November 22, 2000
WSGC Newsletter for Educators
The Washington NASA Space Grant Consortium's electronic newsletter for teachers provides curriculum ideas, Internet links and other resources to help you better meet the Washington EALRs and the National Science Education Standards.TABLE OF CONTENTS
-- ALL ABOUT MOONS AND MORE (K-12)
-- ENGINEERING CHALLENGE FOR TEENS (9-12)
-- SPACE DAY LAUNCHES GLOBAL CLASSROOM (4-6)
-- COMPLEX IDEAS IN SIMPLE MATH
-- ART AND HUMAN GENOMICS FORUM SCHEDULED
--SUMMER S'COOL TEACHER WORKSHOP OFFERED (3-9)
Windows on the Universe offers an in-depth look at the moon with topics ranging from the phases of the moon and its affect on tides to its atmosphere and geological history.
Visitors can pick between beginner, intermediate and advanced levels. The site also includes a wealth of information and hands-on activities related to other planets. To visit Windows on the Universe, go to
or visit the moon pages directly at
High schools across America are invited to participate in the 2001 National Engineering Design Challenge coordinated by JETS, the Junior Engineering Technical Society. The design challenge is a hands-on program where high school student teams, with the advice of a teacher-coach and volunteer engineer, design, build and demonstrate a working model of a new product. The 2001 challenge focuses on inexpensive, temporary shelters that can be used following natural disasters.
This year, JETS has expanded the opportunities for participation in the challenge by allowing videotaped competitions for those who cannot attend regional competitions. The complete NEDC 2001 Problem Statement and registration information can be found at
The Global Classroom, launched by Space Day 2001, lets students around the world collaborate on design solutions to the challenges of living and working in space. Students taking on the new Space Day 2001 Design Challenges can collaborate through ePALS.com, the world's largest online classroom community, representing more than 2.7 million students and teachers in 182 countries.
The 2001 design challenges, created by Challenger Center for Space Science Education, encourage teams of fourth, fifth and sixth grade-students to find solutions to such challenges as eating in space and emergency survival. The tools provided by ePALS.com include e-mail with instant language translation into seven languages to help classes interact with "student scientists" around the world.
For more information, go to
The MegaMath site, sponsored by Los Alamos National Laboratory, provides opportunities for children and their teachers to experience mathematics in ways it is experienced by mathematicians and scientists. Hands-on activities and story problems explore the fundamentals of topics such as primes, infinity, knot theory and graph theory. Lessons are designed for elementary class and up. Visit the site at
Visual art, along with other media, can provide the metaphors and images to connect scientific findings with our daily lives, findings that could have a profound impact on our lives.
The University of Washington's Henry Art Gallery has scheduled a free discussion forum 1-3 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 3, to introduce its upcoming exhibition, ATCG: Human Genomics in Contemporary Art. Presentations will be made about the Human Genome Project, commissioned art works and opportunities for community involvement.
To participate, RSVP no later than Nov. 30 by calling (206) 543-2281. For more information, visit
NASA Langley Research Center is seeking participants for a Summer S'COOL (Students' Cloud Observations Online) Teacher Workshop, to be held July 16-20 in Hampton, Virginia. Students involved in S'COOL provide ground truth measurements to assist in the validation of the CERES instrument, which is now orbiting the Earth and study in the ways that clouds may affect the Earth's climate.
Workshop participants will be introduced to the S'COOL program and work cooperatively in developing new materials related to the project. Teachers also will be provided materials, field trips, and a stipend. Travel expenses and room and board will be covered. The workshop is open to third to ninth grade teachers in all 50 states. For more information, call (757) 864-5682, or e-mail
Ideas, comments and Web sites of interest to other teachers should be sent to Irene Svete, newsletter editor, at
If you are not a regular subscriber and would like to receive our newsletter, send an e-mail to firstname.lastname@example.org with the following command in the body of your email message: subscribe sgteachers <your name> The e-mail account from which you send the message is the account that will receive the newsletter. If you would like to stop receiving this newsletter, send an e-mail to email@example.com with the following command in the body of your message: unsubscribe sgteachers <your name> Concerned about spam? Please note Space Grant does not sell its address lists.