Patterns in Science

This month I’ve been out at the elementary schools in Roswell exploring patterns with students from kindergarten to 5th grade, lifeskills to gifted. The year is off to a good start; I’m visiting 24 classrooms and about 450 students. We are exploring science, math, and art as we look in the classrooms for patterns and make simple examples of patterns. Elementary students love science for the most part. They think it’s fun. They haven’t been convinced that it’s hard, or too much math. They are excited by experiments and activities they can do, have fun, and be successful learners. The teachers seem to enjoy it as well. With some of the classes we looked at the Sierpinski Triangle, a simple fractal that can be constructed by students as a math activity. I left this with the teachers to do as a math activity if they chose. I got it from the Fractal Foundation (Albuquerque) website ( www.fractalfoundation.com ). They brought a spectacular fractal show to Goddard Planetarium in January last year, and I am planning to have them come again after the winter break.

Next month, October, I’ll go back to the classrooms to explore gravity with the students. We will build small roller coasters (marble runs) of different materials, explore poppers and balls and how high they can bounce, play Mousetrap, Jacob’s ladder, ring toss, and other gravity based games, and talk about why they work and what would happen on planets with lighter and heavier gravity. We’ll also talk about what students weigh on other planets, and why; and do some activities that don't work because of gravity. The students will have a good time trying to defy gravity and I will take lots of pictures.

October features Science Saturday and the Roswell Museum and Art Center Block Party on the 10th. Goddard Planetarium will feature "More Than Meets the Eye" star show for Science Saturday (10am), and present the continuous program "Viewspace" for visitors the rest of the day. For those of you not familiar with "Viewspace," it's an astronomy exhibit that never goes out of date. It's a continuous feed video from the National Space Telescope Science Institute that presents short segments from NASA and others about what's happening on Earth and in space including a Hubble update, Mars Rover update, and others. The Block Party is going to be a lot of fun and lots of it, including the planetarium events, are free. Hope to see you there.

Later in the month, on October 15 (7pm) we continue our video series of the space race to the moon with the third show, "The Last Empty Sky," which explores Robert Goddard and Werner von Braun's contributions. On October 20 (7pm), Family Science Night gets into ooey, gooey, slimy, and glowy Halloween fun! All in all, it's going to be a lively month!

It's Back to School Time!

It's back to school time after way too short a summer. Being a 12 month employee it's only a break from the kids -- after summer spack camps, Alien Festival, and inservice training. This summer I went to Colorado to the Steve Spangler Science in the Rockies training to gather new and exciting science activities for the coming year. Some of these will show up in the Shoebox Science modules that are scheduled for some of your classes. Most will show up in the Tuesday night Family Science Night activities while I explore them with the kids and their parents to see how to best implement them in full class situations. Be sure to come by and see what cool stuff I brought home! Look on Marge's website -- the schedule is right there. You are welcome any time. No charge (to anyone). We are going to make slime, atomic worms, blow up big airbags with only one breath, blow square bubbles, and do other cool stuff. Guaranteed to interest your students.

For those of you who are new this year, or not familiar with what I do at the planetarium, let me bring you up to date. Once a month, on Saturday, there's Science Saturday. It runs from 10am to 12 noon and includes a star show. After the star show there are activites for students that relate to the show. The audience is generally the elementary school crowd, but everyone is welcome. Adults who just want to see the star show are welcome to come for that and leave before the fun starts. There is an attendance card and prizes including a free summer space camp. Family Science Night is once a month on Tuesday nights. There's no star show, but we build a lot of stuff, and play with lots of other science stuff. The catch is, the child has to bring a parent. We have passports and prizes including a free summer space camp. Summer Space camp is a half-day week long exploration of astronomy and science. Camps change each year depending on what exciting things I've acquired during the year. It's well attended. I did only three last year and they were full -- PK-1, 1-3, and 3-6. The older kids seem to have other things to do.

I've added several teachers to my school visit schedule and unless something changes, I'm already full for this year. Sorry, but there is only one of me, and so many of you. I am beginning to post the standards and benchmarks for the activities so if you need them, look on my website under "Outreach Information." It's not quite set up yet, but should be complete in the next few weeks. The information is complete for the Skytellers programs. For the Shoebox Science pages, not only will there be standards and benchmarks, but links for related online and classroom activities, so even if I can't make it to your classroom, there will be things you can do yourself. Where I can find them, the links will have math and literature connections as well.It's always exciting to begin a new school year and this year is no exception.

For those of you thinking about planetarium visits for your classes, check the calendars on Marge's website . Traditionally, there have been few visits to the planetarium except in the months of December and May, so I have kept those two months open for you to visit.

The Planetarium in Education

In recent years and with the onset of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, the planetarium has been viewed as a peripheral activity, not of great importance in the grand plan of educational achievement. It is viewed as a great “end of school” activity, when everything is finished and the students need a reward for a year well done and having somewhat more educational value than say, a trip to the theater. Of the total planetariums in the United States. One third of all planetariums (in 1995, the most recent figures I can find at this time), 33% (505), are located in schools. Roswell ISD is fortunate to have one.

Research shows that not all children learn in the same manner. Brain-based learning, multiple learning styles, and collaborative-cooperative learning research support the concept of addressing learning in many modalities: visual-spatial, kinesthetic, and aural. By developing a multiple modality learning environment, appreciation, enjoyment, and a sense of adventure are present in an enhanced learning environment that brings the students into the experience “in ways that a classroom, book, television, or computer screen cannot” (Manning 1995).

Beyond astronomy lies culture, and beyond the practical uses of astronomy for understanding the movement of celestial objects, seasons, time, time and navigation are found the more subtle influences of astronomy on culture in the areas of art, mythology, literature, and music. It is important to understand astronomy as part of a cultural heritage and to pass it on to the next generation (Manning 1995).

Students are fascinated by the stars and astronomy is a subject that consistently maintains a high interest level. Fascination brings questions, develops critical thinking skills, extends to math, art, literature and worlds beyond. “The potential of a planetarium for developing this unique educational environment and encouraging this long-term fascination with science is limited only by imagination . . . “(Reed 1994).
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Manning, J. G. (1995). The Role of Planetariums in Astronomy Education. Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Museum of the Rockies.
Reed, D. G. (1994). Who in the Hell Needs a Planetarium?" Planetarian 23(1).