Teaching and Learning with PASSPORT TO THE SOLAR SYSTEM
IN EDUCATOR PROGRAM B, THE SECOND OF TWO TEACHER RESOURCE VIDEOS, YOU'LL BE SEEING THE UNIQUE PASSPORT TO KNOWLEDGE MODEL OF VIDEO, ONLINE AND HANDS-ON ACTIVITIES IN ACTION...
AS WELL AS A PREVIEW OF ALL THE PROGRAMS IN THIS SERIES...
AND DEMONSTRATIONS BY MASTER TEACHERS OF SEVERAL EASY-TO-IMPLEMENT BUT SCIENTIFICALLY SIGNIFICANT HANDS-ON ACTIVITIES.
>>table of contents
1. THE P2K MODEL
2. THE CLASSROOM VIDEOS
Overview of the 8 x 15:00 programs
Objectives and Standards
Master Teacher demonstrations
3. ONLINE RESOURCES
4. CONTACT INFORMATION
1. THE P2K MODEL
>>clip from demo reel as for PTRF and PTANT
Two A.M. in the heart of the Amazon Rainforest, north of Manaus, Brazil.
Biologist Claude Gascon is looking for tree frogs, which come out to sing, and mate, at night. But the rainforest is full of wonders... and creatures to study.
Claude loves his work but he's just one of thousands of scientists, from the Tropics to the poles, for whom cutting-edge science is a great adventure and for whom a life of research is a "PASSPORT TO KNOWLEDGE"
>>(musical montage with quick cuts of various P2K projects, from Antarctica to the rainforest.)
How can you bring this world of exploration and discovery to your students?
How can they join these scientists out in the field and learn about their research while never leaving your classroom?
Now the "PASSPORT TO KNOWLEDGE" project invites teachers and students to...
EXPLORE Antarctica, a whole continent dedicated to cutting-edge research.
EXPERIENCE the Amazon rainforest, home to the greatest diversity of plants and animals on Earth.
EXCITE minds and imaginations by flying to the planets with NASA missions.
ENLIST leading scientists and engineers as MENTORS for your students.
How does this entirely new kind of learning experience work? "PASSPORT TO KNOWLEDGE" uses an integrated suite of... videos, hands-on materials and online resources.
P2K's multimedia materials provide everything you need to allow your students to do REAL SCIENCE alongside REAL SCIENTISTS while experiencing some of the most exciting and challenging places on Earth.
>>VIDEOS graphic:
P2K videos provide the real-world context within which students can appreciate the importance of the scientific principles they are learning. The videos also offer lively portraits of today's researchers and the research process.
Passport to Antarctica, for example, brings Earth's coldest, windiest, iciest, and most remote continent home for students studying Earth, life, and physical science.
-Sharon Spence:
"I think the most important part is that it's real science. It's something that students get so excited about because they are really doing something that's never been done before, they're involved with what's going on in the world. They're being able to communicate with other people all over the world. It's been one of the most exciting experiences we've had."
But participants in "PASSPORT TO KNOWLEDGE" don't just watch science being done: they DO IT for themselves!
Each PASSPORT Module provides a Teacher's Guide full of hands-on activities embodying key curriculum content and the National Science Standards...
Blackline masters of student worksheets...
Sample hands-on supplies...
Resource videos...
CD-ROMS and more...
...mean teachers start with a complete "turnkey" package to ensure success in any classroom or setting.
The Teacher's Guides provide simple, practical procedures related to real-world content more EXCITING than found in any textbook.
In "PASSPORT TO THE SOLAR SYSTEM", for example, these students use graphing and mathematics to probe the shape of objects hidden in a shoe-box, directly paralleling the way the orbiting laser altimeter aboard Mars Global Surveyor is mapping the previously unknown topography of the red planet.
Young "engineers" are CHALLENGED to design the best way to land a fragile payload-such as an egg-on a hard surface!
(Educator goes "oooohhhh!" as egg breaks on sidewalk.)
After several messy trials and errors, they succeed!
(Educator says, "It survived!")
Such students then have a new appreciation of the technology NASA uses when the "Pathfinder" spacecraft lands safely on Mars.
-Jo Lynne Roberts:
"The hands-on activities are fabulous, I really believe that we do too many activities without content, and Passport provides the content."
