Only the Shadow Knows

Using shadows to measure the world

I have wanted to use social media software for a lesson in my physics and astronomy class for some time now.  One natural idea I had for an online connection was a modern-day re-enactment of Eratosthenes experiment for measuring the size of the Earth.  This experiment is a natural for the physics/earth science/astronomy/math/science/inquiry classroom because it addresses so many of the issues addressed in these units of study.

For example this experiment attacks such  misconceptions as:

• The idea that the world is round is a new idea created around the time of  Columbus
• Simple tools cannot be used to figure out complex ideas
• Measurements must be made using only tools that are “official” such as a ruler or meter stick
• Only complex math concepts can be used to solve seemingly complex experiments

But any science experiment can address science issues.  Where does an experiment address other issues?  By using tools like Skype, Google Earth(or Maps) and Google Docs a student starts to see their place in the world. They can see that what is happening in their community is not the same as elsewhere.  They may even see that their view of science and math is universal(or not…) Also this allows students to do the one thing they love to do – talk to other kids.  More is accomplished in 15 minutes of students actively talking with each other than in a 40 minutes classroom where they are being preached to.  When students are allowed to see the connections they can accomplish an amazing amount of learning.

So now that I have an idea, I sent out questions to my Twitter PLN and within minutes, found out a few other teachers had tried this experiment.  Teachers John Burk and Frank Noschese did it back in September 2010. It seemed to work for them with few hiccups,  so I decided to go a step further.  I want to include as many teachers and classrooms as possible.  So here is my starting idea.  I have created a basic lab using a structure that my students are familiar with.  Before you read it, I want to warn you that this is as close to cookbook as my labs get.  I usually let the students come up with their own procedure. In this case I walk them through the procedure of gathering data but not how or what they must do with it. For the sake of labeling, let’s call it guided inquiry (it’s not, but that’s okay for now.) Eratosthenes Shadow Lab. You may want to do things in a slightly different way, but I address that later in this blog.  For participating in the lab, I have created a Google form Eratosthenes Shadow Participation Form.  My basic form for entering your data, this is the form I have created – Eratosthenes Data Form.  I really want this to be a collaborative effort so please either comment on this post below or feel free to add to the Eratosthenes Colab Document.

I really would like to see the idea of this lab grow to include classrooms of students of all grade levels, covering a whole range of subjects.  Why not use science as the excuse to have students do a geography lesson with students at a different latitude through Skype or Google Chat?  Why not have language classes try communicating with students of the language they are learning where both are trying to do the same basic science lab?   How about students learning Physics of light talking to students learning Earth Science?

Can you see the connections which could be made?

I would like to have this lab happen all over the world at local solar noon on the day of the Spring Equinox which is March 20th 2011.  In order for that to happen, we need to start talking.

What do you think?

Can we make this happen?

Only the Shadow knows…

Update March 16th, 2011.

I have updated and shared the project with anyone who has signed up. Ideally everyone will perform this experiment on the same day at local noon.  Due to local weather conditons and school schedules, this may not be possible. But if everyone performs the experiment within a few days of each other, you can use the differences to have conversations about the error involved and how much change would occur during this time.  I think you may be surprised at how little change there will be.

I have provided(below)  my guided inquiry lab sheet that my students will use for your perusal and use.

If you do not sign up ahead of time, you may still participate by doing the experiment with your class and submitted the info on the data entry form and choosing “Other” Please make sure you provide your location in the provided textbox at the end of the form.

And Lastly. Feel free to view and use the information with your class, once gathered, even if you did not perform the experiment!

To join this lab project:   Eratosthenes Shadow Participation Form

My lab write-up: Eratosthenes Shadow Lab

The  data entry form: Eratosthenes Data Form

If you have an Eratosthenes lab document that you would like to share please link it to this collection: Shared Eratosthenes Documents

Through a Mirror Darkly

I had an experience yesterday that left me shivering with the thoughts of what could have been. Totally shaken to the core in fact. It took me a day to finally sit down and gather my thoughts to tell the story. So here it is:

It actually started back in 1986, but we will get to that.

