Teacher Training Opportunity: Goldstone Apple Valley Radio Telescope Program

Teacher Training Opportunity: Goldstone Apple Valley Radio Telescope Program

The Lewis Center for Educational Research (LCER) announces an opportunity
for K - 12 teachers to participate in our rather unique program. The Goldstone
Apple Valley Radio Telescope Program (GAVRT) is an education partnership involving
NASA, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and LCER. It is a K-12 project using
radio astronomy to provide an opportunity for students to experience real science
and to learn that science is an ongoing process and actual discovery is possible.
Using their classroom computer, 32,000 students have taken control of a 34-meter,
500-ton, 9-story-high radio telescope located at NASA's Deep Space Network at
Goldstone, CA. We currently have trained 473 teachers at 283 schools in 37
states across the United States and at American schools in 14 countries and
3 U.S. territories.

What's in it for the kids? They learn how to gather data, understand what the
data mean and how to follow through with analysis. Students and teachers team
with scientists to conduct cutting-edge research leading to discovery. GAVRT
excites students while accomplishing educational and scientific objectives.

We are excited to include Radio JOVE with our training in 2010. Radio JOVE is
a NASA education program: Solar and planetary radio astronomy for schools. It
is a hands-on educational activity that brings the radio sounds of the sun, Jupiter,
the Milky Way galaxy and terrestrial radio noise to students, teachers and the
general public. We target grade levels 6 - 14 to:

• Build a simple radio telescope kit
• Speak with professional radio astronomers
• Make scientific observations
• Interact with radio observatories in real-time

One of our main goals is to motivate students to learn about science by participating
in a scientific activity, making measurements, acquiring and analyzing data, and
sharing and discussing their results with other observers. For further information,
see http://radiojove.gsfc.nasa.gov or call (301) 286-9790 or (615) 898-5946.

Teachers need to attend a 5-day class in order to take this program back to their
students. Teachers interested in participating are invited to apply online at this
time at http://www.lewiscenter.org/gavrt/opportunities.php. We are conducting a 5-day
teacher training class at the Lewis Center on March 8 - 12, July 19 - 23, and October 25 - 29, 2010,
at our facility in Apple Valley, CA. Please check our Web site periodically for calendar
updates. We strongly recommend at least two teachers attend the training from your school
or area. While this is not a requirement, it will definitely serve to help in program
support once back in the classroom. The cost of the 5-day class is $745. For questions,
e-mail gavrt-info@lcer.org or call (760) 946-5414 X234.

More information about GAVRT can be found at http://www.lewiscenter.org/gavrt/ .

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