LIVE FROM THE UNIVERSE Researcher Q&A
The opportunity to ask questions of the men and women researching the
universe, and to receive back individual answers via e-mail will be active
from March 1, 2001 through May 30, 2001. Some of the answers will be from researchers
seen in the video programs and some from their colleagues. Replies should come
within a week or two! What's the difference between ON-AIR and RESEARCHER Q&A? The
former is active ONLY during the video broadcasts for the LIVE FROM... projects and for one
hour thereafter. RESEARCHER Q&A is not time-dependent. Students may submit questions at any
time. PTUNIVERSE will acknowledge and answer all questions as quickly as possible so
that students know their inquiry is not lost in cyberspace. PASSPORT TO KNOWLEDGE is very grateful to all the researchers at all participating
NASA sites, and other expert volunteers, for generously contributing
their time and knowledge to support this unique service. Q&A pairs will be archived
online (without student Internet addresses or full names to ensure privacy)
to form a growing database. To ensure equitable access to this unique opportunity
there'll be a limit of 25 questions per classroom. (Teachers, please review the "TIPS FOR TEACHERS ABOUT USING RESEARCHER
Q&A" for some practical advice about how to make this a positive learning
experience for your students--and to maximize the necessarily limited time of
our experts!)
RESEARCHER Q&A
Astronomy as a Profession FAQ from Ask a High-Energy Astronomer
Binary Star Systems FAQ from Ask a High-Energy Astronomer
Black Holes FAQ from Ask a High-Energy Astronomer
Black Holes FAQ by by Ted Bunn
Black Holes FAQ by Dr. John Simonetti of the Department of Physics at Virginia Tech
Cosmic Rays FAQ from Ask a High-Energy Astronomer
Dark Matter FAQ from Ask a High-Energy Astronomer
Milky Way and other Galaxies FAQ from Ask a High-Energy Astronomer
Neutron Stars FAQ from Ask a High-Energy Astronomer
Quasars & Active Galaxies FAQ from Ask a High-Energy Astronomer
Stars FAQ from Ask a High-Energy Astronomer
Supernovae and Their Remnants FAQ from Ask a High-Energy Astronomer
TIPS
FOR TEACHERS ABOUT WHAT MAKES FOR A "GOOD" QUESTION The following provides guidelines and procedures (primarily to inform teachers)
designed to make the Q&A process productive and practical for all concerned.
Each and every expert is excited about connecting with you and your students. But
it is important to remember that the time and energy of these researchers is
extremely valuable. If possible, please review the materials available online,
at this site or those linked to it, to gain an overall understanding of their
research, and the places where they work. It would be best to ask questions that are
not easily answered elsewhere. For example, "What happens when two air masses meet?"
would not be an appropriate question, since the answer can easily be found in the videos,
on the website and in just about any textbook. We recognize that this creates a gray area about whether or not a question is appropriate.
Use your best judgment. For example, a question that led to one of the liveliest
and most memorable interactions during LIVE FROM ANTARCTICA might easily have
been rejected by those following our advice too slavishly: "Do penguins have
knees?" Since the main idea of P2K's PASSPORT TO THE UNIVERSE project is
to excite students about the wonders of science and research, please err on
the side of having students participate. If you are not sure whether or not
to send a question, send it. Some teachers have used class discussion to refine questions before they submit them
to the experts. For example, after first studying PASSPORT TO THE UNIVERSE
materials and doing some Activities, students can divide up into groups and
create several questions per group. All of the questions can then be shared
with the whole class, and students can be challenged to find answers to their
classmates' questions from local resources. Those questions which remain unanswered
or seem particularly interesting can then be sent along to the PASSPORT TO THE UNIVERSE
team. Ideally, the act of formulating and then posing questions is itself a learning experience.
It may help to think back to an early stage of a child's development when 3
year-olds learn that simply repeating the word "why?" can get parents to do
most of the work in a conversation. The wise parent will try to get their child
involved (and break the WHY train!) by asking, "And WHY do YOU want to know?"
The same is true in the classroom. Teachers might use the incentive of making
contact with real world researchers to motivate students to learn to ask good
questions. Here are three things students might ask themselves as they prepare their questions:
The last question is the most interesting. Student reflection on why they want to know something
is a very valuable learning experience. Have students record their questions
in their UNIVERSELogs and enter answers received from any component of PTUNIVERSE
answers from experts, the videos, or from hands-on Activities suggested in the
Teacher's Guide. Some additional procedures to make things run smoothly: One question per message: 25 question limit: Searching question/answer pairs: Submit Questions HAVE FUN!
We ask that you please send each unrelated question in a separate message rather
than as one message with many different questions. While this may be inconvenient,
it is important because it will help us make sure your question goes to the
correct researcher and--we hope--that no question remains unanswered.
Any individual teacher will be limited to submitting a total of 25 questions
per class. We hope this will encourage more discussions about what students
really want to know and will lead to research being done before asking questions.
Please check the RESEARCHER Q&A archives to make sure your question
has not already been answered.