School started for me last week.  5 minutes before first period on the first day when I was supposed to start my administrative assignment of Hall Walking (gotta keep the halls safe for DEMOCRACY) I was approached by one of the Assistant Principals and re-assigned to Greeter Duty – where I sit by the front door of the school and smile at incoming adults and send them to the office and “tut tut’ the late students make them sign the late sheet and give them a pass to class. As administrative assignments go, it is not bad.(whether it is an important thing to make teachers do is the subject of yet another future post…(Wait! what do you mean I have a backlog of a 473 future posts?)

Well I was sitting in my Greeter chair with my Greeter smile on as a new adult walked through the doors. As I said cheerily, “Hello!” I realized that I recognized a face I had not seen in over 15 years. The face had aged but it was still the face of an old friend and fellow teacher from  my early career.It was also the face of the teacher I most respected and had patterned myself after. I greeted him warmly and after a double take he recognized me and we happily started chatting.

It was all downhill after that.

In order to understand, I need to explain a little about my past. I started teaching in 1986. I was offered three jobs on the same day. I chose to teach in inner city Rochester instead of the most affluent suburb of Buffalo, even though I lived in Buffalo. You see, I was going to save the world. I have already said here before that I was not a good teenager. But I realized during college (actually a week before getting my physics degree)that I owed everything to my teachers. They had saved me. I was going to pay it forward. So I took a job at an inner city school. It was a magnet school but not the kind that took only the elite. It took anyone who said they had an interest in science.I learned quickly that saving the world was not an option. But I could try to save a few kids. And this is where(let’s call him “Ray”) Ray comes in.  Ray was a social studies teacher. But that is like calling President Obama “A good talker.”  Ray never stopped. If class had ended, he was helping a kid. In fact, the only time you saw Ray without a student around was when he was fighting the adults to help him help the students. Ray got things done.  No student ever went without help if Ray knew he needed it. And if a student needed someone in her corner, Ray was there. I looked up to the man. With my new teacher’s eyes I idolized what he was able to accomplish. “No” was not in his vocabulary. And he was only a few years(maybe 5?) older than me. I learned,from him, to not let the status quo stop me.  I learned,from him, that most things were just speed bumps in the way of progress. I worked with the man for almost ten years and was always in awe of him.

Then I abandoned him and the kids I was helping.

It was the hardest day of my teaching career.  A day I have always regretted in my heart.

But I had to do it.

I left the school and the students I loved.

You see, I had my back broken by four students the year before. The district did everything in their power to hide it from the press and the world. They never punished the kids.

But they punished me.

I went to the papers. I broke the code of silence.

When I came back to school(against doctor’s wishes) they made my life miserable.

So I left.

I eventually ended up in Fairport where they have helped me bloom into the teacher I am today. I am proud of what i have become. But there was always that feeling inside that told me I should still be back at my old school.

That feeling is gone now. Replaced with sadness and almost relief.

Back to yesterday. I was so excited to see “Ray.” I couldn’t help but feel bubbling up inside me, ready to burst, all the wonderful events of my past few years. But first I wanted to hear what he had been up to. So I asked him what he was up to and where he was teaching(I had recently heard all of the teachers at my old school were gone.)

There was an awkward silence and he replied “Oh. You didn’t hear? I left teaching in ’96.”

Shock and Awe is probably the best way to describe my reaction. I couldn’t reply. I kinda just stood there and stared for a moment. “Why?” I finally stuttered.

“It finally got to me,” he said,”I could not handle the chaos on all sides. I couldn’t handle the constant neediness from one side and the constant refusal to help from the other. I could not be a one man show any longer. One day I just burned out. I could not take another day of the aggravation. I had to leave education altogether.”

I was so upset that i could not talk about anything much after that. Especially not about how great I had it during the past 15 years. I felt so bad that one of the best teachers I had ever met was no longer with kids. I thought about all those kids that he was not there for. I mourned the loss of that feeling you get when you know you have just helped a student out.  The day he left teaching, education died a little.