PASSPORT'S award-winning online resources provide opportunities impossible before the Internet. Each Module has visually-rich websites and simple e-mail discussion groups for teachers and students.
"PASSPORT TO THE RAINFOREST", for example, provides current and engaging information not available in textbooks.
Its 4 main sections, GEOsystem, ECOsystem, TEAMS and INTERACT, provide a comprehensive and engaging overview of rainforests around the world, the plants and creatures who live there, and the researchers who know them best.
And once you've met the researchers online, "INTERACT" provides a chance to send them questions, and receive back individual answers.
Each Module also offers online collaborative projects in which students INTERACT with world-class researchers.
But PTK'S unique online infrastructure "delivers" for teachers as well as students. Mail lists and discussion forums invite teacher-to-teacher sharing--questions, resources, examples of classroom success--resulting in a nationwide, virtual, "Faculty Lounge."
-Ginny Dexter:
"We draw up our lessons together and we find out from each other how it's working, and so we 'Internet' together and for the kids, it gives them a chance when they internet to say, 'gee, I get to know this person,' and, 'I've talked with a scientist that lives here,' and they start looking at maps and figuring out where people are from."
So, by participating in "PASSPORT TO KNOWLEDGE" your students can...
Understand the key concepts of middle school science...
Interact with the world's best researchers...
Visit unique and otherwise inaccessible locations...
Use authentic scientific procedures to solve real-world problems...
And put the tools of the information age to work.
But as a teacher or administrator you need to know if "PASSPORT TO KNOWLEDGE" works?
Supported by the National Science Foundation, a 3-year evaluation produced solid evidence of positive student learning outcomes. PTK'S use of integrated video, online and hands-on materials had powerful effects.
Student interest in science and technology was UP 20% when ALL 3 media were used together. Teachers reported many youngsters, including some otherwise unmotivated, responded more positively to PTK projects than to instruction using textbooks alone.
(Students x 3 as in other video)
-Student #1
"I go home and talk about it because it's something fun to do and it's something different other than just studying."
-Student #2
"Because if you read from a book, you may forget it after a long while, but when you do it, and it takes you a long time and you really concentrate on what you're doing, it stays with you for, I would say, years to come."
-Student #3
"When you're creating it, that's how you're learning because you're actually, like, visualizing stuff that would be in a book."
2. THE CLASSROOM VIDEOS
Overview of the 8 x 15:00 programs
Objectives and Standards
Master Teacher demonstrations
WHAT FOLLOWS ARE THE INTRODUCTORY SEGMENTS OF EACH OF THE 8 PROGRAMS IN THE SERIES...
WITH ONE OR MORE HANDS-ON ACTIVITIES TO BE FOUND IN THE PACKAGE OF TEACHER GUIDES...
PROGRAM 1-SOLAR SYSTEMS...
***
THIS... IS OUR COSMIC NEIGHBORHOOD.
ONE STAR, THE SUN...
4 ROCKY PLANETS... INCLUDING OUR HOME, THE EARTH...
4 GAS GIANTS...
AND ONE ICE WORLD, WITH A LARGE MOON.
IN BETWEEN, ASTEROIDS, TUMBLING END OVER END...
AND COMETS GROWING LONG TAILS OF GAS AND DUST AS THEY APPROACH THE SUN.
>>title: A FAMILY PORTRAIT
IN THIS VIDEO, "A FAMILY PORTRAIT" OF THE MEMBERS OF OUR SOLAR SYSTEM, AND AMAZING CLOSE-UPS OF THEIR DISTINCTIVE FACES...
>>title: BIRTH AND EVOLUTION OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM
WE'LL DISCOVER HOW OUR SOLAR SYSTEM BEGAN... AND THE PLANETARY PROCESSES WHICH HAVE SHAPED OUR COSMIC NEIGHBORHOOD...
>>title: OTHER WORLDS
...AND WE'LL FIND OUT THAT-FOR THE FIRST TIME-WE'VE NOW GOT FIRM EVIDENCE OF OTHER WORLDS, NEW SOLAR SYSTEMS, BEYOND OUR OWN.
***
THE "BILLIONS AND BILLIONS" ACTIVITY NOT ONLY HELPS STUDENTS APPRECIATE THE IMMENSITY OF THE UNIVERSE SURROUNDING OUR SOLAR SYSTEM, BUT ALSO PROVIDES A VERY DOWN TO EARTH WAY OF THINKING ABOUT LARGE NUMBERS.
