THE ONLY CONFERENCE THAT CONNECTS TEACHERS
WITH THEIR STUDENTS' FUTURE EMPLOYERS

Ed Murashie - Principal Engineer, Beckman Coulter
You Too Can Receive Live Weather Satellite Images in Your Classroom
Have you ever wondered where the nightly news weather satellite photos come from? Now is your chance to find out. You will learn about the two types of weather satellites and the pictures they transmit.

Middle School Students and Microsatellites
Middle school students design, build, launch, track, recover and analyze microsatellites. Together with Puerto Rico Space Grant’s support we have been able to implement a program that has among its objectives to increase students’ interest in science, gives them new content knowledge in science and technology and shows them how to do research.

Duane Laursen - Physics Teacher, retired, ; Holly Gray, Algalita Marine Research Foundation

Cleaning Up Our Oceans
Marine pollution represents one of the most significant environmental problems facing humankind. The ocean has historically been viewed as a dumping ground. The Algalita Marine Research Foundation is dedicated to the protection of the marine environment and its watersheds through research, education, and restoration.

Robert Trout - NASA Solar System Ambassador

How To Teach Space Exploration
As a Solar System Ambassador, Robert Trout has taught K-12 students about space exploration and gotten them excited about learning more. He shares his approach with these essential elements:  1) A look back: 1950 to today; combining inspiration with exploration (Sputnik, October Sky, and the Sci-Fi motivational effect on our Jimmy Neutrons); 2) JPL: Robotic exploration of the solar system (Dr. Stone and Voyager; other missions); 3) New Horizons – Where are we boldly going? (and how can we get there?); and 4) Bringing the Stars to Students (a lot of cool pictures, JPL educator resource center with free stuff, inspirational movie listings, experiments for kids, internet educator sites, and the outstanding “Astronomy Picture of the Day”).

Teaching Climate Change Using Problem-Based Learning Modules and Earth System Science
Global climate change has become a hot topic in schools. Many new educational materials on global change are now available to teachers at all grade levels. Finding appropriate educational tools that are both strong on climate science and technology and engaging for students is difficult.
 

Thomas Wrublewski, NOAA Liaison Office

Introducing NOAA’s Newest Operational Satellites NOAA-19 and GOES-O
Participants will obtain an overview of:  (1) NOAA’s newest Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-O) that should be on orbit as GOES-14 by the time of the conference and (2) NOAA-N Prime which was launched on February 6, 2009 and became NOAA-19. GOES-O will (among other things) provide the images and data used by U.S. weather forecasters

POES and GOES Outreach and Informal Educational Items
Find out what outreach and informal educational materials are available from NASA and NOAA related to Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellites (POES) and the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES). An overview of relevant web sites, videos, games, posters, technology teacher articles, post cards, bookmarks, calendars, CDs, DVDs, etc will be provided.

Using Remote Telescopes to Teach Science, Math, Engineering and Technology by Robert Sparks, NASA Educator Ambassador; Tucson, Arizona.  Learn how to involve your students in using technology to control a telescope remotely and perform scientific research by becoming part of the Global Telescope Network (GTN) and support the Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope, Swift and the SMM-Newton satellites.
 
 

Astronishing Astronomy: NASA’s Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope
Launched in 2008, Fermi detects radiation with energies billions of times more energetic than the light visible to the human eye. Extending our vision to gamma-ray sources near the edge of the visible universe, Fermi could contribute to an entirely new understanding of our Universe.

Jillian Tromp - Graduate Student, Physics & Astronomy CSULA

After IRAS: Revisiting the Brightest Far-Infrared Sources in Taurus with the Spitzer Taurus Survey
The IRAS satellite provided the first uniform survey of embedded young stars in the Taurus star-forming region. To better characterize the embedded population we present data for the brightest far-infrared objects from the 43 square degree Spitzer Taurus Survey, comprising a sample of seventy sources brighter than 0.85 Jy at the 70 micron wavelength.

Conference XXII Program Schedule

Click Here to Download a Print Version

8:00 a.m.

Noon

1:30 p.m.
to 3:00 p.m.

2:30 p.m.
to 4:00 p.m.

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Barbara Shannon
Vice Chair California Teacher Advisory Council