We talked a while longer and I learned that he was visiting the school for his new job with a national group for at risk behaviors. But he never meets with kids anymore. And administrations pay him to come in and the listen to him because he from outside a school. He said he was happy with this life, but that look was not on his face. That look he used to have in school. Now his smile was sad in a way.

We shook hands and parted. And I was sad. For Him.  But gradually that feeling changed over the course of the day as a new feeling came over me.

Relief.

For 15 years I had harboured  a bad feeling about leaving my old school. Suddenly, a picture came to mind of me if I had not left when I did.

Of me having to leave a few years later.

Burned Out.

Never to be with students again.

A shiver just went through my body. Again.

I made the right choice. I found a place that supports me. Me with my weird ways. My outspoken ways. It knows me and in its own weird way,it accepts me.

We still have problems. Big Problems. But that is not important.

What is important is that I am allowed to do the thing I do best.

Help Kids.

Family Roles

Many of you who follow me on Twitter and Facebook know that I have just gone through an all too common experience last  month – sitting at the bedside of my mother watching her slowly drift away as she died from cancer.  It has been a hard month for me, but even harder on my sister who has never known a time in which my mother was not a part of her daily life. You see, when I was young I became estranged from my family. In some regards I was following in my mother’s footsteps since she had been estranged from her family most of her life.  My mother and I made up long ago, but things were never quite the same. Time and again we fell out only to come back together. What saved everyone in family from the endless arguments was that I lived in a different city.  In the end, my mother and I quietly agreed to disagree for the sake of  the rest of the family who didn’t have to listen to our arguments.

I’ve done a lot of thinking during the past month about the roles we each adopt for ourselves – and I truly believe that, we create our place/role in the family. Others place you when you are young, but as we mature and grow, we create the world in which we live.  We have only ourselves to blame for our responses to life.  If not ourself, whom? It was a hard thing to accept when I was young and even harder now that I am older – but it is the only way we have to get on with our life.

I created my spot in our family when I was in my late teens. Angry, bitter, and too smart for my own good, I created a living hell for the people around me.  I thought I was getting back at people for some very real and some perceived problems during my childhood. In reality though, I was creating a lasting memory of a thoughtless petulant young man. I became a pariah. I left home, only to return and cause more problems. Eventually I grew up and understood life a little more. But the damage was done.People don’t forget, in fact, the place and memories you have created for yourself becomes a caricature of your what you were. In my case, I became the proverbial black sheep.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not lamenting some lost part of my life. I don’t think I could change anything I did.  I would not be the person I am today without having been so stupid in my past. I am sorry for the hurt I caused but I am proud of who the person I became and of the life I have created. Do I have regrets? Sure!  But that’s what they are – regrets. I have to live with them and hope they make me choose more wisely the next time.

But I digress. I wanted to talk about sleeping in the bed I made for myself.  During the past month, everyone in my family fell into  the same roles we always do – including me. People expect it because it is comfortable shoe to wear. They don’t have to think much beyond it. In my case, my pariah role was even mentioned during the funeral ceremonies. Not much I could say or do about it or there was no reason to get angry since it was an accurate description of the past. The only thing to do was to sit back, suck it up, and hope that eventually these same people could see that they were dwelling on the past.  Things have changed. Time has moved on. All those silly clichés.  I am not the same person I was all those years ago. Neither are the family and friends that I have left

I don’t seem to be able to shrug off the coat I wore thirty years ago. It is my coat. I made it. It fit nicely at the time. But I outgrew it and threw it away a long time ago. But people keep insisting I wear it. And I must allow them to see me in that coat until they choose to see that I have changed.

People have  said to me several times these past few weeks that a person has to live with his or her choices.

I agree with them.

But probably not in the way they meant it.