WITH LUCK, THE "INCOMPREHENSIBLE" WILL BECOME A LITTLE MORE REAL!
>>titles
LIVE FROM THE SUN Guide, p 8
Activity 1.1 Billions and Billions
PROGRAM 2: OUR STAR, THE SUN
***
THIS IS THE SUN AS MOST OF US KNOW IT... A FEATURELESS, GOLDEN DISK...
THE BRINGER OF DAY... THE FIERY TORCH OF SUNSET...
THE SOURCE OF LIGHT AND LIFE...
THE ULTIMATE "REASON FOR THE SEASONS", WHOSE PASSAGE ACROSS THE SKY IS THE VERY SYMBOL OF REGULARITY.
THE SUN WAS RA TO THE EGYPTIANS... A GOD TO SOCIETIES EAST AND WEST... THE RULER OF THE HEAVENS.
...AN ALL-SEEING EYE UNDER WHOSE GAZE TIME AND HUMAN SOCIETIES PASS LIKE EDDIES IN A STREAM...
(music shock cut)
BUT THIS IS THE SUN KNOWN TO MODERN SCIENCE.
THE SUN AS WE NOW KNOW IT IS ANYTHING BUT FEATURELESS. IT'S A PLACE OF AWESOME CHANGE.
VAST FLARES UNLEASH COLOSSAL ENERGIES...
TELESCOPES SHOW US VISIBLE LAYERS BOILING IN CEASELESS TURMOIL...
SPACECRAFT REVEAL SHIMMERING MAGNETIC FIELDS...
NOW, WE CAN TRACK ITS BEHAVIOR THROUGHOUT ITS 11-YEAR SUNSPOT CYCLE.
TODAY WE KNOW OUR SUN IS A MAGNETIC, VARIABLE STAR, AND THAT EVEN THE "QUIET" SUN IS VERY ACTIVE.
**>>Titles:
IN THE FOLLOWING ACTIVITY, SOME CLASSIC EXPERIMENTS WITH MAGNETISM ARE ENRICHED AND ENLIVENED BY APPRECIATING MAGNETISM AS THE MOST IMPORTANT FORCE WHICH SHAPES THE FACE OF "OUR STAR, THE SUN..."
-Tim McCollum
"Well today's activity is going to involve magnetism, and you're going to be working with several stations in the lab, working with magnets, and not only watching how magnets behave, but seeing if we can actually visualize, actually see some of these magnetic field lines that are generated by the magnets. And as you're doing all of these things, think beyond just the magnets that you have, but in terms of the Earth, and the Sun, also, and how the connection that they have."
>>Titles
"All magnets do create a magnetic field, and those invisible lines that surround the magnet that converge at the poles, can be clearly seen when you use things like iron filings, you sprinkle those on top of paper. Now, one bit of advice on this project, magnets and iron filings, once they come together are very hard to get apart, and it can be a real mess, so I chose to go with some plastic trays that actually were the lids from plastic storage cases, and put some white paper in there, and the pattern of the fields would show up much better on the white paper. And by having them on plastic, and by having the plastic on top of the bag, and then having the plastic have an edge around it, it really reduces the occurrences of iron filings being spilled and stuck to the magnet. So that's just one bit of advice on that one."
>>Titles
"One of the toughest concepts, I'm sure you'll agree, for students, is moving from two-dimensions to three-dimensions. When we look at the magnetosphere of the Earth, it is truly a 3-dimensional sphere. And, using these bottles, I just picked up a couple bottles of vegetable oil from a local grocery store, and rather than putting them in a different container, I left them in the same container they came in, just soaked the labels off, added the iron filings, you need to use a very, very fine grain on your filings when you do this. I experimented with iron powder and found out that it pretty much just went into suspension in there and then just turned into a dark brown color, and it was very difficult to see the patterns. You may have more success with that than I did. But I went- decided to go with the very fine grain iron filings, and we had real, real good results with those."
(Actuality footage of students winding wire attached to a battery around a nail)
"Electric fields can generate magnetism which should also lead to the conclusion that magnetic fields can also induce an electric current, or at least, this is where I'm leading the students to understand, and that certainly is in the case with the Sun. Interactions between the Sun and the Earth, and we see the results of that every time we look up at the Northern Lights; we see how these electrical charges, the geomagnetic storms that occur, and as a results, the increased Auroral activity that we can see turns out to be, literally, a television set of the sky."
