NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Education and Public Outreach Products for GLAST from Sonoma State University

Online Activities can be found at: http://glast.sonoma.edu/teachers/online.html
Following are a list of activities and descriptions of them with the direct links to them:

• GLAST Large Area Tracker Simulator - See what happens when gamma rays and particles enter the GLAST Large Area Telescope at different angles and with different energies: http://www2.slac.stanford.edu/vvc/glastlat/lat_simulator.html

• Space Mysteries - Can you solve the mysteries? Two space mysteries featuring GLAST science: Found at: http://mystery.sonoma.edu/

The GLAST Educator Ambassadors program: http://glast.sonoma.edu/ambassadors/index.html

GLAST supports 10 Educator Ambassadors that help develop, test, and disseminate educational materials based on science from NASA's Astrophysics Division of the Science Mission Directorate. There are now 15 Educator Ambassadors in this program.

• Meet the Educator Ambassadors - the people, their biographies, and their missions: http://glast.sonoma.edu/ambassadors/ambassadors.html

• Educator Ambassadors in the News - recent news articles featuring the Educator Ambassadors: http://epo.sonoma.edu/ambassadors/ambassador_news.html

• Upcoming Events - a list of workshops being conducted by the Educator Ambassadors: http://epo.sonoma.edu/ambassadors/events.php

 

The Global Telescope Network - Use real astronomical data in your classroom:
http://gtn.sonoma.edu/public/

GLAST Classroom Materials: http://glast.sonoma.edu/teachers/teachers.html

Printed Materials:

• Black Hole Resource Area : http://glast.sonoma.edu/teachers/blackholes/index.html

 

• Supernova Educator Guide - The GLAST and XMM-Newton E/PO programs have developed a set of formal activities and background materials about supernovae. This is being jointly developed for GLAST and XMM-Newton . Found at: http://xmm.sonoma.edu/edu/supernova/index.html
• TOPS Lesson Modules: http://topscience.org/
• TOPS Learning Systems has developed a three-booklet series of activities based on the math and science of the GLAST mission. In the TOPS tradition, each booklet has activities which use simple, inexpensive household materials (such as coins, paper plates, thread spools, etc.) in clever ways.

 

• Booklet 1, "Far Out Math!": Students measure, scale, graph and problem solve, using examples derived from GLAST. They will compare quantities as orders of magnitude, become familiar with scientific notation, and develop a concrete understanding of exponents and logarithms.
• Download "Far Out Math!" PDF (11.5Mb) : http://glast.sonoma.edu/teachers/topsmod1.pdf
• Presentation: TOPS Far Out Math! http://glast.sonoma.edu/teachers/topsmod1.pdf

 

• Booklet 2, "Scale the Universe": The size and scale of the Universe are among the most difficult concepts to understand. This booklet gently takes students through the orders-of-magnitude of the Universe starting with the familiar human scale, then going down to the infinitesimal and out to the astronomical.
• Download "Scale the Universe" PDF (3.7Mb) : http://glast.sonoma.edu/teachers/scale_universe.pdf

 

• Booklet 3, "Pi in the Sky": These activities teach about radians and degree, angles, parallax, and apparent sizes of objects. Students will measure the apparent sizes of objects at various distances and learn about how we can measure the sizes of distant objects.
  Download "Pi in the Sky" PDF (20Mb) : http://glast.sonoma.edu/teachers/pi_in_the_sky.pdf
  Presentation: TOPS Scale the Universe and Pi in the Sky

 

Active Galaxy Education Unit

The GLAST E/PO team has developed a set of three activities to teach students about active galaxies. All three activities are aligned with the national science and mathematics standards. A beautiful poster illustrating an Active Galaxy features one of the three activities on the reverse side.

• Active Galaxies Poster : http://glast.sonoma.edu/images/agn.html
• Active Galaxies Poster without the text : http://glast.sonoma.edu/images/agnnotext.html

 

• Educator Guide: Download PDF (3.36 Mb): http://glast.sonoma.edu/teachers/agn/agnacti027.pdf
• Both Covers of Educator Guide (336 Kb) (11 x 17 inches) : http://glast.sonoma.edu/images/agnactivcover03.html
• Educator Guide (HTML Version): http://glast.sonoma.edu/teachers/agn/index.html

 

• Presentation: Huge Black Holes: Measuring the Monster in the Middle : http://glast.sonoma.edu/teachers/agn/agn_presentation_102106.ppt

 

• Active Galaxy Pop-up Book - This short, innovative book for ages 8-12 has three separate activities, including a popup 3D galaxy showing its features, the "Tasty Active Galaxy" activity where kids can make their own edible black hole, and a whimsical story about supermassive black holes called "How the Galaxy Got Its Jets". Although designed for younger children, it can be enjoyed by people of all ages (especially eating the black hole): http://glast.sonoma.edu/teachers/popup.html

 

Miscellaneous GLAST Education Products

• GLAST Mission Poster - features an artist's drawing of the GLAST satellite in orbit:
  http://glast.sonoma.edu/images/glaunchflp03.html
• The GLAST Cube - images and text from the GLAST "magic cube": http://glast.sonoma.edu/resources/cubeimages/cube.html
• GLAST Public Brochure: http://glast.sonoma.edu/resources/brochure/glastbroch04.pdf
• GLAST Race Trading Card Game — Who will be the first to build, launch and make observations with GLAST? http://glast.sonoma.edu/teachers/race.html
• GLAST Sticker - Features artist's interpretation of an active galaxy as well as an image of the satellite: http://glast.sonoma.edu/resources/sticker/glast_sticker.html

 

Additional GLAST Education and Public Outreach Efforts at UC Santa Cruz :

• The BALLOON Program: http://scipp.ucsc.edu/outreach/BF/balloon.html
• SCIPP Tesla Coil Show : http://scipp.ucsc.edu/outreach/tesla/teslacoil/index.html


• GLAST on MYSPACE.COM: http://www.myspace.com/GLAST