I Test, Therefore You Are

A friend of mine, Dr. Jeff who runs the Blog on the Universe, recently posted on twitter {My view- Internet has hammered a nail through the heart of “knowledge is power” & redefined critical thinking as power.} and I retweeted his point. You see, it parallels some things that I have said to my students and other teachers for years. I hate teaching facts. I still remember being handed a CRC in my junior year as I pursued a degree in physics. My physics teacher said to me, “You never have to memorize the equations and constants again. Just use this.”   That is the point when I learned how I use  facts is more important than memorizing them .

The problem is, many consider this to mean that facts are worthless. This could not be farther from the truth.  Many think that the drill and kill of multiplication tables and of the elements of the Periodic Table will lead to useful memories that will enable students to solve complex problems.  The only positive learning this allows is the quick recall later of a specific factoid.  But it also allows for quick and easy multiple choice testing of the students. This, of course is the real reason many force memorization on their students.

But could this be done in a better way?

Sure!

But it would take time for the teaching of critical thinking and time for the testing of critical thinking – And time is something teachers are not allowed to have.

Those forcing these tests down our throats do not really care how students think. They only care about how good a soundbite they can get from the statistics garnered from the tests.  This has to stop. As long as education is controlled by people who’s only goal is to be re-elected, we will be forced to teach students to memorize and memorize only.

Dr. Jeff’s view that the internet has hammered a nail through the idea that “knowledge is power” is very much in line with my old physics professor’s idea that I should stop trying to memorize all of the equations in physics (which no one ever told me during the preceding years.) My memorization had been a dismal failure. Once I knew where to look up the “facts,” I was quickly able to solve the problems from my thermo class and my quantum classes.  By doing these critical thinking problems, the most used equations and facts eventually stuck in my mind. The ones that were not used much I still had to look up but now I knew where to look things up. After learning this, problem solving became easy.  I no longer spent wasted hours trying to memorize.  However, I did end up ‘memorizing” the stuff I used.  The internet is this generation’s CRC handbook.  If we show  students, over and over, how to use the net to find facts, these methods will be second nature to them. This will allow them to use their brains for something really productive - THINKING.

As teachers, we need to adopt this idea that the internet is a tool for our subject. Allow and foster its use in our pedagogy.  It is fast becoming more important than reference books and is quickly becoming a place for realtime classroom connections with people and places from all over the world.  We do our students a disservice  if we don’t teach them how to use what will be the most important collection of facts ever collected.  Facts cannot do anything without the ability to process them.  By encouraging creative thinking we teach our students how to cope with anything they may come across.

And isn’t that why you became a teacher in the first place?

Nothing should please you more than to know that you helped someone solve a problem.

Whether it is a problem that you tested them on or not.

Update: 2/9: I just read a couple of great posts on the same theme. So here they are:

Tech Transformation

Constructing Meaning

Standing Watch

As I said last week, I try to start every class standing at my door greeting my students and others as they walk by. I have tried to do this each day for 24 years. I have felt like the lion on the steps to the library outside untold number of classroom doors and in four different schools.  I started doing it for one reason – I was told to.  Now you could not convince me to stop. I have many reasons for doing it now, but the reason I do it most now is the memory of one student’s comment – but that is the end of this story. Let me talk to you first about the not so insignificant reasons first.

First is the classroom management reasons for being in the hall. This is what got me into the hall during passing periods in the first place – I was told to be there by my first Principal so that the hall maintained a presence of authority (nevermind that this same Principal once transferred a student into my homeroom because my homeroom “did not have a real authority figure in it…” But that is ANOTHER story) Any teacher worth their salary knows that the first and best way to stop problems is to avoid them by being present and aware. New teachers take note! Classroom Management 101 is move around your classroom and be aware of everything. Most potential problems are completely avoided in this way.  And thus, it one reason I like standing in the hall along with my science colleagues  and our hall has few problems. I don’t even think of hallway management issues anymore.

