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| Paper: |
Aurora and Magnetospheric Teacher Guides: Bringing Data into the Classroom |
| Volume: |
389, EPO and a Changing World: Creating Linkages and Expanding Partnerships |
| Page: |
65 |
| Authors: |
Peticolas, L.M.; Odenwald, S.; Walker, A. |
| Abstract: |
The NASA missions Fast Auroral SnapshoT (FAST) and Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (THEMIS) study Earth’s aurora and magnetosphere. As part of the THEMIS Education and Public Outreach (EPO) program, magnetometers were placed in twelve schools in ten states in the Northern US where auroras are often or occasionally detected. In order to bring the science of auroras and Earth’s magnetosphere and the data associated with these missions, we have created several teacher guides with middle and high school teachers. Many of these teachers were the ones we worked with in the twelve schools with magnetometers. These guides cover a wide array of topics including 1) Earth’s magnetic field to create electrical current; 2) Earth’s changing magnetic field on timescales of hundreds of thousands of years, hours, and seconds; 3) space weather effects on the magnetosphere and aurora; 4) universal time; 5) the creation of aurora; 5) auroral substorms; 6) the calculation of the total magnetic field at a particular location over months and years; and 7) the prediction of whether or not auroras will be visible using magnetometer data. We will share the review feedback about these guides from both teachers and a NASA review panel and explain what we did to address these suggested changes. From our evaluation results, we will reveal the challenges of bringing data into the classroom as well as the enormous capacity of these missions to inspire students to get involved with data and NASA missions. |
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