Solar SFE Videoconference Meeting
Solar SFE Videoconference Meeting
November 17, 2005
Mary Kay Hemenway, Marc Wetzel, Mark Cash, Brad Armosky
1. Solar SFE tests and project timeline review
2. Solar SFE live and video demonstrations
3. Solar SFE project evaluation instrument
4. What's next: teacher guides
5. 5-E Build your own Galaxy
6. Dan Jaffe EPO ideas
Grades K-5 Solar SFE Testing
Teacher or School / Students / ResultsBessie Haynes / 5th grade / Tested live demos; Post Sun drawings were similar to pre-drawings. Some seemed to show layers in the sun. Some post had "holes" on edges of sun. Students had a lot of prior content knowledge that was very similar to each other (e.g., as if copying from the board)
St. James Episcopol / 5th grade / Tested live demos;
Students completed pre and post "draw the Sun" instrument at McD in pencil
some students were looking at or copying the Big Sun model.
Million and billion confused.
Alpine Montesorri / K-5 (one 5th grader, mostly grades 1 and 2) / Tested l Kids were tired toward the end; live demos;.
Revisions to demonstration video segments:
New ideas as a result of tests:
o Include the lava lamp and magnet box content and 5-E guide in post conference package.
o Write out one million = 1,000 ´ 1,000 = 1,000,000 = 106
o Write out one billion = 1,000 ´ 1,000,000 = 1,000,000,000 = 109
o Concrete examples (http://www.vendian.org/envelope/dir0/grain_feel.html)
o Home (http://www.vendian.org/envelope/)
o Engagement and quick experiments with magnetism
o Paperclip on a string suspended in a magnetic field
o Quick experiment to discover magnetic and non-magnetic materials (paperclips, pennies, toothpicks…if time, perhaps even one magnet and some items at each table. Ask for prediction first.)
o Sunspot model: Explain to grades 6 – 12 students the components of the model (electric circuit with a light bulb and dimmer switch or variable resistor). In the model, Marc varies the current in the circuit (and in the filament), which changes the temperature of the filament.
o Option: attach a temperature probe to the light bulb. As the current and brightness change, students can see the temperature (of the bulb) changing.
New video segments:
o Short interviews with diverse gender and ethnic mix of McDonald Observatory staff.
Solar SFE project evaluation instrument:
Cynthia Roberts-Gray created a formative evaluation instrument.
Project team members fill out the evaluation of project elements 3 to 5 times during the life of the project:
Demo DVD, Demo content and 5-E document, pre and post student materials, enrichment activities.
What's Next:
January to March 2006
Select schools to do Solar SFE videoconferences
Begin building grades 6 – 12 program elements
o Cut-away of the Big Sun to show the Sun's interior: core, radiative zone, convective zone, photosphere, chromosphere
o More words for the word wall: radiation, convection, conduction, thermal energy, kinetic energy, potential energy, heat (as a process, not a thing), to represent temperature, density, and radius
o More symbols for the word wall:
o numbers {103, 104, 105, 106, 0,1, 2, 3, … 9}
o operators {´, (decimal point .)}
o classic symbols: r for density
o variables: r: radius, T: temperature, m: mass, V: volume, v: velocity
o vectors?
o New item: Big Grid to represent relationships between variables.
o Plasma: what should we do about this concept?
o A (K-5), B (6-8), and C (9-12) Teacher Guides that connect pre à videoconference à post.
o Collect Solar SFE videoconference evaluation data via our existing SFE database.
Comments about the SAFIR November 9 videoconference with Chris De Wals:
30 students (science club), 2 teachers, 1 technician (attentive)
Students were:
o Fearless about asking questions
o Engaged in discussion/dialog with Marc
Marc's comments:
o He made the most real connection with this student group.
o Excellent dialog with students.
Dan Jaffee EPO ideas:
Interactive optics bench: kid size, near the slide in the exhibit hall. Moveable pieces (mirror, grating, prism, lens) and light sources.
Capturing the Sun's spectrum may not work: CCD cameras and video projectors do not accurately reproduce the color distribution of the Sun's spectrum.
Behind the Scenes at McDonald Observatory exhibit update.