E/PO Activities in the HEASARC

1
E/PO Activities in the HEASARC

• James Lochner
• HEASARC E/PO Lead

2
Our E/PO Objectives

• Promote our Science, Missions, and Technology to
  the general public.
• Develop curriculum support materials with
  teachers for the K-14 education community.
• Integrate various E/PO initiatives within HEASARC
  and the LHEA into a coherent program.
• Distribute materials and information via
  high-leverage opportunities.
• Monitor our efforts via formal evaluations and
  teacher feedback.
• Integrate our efforts with SEU Education Forum
  and OSS E/PO Support Network.

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E/PO Team

• E/PO Scientist Lead, 2 support staff
• Portion of time of science writer, graphic
  artist, and meeting support staff.
• Summer teacher interns and network of teachers
  representing a wide range of classroom levels and
  technology capabilities.
• Dozen volunteer scientists and programmers.
• Answer Ask a High-Energy Astronomer questions.
• Provide input and review to Imagine web site and
  materials.
• Leverage off other Lab and GSFC expertise and
  resources.

4
Education Web sites

• Imagine the Universe!
• More than half million hits per month
• Distribute gt 20,000 CDs/year.
• CD rated for broad distribution by Space
  Science Education Product Review.
• Planning tri-annual external review of the site.
• StarChild (Whitlock)
• L. Whitlock continues to maintain and develop
  site as we host it.
• 1.2 Million hits per month (among top 3 sites at
  GSFC).
• Astronomy Picture of the Day (Bonnell and
  Nemiroff (MTU))
• 6 million hits per month (top site at GSFC).
• HEA Picture of the Week (Corcoran)

5
Materials Under Development
Poster and Information Booklet on the cosmic
origin of the elements their connection to
us. Lab Scientists, E/PO staff, and GSFC
Education office participating in development.
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Development of Cosmic Connection Materials

• Material tested at Elements 2002 summer
  workshop for educators.
• Participants developed classroom activities for
  booklet. Activities tested by external
  educators.
• Assistance in facilitation of workshop provided
  by Ilan Chabay.
• Follow-up meeting reviewed test results and
  finalized the activities.
• Poster evaluated by expert in graphic science.
• Further evaluation of poster by students in
  coming weeks.
• 1-hr workshop for NSTA under development (with
  AESP in GSFC Education Office).
• Expect completion in 2003.

7
Hera Education Interface

• Give teachers and students easy access to data
  and software tools via the Hera framework to
  engage students in the process of doing science.
• Summer teacher intern guided the content and
  scope of data and analysis.
• Weve also studied the Chandra education software
  and activities for ds9.
• We have developed a guided project in which
  students apply epoch folding to RXTE ASM data.
• An extension of an Imagine lesson.
• Weve also identified additional data sets for
  students to further explore.

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Hera Education Interface (cont.)

• Prototype interface has been constructed.
• Utilizes selected tools with salient input
  parameters.
• Includes web page walk-through of data analysis
  process.
• Future projects will include imaging and spectra.
  
• Funded by GSFC Directors Discretionary Funding.

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Outreach to Undergrads and Graduate Students

• Astronomy 191 (Corcoran)
• Astrophysics from a high-energy perspective
• George Washington Univ, upper undergrad-lower
  graduate level course. Offered once a year since
  1996.
• Team taught by 6 Lab scientists
• Web site includes syllabus and lectures
• X-ray Astronomy School (Harrus and Arnaud)
• For graduate students and recent post-docs to
  understand the foundations of X-ray Astronomy.
• Previous schools had attendances of 40 55
  students
• 3rd Annual School, May 12-16, 2003 at Wallops.