(Tim speaks to the students)
"Creating an electrical field around that nail, in essence creates a magnetic field."
"That's probably good enough. Trevor, go ahead and connect the end to the battery, to the other terminal. Okay, now try it... Good... you have a temporary magnet. Now Trevor, what's going to happen if you take that wire off the terminal... Let's try it... So whatever magnetic abilities this nail had was only created by the electric current flowing through there, once that current stopped, it lost its magnetic properties. So what you're seeing here is that an electrical current can generate a magnetic property. Now what you can think about... can a magnetic field create an electrical current? And that's where it really ties in..."
***
PROGRAM 3-4 ROCKS NEAR THE SUN... FEATURES AND PLANETARY PROCESSES...
***
FOUR ROCKS NEAR THE SUN... MERCURY, VENUS, EARTH AND MARS.
ALL HAVE SOLID SURFACES BUT, APART FROM THAT, THEY'RE VERY DIFFERENT IN MANY WAYS.
>>chapter head: FEATURES OF THE TERRESTRIAL PLANETS
IN THIS VIDEO, WE'LL EXPLORE THE FEATURES OF THE TERRESTRIAL PLANETS...
>>chapter head: WHAT MAKES THEM DIFFERENT?
WE'LL TRACK THE PLANETARY PROCESSES THAT MADE THEM INTO VERY DIFFERENT WORLDS...
>>chapter head: COMPARATIVE PLANETOLOGY
...AND WE'LL FIND OUT THAT STUDYING OUR NEIGHBORS HAS SOME VERY "DOWN-TO-EARTH" BENEFITS!
>>titles
***
AS YOU'LL SEE, THIS VIDEO MAKES WHAT ARE SOMETIMES RATHER DRY "COMPARE AND CONTRAST" ACTIVITIES RELEVANT TO THE QUESTION OF WHY ONE PLANET MAY BE HOME TO LIFE... AND THE OTHERS REMAIN JUST ROCKS.
THESE ACTIVITIES INVITE STUDENTS TO REVIEW THE FEATURES AND PROCESSES WHICH SHAPE EARTH-AND WHICH ARE KEY PARTS OF NATIONAL, STATE AND LOCAL SCIENCE STANDARDS.
(background of program 3)
THE PROGRAMS COMPARES THE 4 TERRESTRIAL PLANETS IN MOONS, CRATERS, VOLCANOES AND WATER... BUT YOU CAN EXPAND UPON THIS LIST AS YOU THINK APPROPRIATE.
YOU'LL FIND SUGGESTIONS ABOUT OTHER KEY FACTORS ONLINE...
***
PROGRAM 4-MISSIONS TO MARS...
***
IN THE 19TH CENTURY, MARS-THE RED PLANET-WAS THOUGHT TO BE A PLACE OF HUGE CANALS AND ALIENS...
IN THE 20TH CENTURY, HUMANS EXPLORED THE PLANET CLOSE UP WITH SPACECRAFT, AND FOUND IT LIFELESS.
...AND IN THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU MAY BE ONE OF THE FIRST EXPLORERS TO LAND ON MARS.
IN THIS VIDEO...
>>chapter head title: THE RED PLANET Fiction becomes Fact
THE STORY OF HOW RED PLANET FICTION BECAME MARTIAN FACTS...
>>chapter head title:
THE TRIUMPHS OF MARS PATHFINDER AND GLOBAL SURVEYOR...
>>chapter head title: WATER ON MARS?
AND WHAT WE'VE LEARNED ABOUT THE PAST AND PRESENT STATUS OF WATER-AND LIFE-ON MARS...
***
IN THE INTRODUCTION TO "PASSPORT TO KNOWLEDGE," YOU'VE ALREADY SEEN WAYS TO BRING THE "MARS LASER ALTIMETER" TO YOUR CLASSROOM.
YOU'RE INVITED TO GO ONLINE TO FIND OUT MORE. HERE WE MERELY NOTE THE KEY ACTIVITY, AND THE MOST IMPORTANT STANDARDS WHICH CAN BE MET.
