Teacher Resources Relevant to Mars & Mars Observer Mission
The purpose of this section is to point out some of the resources or products
that educators might find useful in planning a lesson or unit about Mars or
Mars Observer. In the case of non-NASA resources, such as
commercially-available material or organizations such as the Young Astronaut
Corps., we are merely bringing these to your attention. We do not intend to
advertise any item or product that is available for profit, nor is this an
endorsement of any single organization.
You may note that some resources have already been mentioned earlier in this
booklet. Such items include books, articles, and potentially useful curriculum
materials presented at the August 21, 1993 workshop. These items are not
necessarily repeated in this section.
NASA Educational Horizons-- Newsletter:
An educators' newsletter, Educational Horizons, is published in Fall, Winter,
and Spring of each year. The newsletter summarizes the latest education events and
scientific news from NASA Headquarters and the NASA Centers. It provides information
about opporunities for teachers to interact with NASA and NASA's Centers through
participation in workshops, seminars, through the acquisition of educational products
such as publications and videos, as well as through cable television and
teleconferencing. The newsletter lists specific videos, publications, etc. that are
available from NASA. To get on the mailing list for this free newsletter, contact:
Educational Horizons
NASA Education Division
Educational Publications Branch
Code FEP, Rm 2-J34
300 E Street, SW
Washington, DC 20546
(202) 358-1533
The Mars Observer Thermal Emission Spectrometer Project at Arizona State
University prints a series of short newsletters (3-4 per year, every 6 months)
describing the TES Project and other events and issues. TES News is distributed
at our Educators' conferences, is available to visitors that come to the ASU TES
facility, and are also distributed by mail. Contact the ASU TES project office
at (602) 965-1790 for more information.
Called Spacelink, NASA is now prividing copies of most educational and press
release information and texts of its publications by computer. Information is
stored on disk at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama. Anything new about
the Mars Observer or other NASA projects should be found here quite easily.
This information system is set up mainly for educational purposes. The network
is available to anyone with a personal computer and a modem.
You need a computer, a modem, your communications software, and a long distance
telephone line to access NASA Spacelink. The Spacelink computer access number is
(205) 895-0028
The data word format is 8 bits, no parity, and 1 stop bit. Your computer can
send carriage returns or line feeds, but not both.
Spacelink is also available through the Internet using the following address:
http://spacelink.nasa.gov
For more information, write:
Spacelink,
Marshall Space Flight Center,
Mail Code CA-20
Huntsville, AL 35807.
NASA TV-- by Satellite:
NASA's TV station provides live coverage of space shuttle missions
(launch, landing, spacewalks, spacelabs, etc.), press conferences, and
other public events. NASA TV also offers daily educational and
informational programs. NASA TV can be received by satellite dish:
SpaceNet 2, Transponder 5, C Band, 69 West Longitude,
frequency 3990.0 Megahertz, Horizontal Polarization,
audio at 6.9 Megahertz
NASA TV could also be available from your local cable company if enough of us
banded together and demanded it (it's not currently available in Phoenix to
our knowledge).
NASA Educational Satellite Videoconferences:
During the school year, NASA delivers a series of educational programs by satellite
to teachers across the country. The content of each videoconference varies, but all
cover aeronautics or space science topics of interest to educators. The broadcasts
are interactive: a number is flashed across the bottom of the screen, and viewers
may call collect to ask questions or to take part in the discussion. For more
information and a schedule of upcoming conferences, contact:
Videoconference Coordinator
NASA Aerospace Education Services Program
300 North Cordell
Oklahoma State University
Stillwater, OK 74078-0422
(405) 744-7015
NASA Teacher Resource Centers Serving Arizona:
Educators can visit these centers and obtain a variety of publications.
You can also take film to copy slide sets or blank videos to copy their
video tapes. We highly recommend that you visit the Regional Teacher
Resource Center on the University of Arizona campus is Tucson. They also
have some materials available in Spanish.
For Arizona:
Arizona Regional Teacher Resource Center
Flandrau Science Center and Planetarium
The University of Arizona
Tucson, Arizona 85721
(602) 621-4515
Regarding Planetary Exploration:
Teacher Resource Center
Jet Propulsion Laboratory Educational Outreach
Mail Code CS-530
4800 Oak Grove Drive
Pasadena, CA 91109
(818) 354-6916
Serving all the U.S. Western States:
NASA Ames Research Center
Teacher Resource Center
Mail Stop TO-25
Moffett Field, CA 94035-1000
(415) 604-3574
NASA-NSTA Space Science Student Involvement Program:
This is a great opportunity for your whole class. The NASA-NSTA Space
Science Student Involvement Program offers "contests" for kids in Grades
6 - 12.
Back in the early 1980's this program was called the Space Shuttle Student
Involvement Program. At that time, it was open only to high school students,
who had to propose experiments that might be flown on the space shuttle.
Indeed, some student really got to fly experiments on the shuttle.
Today, while NASA can no longer promise to fly student experiments on the
space shuttle, the Space Science Student Involvement Program has been expanded
to include grades 6 - 12 and offers a number of exciting competitions each year.
You should contact NSTA as soon as possible to get information about their
project for the 1993-94 school year.
Space Science Student Involvement Program
National Science Teachers Association
1742 Connecticut Avenue
Washington, DC 20009
Planetary Society Marslink:
In the yellow pages of [the hardcopy of] this guide, you will find more information about the
Planetary Society MarsLink project which uses real Viking and Mars Observer data.
The Planetary Society has also developed educational packets on other planets. These and
other related programs are listed on the three pages [in the hardcopy only!] following
this one. The Planetary Society also has a catalog through which you might purchase
a variety of Mars books, videos, and slides.
For more information, write to:
The Planetary Society
65 North Catalina Avenue
Pasadena, CA 91106
(818) 793-5100
Challenger Center Marsville:
In the yellow pages of [the hardcopy of] this guide, you will find more information
about the Challenger Center and its Marsville program to bring the excitement of Mars
colonization into your classroom.
For more information, Write:
The Challenger Center for Space Science Education
1055 North Fairfax St., Suite 100
Alexandria, Virginia 22314
(703) 683-9740
Young Astronaut Corps:
The Young Astronaut Corps. published a curriculum guide for the
Mars Observer mission. They printed these at three different grade
levels: 1-3, 4-6, and 7-9. These were the December 1992- January 1993 issue
(v. 8, n. 2) of the Young Astronauts learning packets. These are copyrighted,
so [in the hardcopy] we have only reproduced the cover page of one of these so
you can see what it looks like. The packets are black-and-white and can be
photocopied for your class if you either (a) receive it as part of your
membership in the Young Astronauts or (b) purchase the individual packet.
For further information, contact:
Young Astronaut Council
1308 19th Street, NW
Washintgon, DC 20036
(202) 775-1773
Astronomical Society of the Pacific:
The Astronomical Society of the Pacific offers a huge variety of educational
materials, some for free (ie. bibliographies and fact sheets) and some for a fee.
They have a catalog of slides, videos, posters, etc. for teachers and classrooms,
available by writing to:
Astronomical Society of the Pacific
390 Ashton Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94112
(415) 337-2126
TES 1993-1994 Curriculum Guide / K.S. Edgett /edgett@elvis.mars.asu.edu