transcript of the PASSPORT TO KNOWLEDGE program

#101, "THE GREAT PLANET DEBATE"

Part 4: Getting involved

Now as the traffic on our super highway continues to build we'll probably break this thing up into separate discussion groups, one for each of the planets that we are talking about. And it's... well just like a regular road, the SuperHighway, you can drive anywhere you want to. As a matter of fact, you can even visit the Space Telescope Science Institute here in Baltimore via the Internet. You can explore its thousands of fantastic pictures already taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, pictures of the target planets we have been talking about, as well as stars, galaxies, black holes, anything you want. The whole universe will be at your command.

The Space Telescope Science Institute address on the World Wide Web is http://www.stsci.edu

You can gopher by using www.stsci.edu, or transfer files from ftp using ftp.stsci.edu

RETA BEEBE on electronic communication:
I think the Internet is a fantastic device. Not only do I get communications regularly from people who have just fundamental questions they need to ask, I also get communications that are almost impossible to get any other way. I can talk to a planetary astronomer in Alma Atta over by the Tibetan border two to three times a day on the Internet, and if I tried... if I attempted to send him anything in any other form it takes months for him to get it. So that not only would the Internet provide a way of students... for students to talk to working scientists in this country, it gives them access to the world.

CAROLYN PORCO on the role of e-mail in the project:I like kids! I teach a class here, it's undergraduates, so they are, you know, older than the students I'd probably be interacting with on the Internet, but I frankly think it's a blast! They are still fresh, they are still curious about the... about the workings of the world, and it's just a joy to be able to be the person in the position to be telling them something for the first time, and see their lights just go aglow.

I won't be seeing lights go aglow over the Internet, but nonetheless I'm an e-mail Internet fanatic, so I find this a natural, a pretty natural way to communicate and I think it would be great to... you know, have... I don't know... hundreds of pen pals -- that's what it would be, hundreds of Internet pals!

MARC BUIE :
I think it's great, working with high school students, working with undergraduates, graduate students. I was fortunate enough as an undergraduate to be working in a laboratory rather than simply taking classes and that was very important for me in terms of my getting into science and where I am in my career today and I'm just trying to give a little bit of that back in any way I can.

ANNE KINNEY:
Science is ongoing. The greatest criticism about the way I learned science is that it was always taught to us as if somebody else did it. They were usually wearing a white coat, and of course they were usually male, and they knew all the answers and, boy, they sure were a lot smarter than any of us were, so what was the point?
In fact it's really not that way, if the answers... if you're going to get to the answers you're going to be the one that's going to have to do that. And that's every bit as true today as it was twenty years ago or a hundred years ago, so science is ongoing, and if you want to know the answer to something, you'd better be asking the questions.

HEIDI HAMMEL:
I think a project like this is a great way for students to see how scientists make decisions. It's not as easy as just saying "I want to take a picture" there's a lot of decisions that have to get made, a lot of choices, a lot of compromises. Sometimes you can't do things exactly the way you want to do them, and I think it would be interesting for students to see how that happens, to see how scientists really work on a day to day basis.

ALEX STORRS:
All you have to do is have an inquiring mind and be open , and be alert, and be aware and don't accept as given everything that you've been told. Don't accept as given that the universe is understood, but accept that the universe is a big, beautiful mystery that we are all trying to unravel.

Narrator WILLIAM A. GUTSCH, to camera:
Remember, your suggestions will help determine where we go, what planet we look at, and what we are looking for. Your curiosity will be your "Passport to Knowledge". We hope you'll come along for this exciting experiment, and become a co-discoverer of... well, what just might be the next great discovery about our solar system.

Thanks for being with us. Stay cool, stay connected. I'm Dr. Bill Gutsch for Live from the Hubble Space Telescope.

Closing Underwriter announcement:
Live from the Hubble Space Telescope is made possible in part by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Science Foundation, PBS K-12 Learning Services and Public Television.