>>Titles
***
PROGRAM 5, GAS GIANTS... ENERGY, SYSTEMS, SURPRISES
***
IN THIS VIDEO, WHAT WE DISCOVERED IN OUR FIRST FLY-BYS OF THE GAS GIANT PLANETS...
>>chapter head: THE JUPITER SYSTEM
...THE ENERGETIC PROCESSES WHICH BRING THE ICE MOONS OF THE JUPITER SYSTEM TO LIFE...
>>chapter head: DISCOVERY MACHINES
...AND WHAT WE CAN LOOK FORWARD TO WHEN WE REPEAT THE PROCESS OF DISCOVERY AT SATURN!
***
WEATHER IS ONE WAY TO MAKE THE CLOUDS AND STORM SYSTEMS FOUND ON THE GAS GIANT PLANETS MORE FAMILIAR TO STUDENTS.
WHETHER YOU ASSIGN THE TASK OF PRESENTING INTERPLANETARY "TV WEATHERCASTS", OR WRITTEN REPORTS, WE THINK YOU'LL FIND THESE ACTIVITIES HELP MAKE OUR SOLAR SYSTEMS' GIANT PLANETS MUCH MORE UNDERSTANDABLE.
-Dave Jones, former weathercaster, WRC-TV, Washington, DC
"Hello there! Welcome to 'Today on Neptune and Pluto.'
The kind of weather you can expect on Neptune depends on exactly where you are. Deep down in the atmosphere, it will be hot and heavy: temperatures will soar to thousands of degrees and pressures would bust any barometer. Higher up, temperatures cool to more like we would find on Earth. There are probably places where it will be raining water, ammonia, and methane! It's the methane gas which absorbs red light, and gives Neptune its beautiful blue color. Still higher, where the Hubble (Space Telescope) can see, expect some clear to partly cloudy skies, but don't worry about getting a sunburn out here. The Sun's intensity is only one-900th of what it is on Earth. Elsewhere, skies are cloudy with huge cirrus clouds, the size of entire continents on Earth, made of methane ice crystals. Up here, there are also places where the jet stream blows at over 1,200 miles per hour, fast enough to propel storms from California to New York in less than two hours..."
***
PROGRAM 6-SMALL BODIES AND COSMIC COLLISIONS, FROM SUPERSTITION TO SCIENCE.
***
WE'VE TRIED TO FIGURE OUT THE NATURE OF METEORITES FROM CHANCE ENCOUNTERS.
WE'VE MARVELED FROM AFAR AS COMETS EXTENDED THEIR GASSY TAILS...
BUT NOW WE'VE ORBITED AN ASTEROID CLOSE-UP...
AND SOON WE'LL BRING BACK COMET DUST TO EARTH.
>>chapter head: ASTEROIDS AND THE BIRTH OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM
IN THIS VIDEO, ASTEROIDS AND WHAT THEY TELL US ABOUT THE BIRTH OF OUR SOLAR SYSTEM...
>>chapter head: COMETS IN CLOSE UP
COMETS, AND THEIR TRANSFORMATION FROM OBJECTS OF FEAR TO OBJECTS WE CAN REACH OUT AND TOUCH!
>>chapter head COSMIC COLLISIONS
AND COSMIC COLLISIONS AS THE MAKERS AND DESTROYERS OF WORLDS...
>>titles
***
WHAT BETTER WAY TO APPRECIATE SOME KEY FEATURES OF A COMET... AND THEN TO COMPARE ICY AND ROCKY BODIES IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM-THAN TO MAKE A COMET IN CLASS???
ONLINE AT NASA'S "STARDUST" SITE YOU'LL FIND SUGGESTIONS FOR AN EDIBLE COMET.
THE ONE YOU SEE DEMONSTRATED NEXT MUST NOT BE EATEN-BUT COULD BE DONE AS A TEACHER DEMO.
-Bill Gutsch
"I'm here with Scott Sanford, who's a scientist at the NASA Ames Research center here in Moffet Field, California. Scott, you work on a lot of neat projects, what's one of the neatest things you do?"
-Scott Sanford
"Well maybe one of the more unusual things, as an astronomer, is I go to Antarctica, periodically, to collect meteorites. So I've been all the way to the South Pole a couple of times as part of my work."