Secondly I like to see the people in the hall.  My school has about 1800 students in it grades 10-12. I teach only a select few of them being a physics and astronomy teacher. I like to say hi to old students,nod to current students and put a face to the 1000+ students who will never take a class of mine.  Oh and be aware that those students do notice you.  I will never forget the uproar about five years ago when I abruptly cut my hair.  I went from a long-haired pony-tailed guy to the clean-cut clippers only at the barber type.  I had so many students that i did not know coming to talk to me that I was speechless.  I did not know what to do.  Many were angry and wanted to know who forced me to cut my hair.  Some were some emotional that I was almost ashamed to admit to them that I did it for safety reasons (it almost fell into a router I was using during woodworking.) So take heed, students notice you – even if they do not talk to you, they know about you and you can still have an effect on them.

One of the big reasons I stand in the hall is that it forces be away from prepping for the upcoming class.  It is too easy to over-prepare.  You are never completely ready for a lesson. So let it drop. If you are a good teacher, your lesson can spare you a few minutes.  Spend the time welcoming students, talking to them. Ask them about their weekend.  It may not help them learn physics but it will help them get to know you. It will help your relationship with them and in the long run it will help your classroom environment. And sometimes you (and they) just need to carry on a conversation that has nothing to do with your class. It lets the stress out.

Lastly, when I stand in the hall, I am reminded of an incident that took place about 8-9 years ago.  I lost about 40 pounds in about 10 weeks.  I was becoming the healthiest I had been in a long time.  My gut had all but disappeared and people everywhere were noticing it and commenting on it.  One morning, during homeroom we talked about my loss of weight.  And just a note about homeroom. Our homeroom was an 8 minute period where announcements came on the speaker and i handed out info to students that I never saw any other time of the day. Many, if not most teachers always complained that it was a waste of time(but again that is another story, lol!) I always used the time to talk with my kids and get to know them as well as I could during that 8 minute a day session for the three years I had those students.  Well, this group of students were getting ready to graduate and we got to talking how everyone had changed during the years we were together.  All the students started telling me how much I changed and how  impressed they were by my effort.  I was pretty happy at their compliments when all of a sudden on girl spoke up and said ” I don’t like it at all!  I like the way he was!”  The group went dead silent until one of the boys turned to her and said “How can you say that?  Look how good he looks!  It took a lot of work to lose that weight!”  I could see that the girl was upset so I started trying to defuse the situation.  You see, she was not an extrovert. I knew it took a lot for her to say what she said. She was the student in your class that never says anything and barely gets noticed. Someone who tries to be forgettable and not attract attention.  My school is an upscale middle-class suburban school and she was from a poor background.  She did not fit in.

But she had stood up to the group to exclaim her controversial feeling to the who group.  The group just looked at her and she continued,

“I liked him the way he was. I looked forward to coming to Homeroom everyday where he would stand at the door with a big smile on his face and his greying beard. Everyday he would say hello and how are you. He made me feel great. Now he looks all different. I miss my Santa.”

No one knew what to say.

Not even me.

We were “saved” by the bell and everyone shuffled out.

I was dumb founded, but I thought about her comment all day and came to realize that I had just been given the best compliment a person could be given. As comparisons go, I don’t think there are many other people I could name that would make me feel any better. Who wouldn’t want to be compared to Santa?

The next day I went over to that student and thanked her. I told her that I was honored that she felt that way. I promised that I would always try to live up to her view of me.

And I have.

That is why I stand in the hall – to make people feel as good as they do at Christmastime.

To Start a Class

Every day I start each class by standing in the hallway greeting students as the walk into or by my classroom. There is important pedagogy with this simple act but I will talk about that in a later post. What I do want to talk about is how my astronomy class starts and I need to paint the picture where my classroom starts – in the hallway. The students pass by me as they enter the room and either say hi or talk to me about something about the class. But after greeting each other the students enter a dark class. Dark enough that my Principal once leaned past me into the class to turn on the lights when he saw students entering the class. He was slightly embarrassed when he was admonished by the students that the lights we supposed to be off.  The classroom is lit only by a video projector onto the screen in the front of the room.  The students cannot help but look at the screen.   And on that screen is the Astronomy Picture of the Day(APOD.) I rarely have it showing the text – just the photo graces the screen.  The reasons for me doing this are many-fold, but it comes down to this one fact – Astronomy is Beautiful.  The students intrinsically know this, that is why they are taking the course. Their parents know this, which is why they consistently tell me that astronomy is the only class their kids talk about at home. It has nothing to do with me. I am just a means to an end. They want to know more about something so beautiful. I just get them to ask the questions by putting up a page that revels in the beauty of space exploration.  I have done this since before I had a video projector. Albeit it was harder to show students the glorious photos back in the old days.

