Tag Archive for 'Education'

Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics… and Pre-Kindergarten

Published by Tim Grove on June 22, 2010 in Education, News & Events and Stories.
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President Obama’s “Educate to Innovate” campaign, announced last year, calls for increased literacy in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) for all students. Increased STEM literacy means increased understanding of key scientific concepts, increased familiarity with technology and its applications, and increased exposure to the experimental process.

As one of the world’s most popular museums, our stories of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics are engaging and relevant to old and young visitors alike. Just spend a day counting the number of school groups and young families ooh-ing and aah-ing over our exhibits! To all our staff and visitors, it’s obvious that the National Air and Space Museum is a key component of President Obama’s goals  to inform, challenge, and inspire students through STEM education.

One exciting way we are able to support STEM education in the DC Public Schools is through the Science in Pre-K Program, funded by PNC Bank’s Grow Up Great With Science program. Now starting its second year, Science in Pre-K provides professional development to DCPS preschool teachers to support teaching science through exploration and problem solving.

Science in Pre-K Session

Teachers explore the mechanics of water flow at the National Air and Space Museum during a Science in Pre-K session.

A core component of the Science in Pre-K program is giving teachers opportunities to explore science concepts themselves, before they introduce these ideas to their students. Too often teachers are asked to implement science units before they themselves are familiar with the material, particularly with early childhood and elementary teachers, who often don’t have strong science backgrounds. Early childhood staff met with teachers at the museum seven times during the school year for full-day science inquiry sessions. Teachers explored using the same materials their students used. Additionally, significant time was spent discussing the scientific concepts and theories behind their observations and discoveries.

Kids with a propeller

Science in Pre-K students check out the hands-on propeller in the Wright Brothers gallery.

Back in the classroom, 3- and 4-year-olds made connections between their daily science explorations and the bigger picture at the National Air and Space Museum. For example, during a recent unit on the properties of water, students explored water movement in their classrooms with tubes and water wheels. During their field trip at the National Air and Space Museum, students heard the story of Orville and Wilbur Wright’s first airplane making connections between how water flows and how air flows – and, how early airplanes used propellers to help them fly.

Connections like these, between the classroom and museums, are not only fun but critical in exciting teachers about STEM education – and children about STEM subjects. With the Science in Pre-K program at the National Air and Space Museum, teachers are equipped to inspire and instruct a new generation of scientists and engineers!

Lise Zinck is the Science in Pre-K program assistant in the Early Childhood Education department.

Spacesuit in need of repair

Published by Tim Grove on April 5, 2010 in Behind The Scenes, On View at the Museum and space.
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I have a really cool job.  When I’m out and someone asks: “What do you do?” I reply: “I work at the National Air and Space Museum.”  The response is usually: “Wow, that’s cool” and then I say: “Yes it is very cool.”  One of the things that makes being an educator here great is our teaching collection. I’m lucky, I work with a curatorial and collections staff that considers our needs as educators and provides the public with deaccessioned items they can touch and examine up close.   Our teaching collection currently contains real space food, shuttle tiles, bits of airplanes, meteorites, uniforms and other assorted items.  However, not all the items are real; our most popular replica is the shuttle era space suit.  The suit has been part of the Discovery Station Program for over ten years.  It was purchased with a grant from the Smithsonian Women’s Committee and is part of the Living and Working in Space Discovery Station, our most popular station, largely because of the suit.  The station gets an average of 40,000 visitors yearly, but that’s only a portion of the crowds the suit sees.  It has also become a key object used for family days, story times and school tours.

Mock Space Shuttle Suit

Mock Space Shuttle Suit

Beth Wilson demostrates dressing for spaceBeth Wilson demostrates dressing for space.

Beth Wilson demonstrates dressing for space

During the summer of 2006, I was rolling the suit back into its case and the glove fell off.  I took a good look at the suit and was distressed to see how it was aging.  Hundreds of thousands of hands touching it over the years had taken their toll. But I allowed it to be used with the public while I pondered where I could find $45,000 to replace it.  With no funding forthcoming, the suit just wouldn’t survive another busy season. I decided that it should remain on view in its case and brought out only for special programs.