-BG
"And it's funny you should say that because it's an icy and a snowy place, and we've been talking about comets, and we are actually going to make a comet here, aren't we?"
-SS
"That's right. The ingredient list includes things that we believe are in comets. So the first thing is just plain old water, okay, H20. Now we know comets contain alcohols, in fact methanol is a very common one. Now methanol may not be easy for people to get hold of, so you can always just use ethanol, which is the next biggest alcohol, type of beer. We know comets contain a lot of organic matter, that's one of the things that makes them look so black, so you need to add some organic matter, and we're going to use soy sauce for that."
-BG
(laughs) "It's going to be kind of a Japanese comet."
-SS
"This will be Comet Kikkoman! Now we need something to make the comet cold, because comets are basically dirty snowballs, and what we're going to use for that is dry ice, CO2 ice. You can get this from ice cream stores and so on, they come in big slabs; we need them to be in much smaller parts, so we're going to bust this up, actually we already have. You just put this in a pillow case, and Angel (proper name) helped me with this fine, sensitive, technical instrument here, and we broke up a bunch of CO2 ice so that it's all ready to go for the recipe.
"Comets contain something that astronomers call silicates. The common word for that is 'dirt' So we got a lot of dirt off the floor, and so now we're going to go ahead and start mixing it together, so my other assistant here is going to do the stirring while we pour things in here."
-BG
"Okay, go ahead... Water, and a little alcohol, a little spritz there of alcohol, and some organic material, in this particular case, some soy sauce. It's looking good already, Julia Child each your heart out. And some dry ice, this is really looking good here. Wow, this looks like a science fiction movie I saw once… And some dirt! So we're basically making a big dirty snowball?"
-SS
"Right. In fact a lot of people call comets 'dirty snowballs."
-BG
"That's beginning to smell like a sushi restaurant... that's pretty good actually."
-SS
"Okay, this is looking kind of nice and gross now. Now ultimately, this will get cold enough, you'll pack it together to make a snowball. We don't really have time for that... So I've got one, if Julia Child can pull things out of the oven, so can I."
-BG (joking)
" 'So here's one we baked earlier today.' "
-SS
"So you've heard of 'soap on a string,' this is comet on a string."
-BG
"You can actually see the smoke coming off... Hang it down here, and we'll create a little wind, kind of like the sun does. We can actually make the comet almost form a tail out there, because it's actually the winds coming off the Sun, particles coming off the Sun, and the pressure of the light coming off the Sun that pushes the gas and dust out into space, and makes the comet's tail.
Pretty neat stuff."
***
PROGRAM 7, LOOKING FOR LIFE: EXTREME ENVIRONMENTS AND THE SEARCH FOR WATER.
***
IS EARTH THE ONLY PLANET IN OUR SOLAR SYSTEM WHERE LIFE EXISTS?
AND, BY THE WAY, WHAT IS LIFE?
>>chapter head: LIFE DEFINED
IN THIS VIDEO, WE'LL HEAR LIFE DEFINED, AND DISCOVER HOW TO LOOK FOR IT...
>>chapter head: EXTREME SURVIVORS
WE'LL SEE THAT IN THE PAST FEW YEARS WE'VE FOUND LIFE SURVIVING IN PREVIOUSLY UNEXPECTED PLACES...
>>chapter head: HABITABLE ZONES?
AND WE'LL LOOK FOR HABITABLE ZONES ON THE OTHER PLANETS AND MOONS OF OUR SOLAR SYSTEM...
***
WATER IS KEY TO THE SEARCH FOR LIFE... AND LIQUID WATER LEAVES CHARACTERISTIC MARKINGS IN A PLANET'S SURFACE.
OUR STREAM TABLE ACTIVITY WILL HELP EDUCATE STUDENTS' EYES AND MINDS TO KEY FEATURES BOTH OF EARTH AND MARS...
...AND AFTER VIEWING THE PROGRAM BOTH YOU AND THEY MAY FIND YOU THINK THE NATIONAL STANDARD SAYING >ONLY< EARTH CAN SUSTAIN LIFE IS NOW PERHAPS A LITTLE OUT OF DATE!