The APOD is a website which has been produced by two professional astronomers, Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell, since 1995.  During that time, I have used the APOD as a teaching tool.  The APODs usually are photos taken about a current event in astronomy or space research.  And each photo is meticulously annotated with web resources about the topics discussed in the write up.  You could not ask for a greater teaching (or learning) tool.  I think I have learned almost as much from my APOD research as from any other singular source I have studied.

Almost every day students have questions about the pictures that are on the site.  It becomes a contest among my students to find out as much as possible each day before class about that day’s picture. Many of my (graduated)students have written to tell me that they still use the APOD as their Home Page. The discussions often go places that were no where near my lesson plan. I don’t mind.  And many times I have to say “you don’t know enough yet for me to explain that to you.” And they don’t mind.  My students learn that if I say “We will talk about that topic and answer that question later” – we eventually do.

After the APOD  discussion is over, I many times switch over to the Spaceweather website which compiles many different astronomical current event media.  If the APOD does not strike up a discussion, a movie of the current solar prominence or Aurora Borealis photo usually will.  I cannot tell you the number of conversations I have had over the current extended solar minimum I have had with my students (at their behest!)

If you teach anything about astronomy and space science and you don’t use these sites daily to inspire. You really should think it over.  Yeah, the current event may have nothing to do with your current topic but why are you teaching your course anyway?  Isn’t it to excite and inspire? If your students are excited, they will be motivated to learn and then it will take you only half the time to teach your “lesson plan.”

Oh and BTW, you might even get excited again about the subject.

Wouldn’t that be wonderful?

What Dreams May Come

Here I sit in the Rochester Airport once again typing another blog post. Sometimes it seems that the only time i get to write on my blog is while I am traveling. Lately, the only time I slow down is when i am waiting for transport or sitting in an office waiting to be called. Otherwise, I can honestly say that I could not fill in another thing. I have started turning down opportunities – something I have never done. It is during these infrequent slow times that i sit and review my life. It’s either that or catch a power nap – and reviewing is much more enjoyable recently. It seems that I am riding a wave, and that wave is taking me places I thought i could only dream about. The past two years has been incredible, and yet it still is getting better. Today I am about to get on a plane to DC where I will take part in the first-ever International Space Station Tweetup. Only 35 people from around the world were asked to come and I am one of them! How do I rate? The real answer is that I don’t. I am an average teacher who is just taking the time to apply for these opportunities. If you are a teacher reading this, realize that you can do these things. All you need to do is set aside a small amount of time each week to try for these things. If you spend a few minutes each week attempting to reach your goals, eventually you will.

A bit of advice though. Start small. Just like an athlete training for the big event, you must start with small goals. Not only do these small goals provide small bursts of pride(I did that?!!) they also show you what your weaknesses are. That way you can fix them and go for the next one. It’s like that with lesson plans. A teacher would never start the year with a major project with all new materials and tasks. They show students what they are capable of over a stretch of time with small tasks, eventually getting to the major project. So do this with yourself. Try for a $500 grant before the $10K grant. Become a local rep for your state organization before trying for the state position. If you pace yourself and learn from your stumbles, you will build your resume and prepare yourself for the bigger and harder challenges. And that is what it is all about. Those dreams you have of talking with astronauts or doing Shakespeare at the Globe Theatre.  Go and do research in your favorite field or do a summer internship with the sports team of your choice. The opportunities are out there and if you don’t do them, someone else will.  The only reason you won’t get the chance is because you won’t put aside a few minutes a week.

Chase your dreams.

And if you don’t have dreams like that, then get some. Why else are you on this Earth if not to dream and chase after them.

