Nov 2008 The number of new asteroid discoveries remains at 23 but the list of NEO observations is long and includes many of IASC students. The current campaign continues until December 5, 2008, and we expect still more original discoveries and important contributions to the measurements of the impact threatening near-Earth objects. 2008 Jul 2 HOU/Spitzer Student Project: Alekzandir Morton and Thomas Travagli presented their research on determining the redshift of S5 0716+714 at the California State Science Fair and were awarded first place in the Senior Division of Physics and Astronomy. They were mentored by SSC scientist Mark Lacy. The students were awarded a $1000 scholarship each. Articles about them were published by the Contra Costa Times and in the Antioch Press. John Michael Santiago, who assisted with the data reduction on the WZ Sge project, received a 4th place award at the Contra Costa Science and Engineering Fair. ---Jeff Adkins [HOU teacher] 2008 April 18 Patrick Miller reports that so far in the International Asteroid Search Campaign (IASC), concluding Friday, May 2, 2008, students found 6 new asteroids, 6 VIO (virtual impactor observations), 4 published NEO observations, and 26 unpublished NEO confirmations. Congratulations to VIII LO, Katowice (Poland), the UAI Minor Planets (Italy) and students from China Hands-On Universe for the discovery of two new Main Belt asteroids!! Asteroid K08GB1Z Asteroid K08GB1Y 2008
Jun 13 Update From: Patrick Miller: We
have a list
of schools participating in the 2007-2008 asteroid
campaigns (plus one pilot supernova campaign).
We've changed the name of IASC from International
Asteroid Search Campaign to International Astronomical
Search Collaborative (still calling it "Isaac").
The plan is to completely develop the supernova
search campaign and including search campaigns
for Kuiper Belt objects and comets. Dec 2007 Teachers and students have successfully completed the Fall 2007 IASC search campaigns. There were a total of 38 new Main Belt asteroids discovered, with 2 more waiting to be announced....2007 VSK1 and 2007 WG00. There were 24 schools participating from 7 countries (Germany, Italy, Japan, Morocco, Poland, Portugal, and United States)...15 were high schools and 9 were colleges. The Spring 2008 campaigns start on February 1, 2008, will include a total 9 countries including China and Russia. See more details on the Asteroid Discoverers. 16 July 2007. Gruber Cosmology Prize. HOU Co-director and founder Carl Pennypacker has shared a prize with members of the team he helped found that led to the discovery of evidence for Dark Energy. Please see:
May 10-11, 2007. Hands-On-Universe
Holds Teachers’ Workshop in Kenya. Excerpt:
For high school students in the Republic of Kenya
in Eastern Africa, star-gazing was enhanced by Hands-On-Universe
(HOU), .... On May 10th and 11th, HOU held an
Internet teleconference workshop for nearly a dozen
teachers at Kenya High School, a national residency
school for girls. This is the first HOU workshop to
be held on the continent of Africa. March 2007. You are welcome to visit the EU-HOU web site and download the Windows Media movie of the Lunar - Saturn occultation of March 2, 2007. See also Saturn occultation of 22 May 2007 at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3nk6wvnrCA --Lech Mankiewicz Spring 2006. HOU teacher Jeff Adkins and students
in the Antioch ESPACE Academy at Deer Valley High School
(DVHS) have observed Active Galactic Nuclei on the Spitzer
Infrared Space Telescope as well as with ground based
scopes. Project results are online at http://www.espaceacademy.com (click
on the Spitzer Space Telescope picture).
From Janesville Gazette article: "Observatory
moves to new mission of drawing students into
astronomy"
by Chris Schultz, July 3, 2006 From Janesville Gazette article about HOU/Yerkes
Observatory: "Yerkes'
star still shines", by Chris Schultz, July 3,
2006.
March 2005. Small Telescope
Parallax Group, which includes several HOU teacher
leaders, looks for asteroids that come relatively close
to Earth, whose parallax (and hence distance) can be
determined by equipment available to amateur astronomers. See results
for asteroid 1998WT. 2004-2005. Congratulations to HOU teacher, Fred Page, for being named Secondary Teacher of the Year for Detroit Public Schools! October 8, 2004. Science Magazine, Vol. 306, Issue 5694, 216-217.
March 11, 2004. Education Extra: Science classes looking up. By Walter Yost -- Sacramento Bee Bee Staff Writer. At the start of every astronomy class, [HOU TRA] Glenn Reagan's students scramble to computers to gaze at the latest breathtaking images from Mars: solar eclipses of the planet's two moons, the 100-mile-wide Gusev Crater, a dusty blue Martian sunset. "I've been teaching for 17 years, and nothing has been as interesting to students," said the Cordova High School instructor. ..."The photographs we're getting now are just beyond description," he said. Reagan expects Mars mania will carry over to upcoming space events, including June 4, when Venus crosses the sun, and July 1, when the Cassini spacecraft enters Saturn's orbit. "I think it's great that our generation will be the first to explore Mars," said Natasha Cabrera, a senior in Reagan's class. "If we find evidence of life on Mars, maybe we could find something about where we came from." ...Students like those in Reagan's class are also benefiting from impressive new technology, such as computerized astronomy. They're able to use image-processing software developed by "Hands-On Universe" at the Lawrence Hall of Science at UC Berkeley to request, receive and process their own astronomical images for projects like asteroid searches. In addition, they are communicating with other student astronomers via the Internet. Currently, Reagan's class is collaborating with peers at a North Carolina campus on a project measuring the mass of Saturn.... June 23-27, 2003 HOU Annual Conference 2003 was at Yerkes Observatory and Aurora College. June 13-20, 2003. Wisconsin DPI Education Forum, Volume 6, Number 37. Students from WCBVI travel to Yerkes Observatory. Visit gives students and staff experience with equipment for SEE Project. Students and staff members from the Wisconsin Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired (WCBVI) joined members of the Williams Bay Lions Club for the presentation of a special graphics printer and tour of the Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay June 12. Summary article archived at http://www.dpi.state.wi.us/seachange/archive/0122.html June 13, 2003. Janesville Gazette. Blind students use other senses to explore space. By Chris Schultz/Gazette Staff. WILLIAMS BAY- None of the students had been in an observatory before. It's a fair bet most have never seen starlight, either. Seven students from the Wisconsin Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired in Janesville visited the University of Chicago Yerkes Observatory on Thursday for a presentation, a tour and pizza-but also to experience a universe that most of us know nothing about. May, 1999—HOU Receives $2.5 Million NSF Grant—The grant from the National Science Foundation, awarded to UC Berkeley's Lawrence Hall of Science - a national leader in creating science and math curricula for schools - will allow the HOU program to expand from 60,000 students today to an estimated 300,000 in five years. See UC Berkeley press release 1998—HOU teacher wins McAuliff award. 1998—HOU students discover a Kuiper Belt asteroid. 1997—HOU in a White
House Press Release (1997) |
Lawrence Hall of Science | © Thursday, 02-Jul-2009 19:24:01 PDT | Updated Friday, 29-May-2009 09:26:15 PDT