-Pat Haddon
"In Activity 1.3, you're going to use some easy materials, and you're going to simulate the work of planetary geologists. Here is a wall paper box, and you're going to fill it with sand, the kids are going to put it on a slant, they're going to measure the slant. Each group will have a different slant, they're going to pour water at varying rates, through funnels, they're going to pour water simulating a catastrophic flood. And what they're going to be doing in each of the trials is looking at the pattern of the debris of the surface materials to see if they can make any inferences about what might have happened with water on Mars in the past."
NOW IT'S TIME FOR THE ROCKS AND BOTTLE TOPS SUGGESTED IN THE GUIDE.
YOUR STUDENTS GET TO SIMULATE IMPACT CRATERS, AND DIFFERENT CONSISTENCIES OR ROCK.
-Student:
"Making a big kinda..."
THIS TIME THE STUDENTS CAN SEE THE DISTINCITVE WAYS IN WHICH WATER FLOWS AROUND OBSTACLES IN ITS PATH.
-Pat Haddon:
"What do you think?"
-Students
"That they're exposing the rocks and they're sort of going around them."
THEY'VE SEEN SHAPES CREATED THROUGH PROCESSES THEY UNDERSTAND, AND NOW, WITH EDUCATED EYES, THEY'RE READY FOR MARS.
-PH:
"What else can you see?"
-Student
"Right here, it looks like it was moved by water"
-PH
"How can you tell?"
-Student
"Because of the island it looks like..."
-PH:
"What caused the island?"
-Student
"The water flowing around it."
-Student
"It kind of went around the little island and came together..."
Student:
"...It looks like a catastrophic flood because you can see all of the shapes right here..."
***
PROGRAM 8 EXPLORING THE SOLAR SYSTEM: SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND THE HUMAN QUEST...
***
"EARTH IS THE CRADLE OF MANKIND," WROTE THE GREAT RUSSIAN ROCKET PIONEER, KONSTANTIN TSIOLKOVSKY, "BUT ONE CANNOT LIVE IN THE CRADLE FOREVER."...
AND YOUR GENERATION MAY BE THE FIRST TO SET FOOT ON MARS.
>>chapter head: SEEING THE UNIVERSE
IN THIS VIDEO, HOW WE'VE LEARNED TO PUT THE LAWS OF PHYSICS, CHEMISTRY AND MATH TO WORK IN ORDER TO SEE THE UNIVERSE AROUND US...
>>chapter head: TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES, RISKS AND REWARDS
...A LOOK AT SOME OF THE SPACECRAFT AND MISSIONS WE'VE BUILT TO STUDY THE SOLAR SYSTEM... AND THE HUMAN RISKS AND REWARDS OF ATTEMPTING THE CHALLENGING AND NEAR IMPOSSIBLE...
>>chapter head: THE NEXT GENERATION
...AND A PREVIEW OF WHAT THE NEXT DECADES OF SPACE EXPLORATION MAY BRING.
>>titles
***
IT TAKES ENGINEERS AND MATHEMATICIANS TO EXPLORE THE SOLAR SYSTEM, ALONG WITH SCIENTISTS.
THESE HANDS-ON ACTIVITIES INTRODUCE KEY CONCEPTS WHICH HELP EXPLAIN ROCKETS, AND ALSO HOW TO LAND DELICATE PAYLOADS ON A HARD SURFACE.
ONCE AGAIN, YOU'VE ALREADY SEEN A LITTLE OF HOW MUCH FUN STUDENTS CAN HAVE WITH THESE ACTIVITIES IN THE PTK OVERVIEW...
-Narrator
"After several messy trials and errors, they succeed!"
-Teacher
"It survived...!"
***
>>titles ONLINE RESOURCES
THAT'S ALL WE'VE TIME FOR IN THIS VIDEO-BUT YOU CAN FIND OUT MUCH MORE, AS WELL AS BEING ABLE TO SUBSCRIBE TO OUR MODERATED ONLINE DISCUSSION FORUM BY GOING TO:
passporttoknowledge.com/solarsystem.
4. CONTACT INFORMATION
IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS ABOUT ANY ASPECT OF PASSPORT TO THE SOLAR SYSTEM, WE'RE ALL EARS.
PLEASE SEND E-MAIL TO:
ptkinfo@passporttoknowledge.com
FROM ALL OF US AT P2K-GOOD LUCK AND GREAT SUCCESS IN AWAKENING YOUR STUDENTS' INTEREST IN THE FASCINATING WORLDS OF OUR SOLAR SYSTEM.