That is why you dream at night. Your brain is asking “What if?”

So ask yourself…

“What if?”

Finally Over??

Well here it is two weeks after the MESSENGER Flyby Event that I attended. I have to ask myself if it was all worth it. If you are a teacher, I will ask you something first:

How important would something have to be to take you out of the classroom after only 13 class days into the school year. That something would take you away for 5 class days. That means, in addition to the normal start of the year routines(getting to know your new students, lesson planning, etc) you have to create substitute lesson plans for a sub who might not be from your subject. You also have to help your district find funding to pay for the entire trip. you then have to grade all the missed work when you get back since 5-week grades are due by end of the week.

So what do you say?  Is there anything worth that? I did not think so.  I was wrong. An hour ago I was tweeted(don’t ask if you have to ask) by @cbrannon “I am looking at the NASA MESSENGER program. Are you still enjoying the benefits and satisfied with the program? AND Why?”  I think I may have broken the record for continued tweets in answering him. I won’t bore you with all that i replied.  Let me say that now that I am almost caught up(and on yet another weekend trip as part of my role with STANYS) and overcoming the cold I caught. I can safely say that there is nothing I have done as a science teacher that has helped me bring more excitement to my class and school. The students think the whole experience is awesome. Now they have caught my excitement for all things space related. Cafeteria workers and secretaries and custodians ask me how NASA is.  I get teased all the time by my fellow teachers about when I am going to space – all with love and excitement. People of all ages love having a connection, no matter how many degrees away it is, to NASA.  While I was at the MESSENGER Flyby, I had a conversation with Dr. Jeff Goldstein about how NASA is the only Government Agency that inspires awe and excitement anymore. He kinda agreed with my position but defended a few other agencies and departments. However, I really feel that, in my experience as a common person, nobody gets excited positively about anything government related except for NASA. Some people, like president Obama inspire and excite, but that is the person, not the office. We have lost that excitement for everything the government touches – except NASA.

They tried to tarnish it, but the space lovers at NASA brought it back.

Bit by Bit.

Hubble.       The Rovers.         The Mars Phoenix Mission.       Hubble again!

MESSENGER

The Flyby is over but I can’t say that I will stop doing these events.  Heck, if it was up to me, this would only be the beginning. I want to personally spread the word to everyone in the world. Starting with students and teachers.

Get excited.

Get involved.

I can’t stop and my students don’t want me to.

They won’t want you to either.

Tweeting the Flyby

Here I sit at 11pm on September 29th 2009 in my hotel room in Columbia Maryland.Tired, restless, a bottle of Coke next to my computer, I am still trying to wind down from a crazy day. Since noon today I, along with four other MESSENGER Fellows(“master teachers” from across the US), have been tweeting about the MESSENGER spacecraft as it approached and flew by the planet Mercury. It has been an interesting experience – far different from last year’s low key flyby.  But we were making history today. Never before has there been a group of teachers broadcasting live from Mission Operations Center to anyone anywhere that wanted to know about NASA’s mission to the smallest planet. Just thinking about what happened today gets my stomach going again. Here is a taste of what I experienced…

A crowded room room filled with a large center table. MESSENGER Fellows occupy that table looking at their laptops. People surrounding them eating and talking with each other. The Fellows are introduced to everyone as they come in – and their role in this event is explained.”To broadcast to the world what is happening here at the flyby.” It is interesting  watching the reactions of the people  and listening to their comments – especially when the word “Twitter” was mentioned.  There is the knowing half-smile/smirk and  a quick comment. Never outright negative, comments like these are made by people who don’t yet see the big picture.  Some begin to see it when the Fellows ask questions and then furiously type their  answers to the Twitterverse. You see, no one truly appreciates the power of these social media outlets yet. Even a lot of the people using them.  NASA  wanted us broadcasting however, and so we broadcast. We answer questions from students and others interested in space science. We let everyone know  what is happening as it happens.