As the Museum’s Development office looked for funding sources, someone mentioned our aging suit to ILC Dover’s Bill Ayrey.  ILC Dover is the company that designs and manufactures NASA’s space suits, beginning with the Apollo Missions.  Bill generously offered to repair the suit.   So, last fall Bill drove down, picked up our suit and took it to ILC Dover.  The very talented seamstresses sewed on new arms, Bill cleaned the pants, re-stuffed the suit, acquired recent mission patches and updated the gloves.  The crew at ILC Dover could not have been more helpful or generous with their time and talent. I am grateful for all the effort that went into the refurbishment.  I can honestly say it looks brand new.  In fact, Bill and his crew did such a good job that an ILC employee mistook it for a real shuttle suit!

ILC Seamstresses pose with the newly repaired suit

The suit made it back to the museum last month. I was on the phone with a colleague at another museum when the call came in that Bill had arrived.  I told her: “I’m sorry.  I’ll have to call you later, my space suit is back from ILC!”  To which she replied: “You have the coolest job ever.”   “Yes,” I said. “Yes, I do.”

Beth Wilson is the Discovery Station Program Coordinator at the National Air and Space Museum.

Catching Rays

Published by Tim Grove on March 22, 2010 in Astronomy, On View at the Museum and Planetary Science.
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As spring quickly approaches and being outside is becoming more and more inviting, we Public Observatory staff continue to enjoy spending time outside with our portable telescopes.  Every sunny day between 12:30 p.m. and 2 p.m., except for Mondays, we invite visitors near the Independence Avenue entrance to take a look at the sun through our specially equipped telescopes.

Observing

The Sun is approaching the active portion of its 11-year cycle, so visitors these days are now more likely to catch a glimpse of an interesting feature on the surface of the Sun.  Many visitors have been able to observe dark sunspot groups in our white light telescope, or spy an interesting prominence in the sun’s atmosphere through the telescope equipped with a hydrogen alpha filter.  However, the sunspots eventually move out of view and the prominences stop being quite so, well, prominent.

Luckily, there is a way to preserve these fleeting features so that all visitors will get a chance to see them regardless of how the sun chooses to behave that day. We have started taking pictures of the Sun’s interesting features through our different telescopes.  Here are those images for your viewing pleasure!

Sun

Here is an image of the Sun that was taken right here at the Museum on February 18th. In order to capture this image, we used a camera attached to our hydrogen alpha telescope. This telescope reveals the Sun’s chromosphere, filtering out all light except the red light given off by excited hydrogen atoms.  This image shows the two large prominences that appeared on the Sun that day. You can also see some surface texture on the Sun, which is called granulation. If you were to look through our hydrogen alpha telescope, this is pretty much exactly what you’d be able to see!

Progresssion

We took pictures later on in the day to see how the prominence changed, and could take pictures the next day as well. Over time, this loop prominence became twisted before disappearing from our view.

Sun

We took this picture of the Sun’s chromosphere with our Calcium-K telescope on March 4th. The Calcium K telescope filters out all but the purple light coming from excited Calcium atoms in the Sun’s atmosphere. You might notice a few brighter spots on the Sun’s surface, especially near the top right. These are hotter areas on the Sun called plages (pronounced like you’re saying “blah” except with a p).

Super Prom

We took this image of a super-prominence in the chromosphere of the Sun using our hydrogen-alpha telescope on March 17th.  This prominence is truly gigantic; it’s about 5 earths tall 22 earths long!

While these pictures are pretty great, nothing quite compares to seeing the sun live through a telescope. It’s always exciting to see what the Sun is up to on any given day. We’re outside the Museum every sunny day except for Monday between 12:30 p.m. and 2 p.m., so stop by and catch a few rays!

