francisco Peninsula in Los Altos Hills, California.  NASA lunar scientists and educators will bring the very latest information and activities inspired by recent lunar missions.  For more information and to register for this workshop follow the following link: http://astrosociety.org/education/gttp/workshop04-24-10.html.

July 31 – August 1:  As part of the 122nd Annual Meeting of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, a GTTP workshop will bring educators to the University of Colorado in Boulder, Colorado.  More information and registration instructions will be posted here soon; be sure to check back.

For more information on any of these workshops or to explore hosting a GTTP workshop at your location, contact the GTTP coordinator at gttp@astrosociety.org.

GTTP Workshops in 2009

The ASP and NJACE will be conducting a pilot Galileo Teacher Training Program (GTTP) workshop the weekend prior to the annual Astronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP) meeting. Registrations for the workshop are now being accepted.

The two-day workshop will be conducted on Saturday and Sunday, September 12-13, 2009, at the Westin SFO Hotel in Millbrae, California. There will be Saturday morning and afternoon sessions and a Sunday morning session focusing on the four GTTP areas:

1. An activity recreating Galileo’s observations of the moons of Jupiter to demonstrate a hands-on, inquiry-based, collaborative approach to scientific investigation and to illustrate the process of science.
2. Activities developed for the International Year of Astronomy, including lessons on the value of dark skies and the use of a portable, user-friendly telescope developed for IYA: the Galileoscope (each participant will be able to take one home with our compliments).
3. Activities involving fundamental concepts to met curriculum goals.
4. Demonstrations of resources adaptable for use in the classroom.

Sunday afternoon is reserved for a series of talks by research scientists from the SETI Institute in nearby Mountain View, California, on the prospects of and search for life beyond the Earth.

The registration fee for the workshop is $39.95 per day. Attendance for both days is necessary for this workshop. Academic credit through San Francisco State University, for those who desire it, is available. 

To learn more, visit: www.astrosociety.org/events/2009mtg/workshops.html. This page also includes links to the workshop registration page.

To learn more about the ASP conference, visit www.astrosociety.org/events/meeting.html and follow the links in the menu near the top of the page. The meeting will run from Sunday evening, September 13, through Wednesday afternoon, September 16.

Presenters: Andrew Fraknoi (Foothill College & ASP), Suzanne Gurton (ASP), Dennis Schatz (Pacific Science Center), Robert Sparks (NOAO), and Connie Walker (NOAO); based on an idea by James Manning (ASP)

8 am: Introductions, Credit Requirements, Ice-breaker activity

8:30 am: Brief Introduction to IYA and the GTTP Program

            Galileo’s Life and the Realms of the Universe

            Activity: Where Bill Gates’ Great Grand-daughter’s Would Go on Her Honeymoon

9:30 am: A Private Universe and the Essentials of Student Learning

10:30 am: The Moon Doesn’t Phase Me: Lunar Phases Activities Sequence

1:15 pm: In the Footsteps of Galileo: Jupiter’s Moons Activity

2:00 pm: Constellations, Making a Constellation Finder, and Star Clock

2:50 pm: Break (with participants doing “Astronomy in the Marketplace”)

3:05 pm: Introduction to the Galileoscope^TM and Telescopes

4:50 pm: Questions and Answers

5 pm: End of Saturday

8:30 am: Attendance Check in, Questions for Presenters, Logistics

8:40 am: Paper Tape Scale Solar System and Quick Hints about Other Scale Activities

9:00 am: Family Heroes and Do Your Own Constellation Activity

9:15 am: Measuring the Dark: Activities to Understand Light Pollution

10:15 am: Measuring the Dark continues

11: 20 am: Resources for Exploring Astronomy and Hands-on Activities Further

11:50 am: Questions, Certificates, and Future Activities

12 noon: End of Sunday morning

Sunday afternoon:

1:15 pm - 5 pm: New Developments in Astronomy Lecture Series

Numerous reports have indicated the importance of improving STEM educational opportunities for our nation’s students:

• Decline in graduate student enrollment in aerospace engineering (2003 NSF report).
• 40% of Americans believe STEM disciplines are crucial in maintaining leadership in the global economy; 90% feel the way to improve science skills is to provide more training for teachers (2006 Educational Testing Service poll).
• Little evidence to show that federal funding to improve science and math education is effective (2007 Academic Competitiveness Council).
• Call for increase in STEM education at the primary and secondary levels (2006 U.S. Dept. of Education National Assessment of Educational Progress).
• Call for improving K-12 science education by improving teacher skills (2005 Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future, the National Academies).

The Opportunity

The International Year of Astronomy in 2009 and ongoing IYA initiatives provide an opportunity to use increased public awareness of astronomy to develop initiatives to improve teacher training in astronomy, science and the process of science.

The Program

The Astronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP) is embarking on a national program to develop an innovative approach to improving science teaching in the classroom by using Galileo’s iconic observations of the moons of Jupiter and the phases of Venus to train teachers in the methods of hands-on, inquiry-based scientific investigation and the process of science:

• The ASP is working with the New Jersey Astronomy Center for Education (NJACE) to develop pilot workshops.
• One-, two- or three-day workshops will be conducted on the East and West coasts and at sites around the country.
• Workshops will provide K-12 teachers with training/materials in teaching scientific process and problem solving.
• Additional training includes adapting astronomy tools and resources for the classroom and in using astronomy to teach fundamental science concepts to meet curriculum goals.
• Evaluation of pilot workshops will result in a refined model to serve as a national program of teacher professional development in astronomy/science in 2010 and beyond.
• Graduates will be called Galileo Teacher Ambassadors.
• Materials and resources ultimately will be archived on the web site to reach large numbers of teachers.
• The program is scalable depending on funding.

Contacts

For more information, contact Brian Kruse (bkruse@astrosociety.org),Dr. Greg Schultz (gschultz@astrosociety.org), or Jim Manning, Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 390 Ashton Avenue, San Francisco, California 94112, telephone 415-337-1100, fax 415-337-5205, www.astrosociety.org.