The power of what we are doing was intense. The chuckles die down as people watch us answer question after question. They watch over our shoulders as the time of the flyby grows near. They wonder who we are talking to.  Our room is packed with people.   As the time of the flyby grows near, the volume in the room becomes deafening. Suddenly though I realize the room has grown deathly quiet. I have been so absorbed in writing online, that I have not noticed that almost all the scientists have left. Up on the video screen it shows many of them in the actual ops center centered around a computer. I look up at the live doppler data and see that it has disappeared. Something has happened and it is not good.

I tweet throughout this. Several minutes after the drop in signal, MESSENGER goes behind Mercury. For the next 51 minutes there is no way to hear or talk to MESSENGER. People are nervously, and quietly talking to each other. A few minutes into the occultation of the spacecraft Sean Solomon,PI for MESSENGER, walks slowly into our room and tells us that the science team thinks that MESSENGER may have switched antennae for some reason, but the team did not want to try anything before the known blackout.  We have to wait. Sean does not have the great smile on that he did a little while earlier. it is obvious that he was nervous. The Fellows tweet to the world what we are watching. A swollen lump in our stomaches replacing the excited butterflies that we have had all day.

7pm comes way too slowly and suddenly we see that the Live Doppler Shift video suddenly has a signal. No scientists are in the room. they are all in the ops room. we can see them on the tv screen. The fellows are all speculating “Is that it? Do we have a signal?” Sean comes in this time with a quicker step and says “Yes” we have signal. The room suddenly springs a leak as it is filled with the sound of many people letting out their collective breaths. A small cheer goes up. Then furious typing as we tell the world. “YAY we have contact with MESSENGER!!!” I tweet to the world. The part of the world that follows me hears this great news.

Later we find that we lost some of the Doppler data that would have given us more information on Mercury’s gravity. Also that MESSENGER, for some reason, was not in its normal operating mode. the data link is slow and scientists are not sure what is happening. What is known is that data download will be delayed.More will be known tomorrow.

This is science.

This is real life.

I am a teacher who was there and witnessed it.

I will tell the world.

My students will be better for this.

Update: Corrected Sean Solomon’s name. I incorrectly named him last nite since I was so tired.

Living the Dream

Today I am sitting at the airport waiting for my flight to Baltimore. I am about to miss a week of class – a point sorely brought home by the exhaustion I feel after a previous week of preparing subplans for the entire previous two weeks, I pulled no fewer than three 12 hour days and two 15 hour days. That is time spent at school doing work – it does not include time spent preparing work stuff at home. Even with all that time spent preparing, I am not happy with the product. I guess I never am. I despise time spent away from my class. I don’t think I would be a good teacher if I did.
So why am I not in class this week?  This week is the final MESSENGER Flyby of Mercury before orbital insertion in 2011. Since I am a MESSENGER Fellow, I was invited to the event and I am going to connect my classes and others from around the country to the science and people surrounding MESSENGER. I could not be happier.

But even saying all that, I still had a niggling sense of doubt in my head about whether i was doing right by my students. That doubt was erased on Friday when I asked my students a question I was asked by a reporter. I was asked”How do your students feel about you going away for a week to do this?” I could not answer this and would not put words in their mouths,so I asked my students this question. I was pleasantly surprised by their responses. It was almost entirely positive.  The only negative reactions were immediately tempered by comments like “While it is not great you will be away – we will eventually get more out of this class because of your personal experience at the MESSENGER Flyby.”  The students comments actually surprised me in some cases. “Being selected to be a part of the Flyby and work with NASA means that you know your stuff. That is important to me!”  This comment was made and followed by many of the students classmates nodding their heads in agreement with the student. When asked why this was important to them, the general response I received was ” teachers who live their subject are better teachers in the long run.” These were the students words, not mine  I was floored by the overwhelming response. Not only did I think they were not as excited by this event, but I never thought that they cared about what I did outside of school. One student said “College professors are required to work in their field. It not only keeps them up to date but it keeps them excited about their subject. High School teachers should also.”

Interesting ideas from interested students.

Definitely something to chew on.

Meanwhile I will go live my dream.

Follow me at the Flyby!