Erin Braswell is an Astronomy Educator at the National Air and Space Museum

Another First for The Museum – Virtual Conferences

Published by Tim Grove on November 3, 2009 in History, News & Events, space and Web & New Media.
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Astronaut John W. Young, commander of the Apollo 16 lunar landing mission, jumps up from the lunar surface as he salutes the U.S. Flag during the first Apollo 16 extravehicular activity (EVA). NASA Image #GPN-2000-001131

The National Air and Space Museum is holding its first ever virtual conference for educators on Tuesday, November 10 from 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. EST.   Since we’re in the middle of the 40th anniversary commemorations of the Apollo missions, we decided to focus on this important period in American history.  Staff from our Division of Space History will discuss some fascinating topics such as the real story behind President Kennedy’s famous speech challenging Congress to send Americans to the Moon;  the role of computers—a new technology in the 1960s; the myth of presidential leadership during this time period; the intersections of Ralph Abernathy, the Civil Rights Movement, and the Moon landing; the rise of six iconic Apollo images and how they have been used over time; and the denials of the Moon landings by a small segment of the population and their evolution since the 1960s.  They will also explain the complexity behind the Saturn Rocket, the Command, Service, and Lunar Modules and the technique of Lunar-Orbital Rendezvous.   Museum educators will provide tips for helping students analyze primary source materials. The program will support the NASA History Advanced Placement and Human Geography Advanced Placement projects and is generously funded by NASA.

As an added bonus, Apollo astronaut John Young graciously agreed to record a special invitation to participate in the conference and answered some of our questions about his experiences in space.

New to virtual conferencing? A virtual or online conference is similar to other professional conferences only you access it online. Registration is free and open to everyone. And since we know people are busy and the conference schedule will not be convenient for everyone interested, all the conference sessions are recorded and archived so you can play them at any time.

Whether you’re an educator or not, we invite you to join us for this free event.  And, help us spread the word!

Visit the Smithsonian Virtual Conference web site for more information and to register.

Tim Grove is an education specialist in the National Air and Space Museum’s Education Division.

Personal Connections Make the Museum Meaningful

Published by The National Air and Space Museum on August 24, 2009 in Behind The Scenes, Exhibitions, restoration and Stories.
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Confession: I used to think airplanes were boring. When I left my home in Tucson, Arizona this May to begin a summer internship at the National Air and Space Museum, I thought that air and space history had nothing to do with me. And, I must confess, I had very little interest in them, either. My background is in art history, and my goal for the summer was to learn about education programs in a large museum with extremely diverse visitors – airplanes had nothing to do with it.

A few weeks after I arrived at the Museum, however, I was hooked. I talked with anyone who would listen about the things I learned at the Museum every day. I started reading in my free time about pioneering aviators. In short, I had been drawn in by the tractor beam that is created when a museum visitor makes a personal connection with an artifact or artwork. I learned how exciting airplanes can be when I came across a plane – and its pilot, Lowell Smith – that led me to learn about the role aeronautics played in shaping the community I live in and my family’s decision to move there, making it my home.

I had never heard of Lowell Smith until I saw his name painted on the side of the Douglas World Cruiser Chicago in the Pioneers of Flight gallery. Lieutenant Smith piloted the Chicago in the first flight around the world in 1924. As I read further I learned about his impressive career as a decorated Army officer who held 16 records for military aircraft in speed, endurance, and distance. In 1923 he piloted the first plane to successfully refuel in mid-air.

Lt. Lowell Smith stands on the left wing of the Douglas World Cruiser Chicago as he prepares to take off from Seattle, Washington on the first leg of the around-the-world flight. SI 78-4647, Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Archives.

His early accomplishments are impressive, but it is Smith’s life after the around-the-world flight that intersects with mine. In February, 1942, he became the second commander of Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson. Under Smith’s command, it became the top training base for B-17 and B-24 crews during World War II. Military airspace was defined from Tucson west to Yuma, near the California border, that is still in place today.

Thanks to Museum Specialist Carl Schuettler, I had the rare opportunity to look inside the cockpit of the Chicago while it was being cleaned. Here, I stand in the same spot where Lowell Smith stood when the above photo was taken. Photo by Robyn Squire.

Many things have changed at Davis-Monthan since Smith died in a horseback riding accident in 1945, but the primary purpose of the Base – pilot and crew training – remains. Thanks to the weather (surely you’ve heard about the “dry heat”), pilots can safely fly almost every day of the year in southern Arizona. These days Davis-Monthan is a training base for A-10 pilots, and the nearby Air National Guard base serves as an international training base for F-16 pilots.

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