Category Archives: Education

Space Camp Joy

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Children spinning their little hand made Saturn models with joy !! At Easter  I ran a small space camp for children. It was over three mornings in Louisburgh Co Mayo.The venue was Books at One, the local community bookshop.  We packed a lot of things into the three mornings, in fact, I had too much planned. Better too much than too little in my experience. Space Camp joy abounded ! Day 1 Space Camp We built paper rockets that we blew into space (in the room). I have a  box of interesting forever goodies. These are intended to be made into something at some time. In the box, I found some triangular stickers. These had rocket holograms on them !! Perfect for rocket fins, the kids agreed and they loved them. The stickers came from Recreate Ireland which encourages creativity through reuse. We checked out the news on The Planetary Society’s Light Sail 2 project. New information for  the children … Continue reading →

Across the Universe: Seeing the Light

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This entry is part 22 of 184 in the series Across the Universe

This column first appeared in The Tablet in April, 2007; we ran it here again in May, 2015 The e-mail came from the Fordham student who’s been working in the lab with me this term. “Some of the physics students have asked me to pass this on to you: they don’t want to admit it, but they’re totally lost.” There’s only a couple of weeks left of my sabbatical year at Fordham. I had asked the physics department if I could teach the class on electricity and magnetism; when I learned this material myself as an undergraduate, it had changed my life. I wanted the opportunity to pass the joy on to some of the brightest kids I’ve ever taught. They are totally lost? That’s no surprise; when I was a student, at this point I was lost too. The mathematics of electromagnetic fields has mystified science undergraduates even before Maxwell first summarized them with his famous equations. And the … Continue reading →

Scoping Out the Rosette Nebula from Kentucky

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Many different astronomers and their work have been featured on this blog.  We’ve seen some of the research being produced by Vatican Observatory astronomers.  Brenda Frye of Steward Observatory at the University of Arizona was a regular contributor to the blog for quite a while.  Fernando Comerón has contributed a guest post about his work at the European Southern Observatory, where he gets to observe with some of the world’s largest telescopes.  Larry Lebofsky has recently written about observing with the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope (VATT) on Mt. Graham in Arizona.  But today I would like to give readers of The Catholic Astronomer a different perspective on doing astronomical research. Meet Chad Howard, a colleague of mine at Jefferson Community & Technical College (JCTC) here in Louisville, Kentucky.  He is doing work that I think will be of interest to readers of The Catholic Astronomer, and he is doing it for reasons that readers will also find cool.  Chad is … Continue reading →

Multiple Intelligences — An Introduction

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Those of us engaged in Education and Public Outreach (EPO) find out very quickly that not everyone processes or responds to information in the same way. Especially important to presenters is the realization that audience or workshop members do not necessarily share our “individual competences,” and because of this disparity, our well-prepared lessons and our expectations for student responses may not be compatible with all learners. In 1993, Professor Howard Gardner published Multiple Intelligences, The Theory in Practice. Gardner was a member, later Co-Director, of  Harvard University’s Project Zero and an Adjunct Professor of Neurology (Boston University School of Medicine). Gardner’s specialty was human cognition, and 25 years later his theory of Multiple Intelligences (MI) is said to have “revolutionized how we understand intelligence” (edutopia.com, George Lucas Educational Foundation). Gardner’s original theory posited seven types of MI, with an eighth added later. Each “intelligence” gives insight into how learners process information. Which MI best describes your style, your comfort zone, … Continue reading →

Washington Irving’s Columbus and the Flat Earth

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  This is a re-posting of a blog written by Dr. Darin Hayton, a historian of science at Haverford College in December 2014.  Darin obtained his Ph.D. from the History and Philosophy of Science program at the University of Notre Dame, and it is through Notre Dame that I got to know him: The University of Notre Dame Press asked him to review my translation of Johann Georg Locher’s Mathematical Disquisitions, which Notre Dame published in 2017. This past semester all my students were certain that Christopher Columbus proved that the world is round, and that prior to Columbus everyone thought that the world was flat.  When I asked Darin if I could use this post, since my students had put this subject on my mind, he noted in response that for over a decade of teaching he has found that nearly all of the students in his introductory-level courses have been taught the flat-earth story.  He added, “Last term one … Continue reading →

Experimental sketch goodbye – Active Region 2738

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April 16th On April 16th Active Region 2738 was heading towards the limb, looking very dramatic. I decided to try an experimental sketch using just pencil to capture the action around the giant sunspot. I used a very black pencil called a Conte de Paris Carbone B, which was deeply black. For the sketch I also used some silicone tipped brushes, these were perfect for drawing with and allowed some good flexible movement to be developed.  There is always massive movement  in the area around sunspots. A kind of disturbance caused by the huge magnetic activity in the sunspot itself. The light bridge and the change in it since April 10th was clearly visible in my h-alpha view  however the seeing was soft not as sharp as I would have liked. A well shape filament would have been nice to observe but none developed as I viewed April 18th On April 18th another opportunity to view this active region came … Continue reading →

Drawing Active Region 2738

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  Massive sunspot It was great to have a new huge active region to observe recently. This massive area of magnetic disturbance heaving its way across the solar disc was fascinating to watch. The weather smiled on Ireland, several days of sunshine in April is unusual to say the least. Active region 2738 boasted the largest sunspot in several years. Its diameter is three times that of the Earth. Across the center of the umbra is a light bridge circa  20,000 km long and circa 800 km wide. !! Drawing Active Region 2738 is a challenge indeed but it  is also an opportunity to try some new ideas. At 12:36 UT on the 10th of April,  a very bright plage flare erupted from the base of two dark filaments. Then one of the filaments got very long very quickly. Then the flare subsided. It’s the yellow part of the drawing. The umbra was very dark and the surrounding penumbra seemed … Continue reading →

X-Ray Sun Painting – A winner

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  I am mesmerized by the images of the sun from space.  A particularly rich bank of images by a spacecraft  called Yohkoh inspire  me with wonder.  Because I am so moved by Yohkoh’s images several paintings have emerged.  The painting above   literally exploded onto my canvas. In X-Ray Sun I tried to capture the magnificent energy produced by the our star. It is fascinating how images taken in light we cannot see give us a clearer understanding of our suns activity and beauty. Follow the Sunshine Yohkoh was a solar observatory.  The task undertaken by Yohkoh was to image the solar corona and solar flares. This project was a collaboration between several scientific institutions. The  Japanese Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, NASA and the UK’s  Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council. Yohkoh took X-Ray images of the Solar Corona between 1991 – 2001. The mission is now over however its legacy in images and data are still online. ( … Continue reading →

Adventures in EPO – Tucson Festival of Books

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The world of EPO (Education and Public Outreach) is an amalgam of formal education, informal education, and public outreach, with frequently blurred lines between the last two categories. Dr. Sanlyn Buxner, an Education and Communications Specialist and Research Scientist at Planetary Science Institute, described the categories for us as follows: “Education is about increasing someone’s knowledge or skills (whether it is in a formal or informal setting). Outreach is more about letting people know about things, talking about a mission, etc., but is not necessarily about teaching them anything.  It may be about having fun, raising awareness, etc.” In nearly 30 years of science education outreach, we’ve experienced all three EPO components. Tucson Festival of Books The Tucson Festival of Books (FOB) takes place at the University of Arizona (UA) in March. FOB began in 2009 with an estimated 50,000 visitors; 2019 was the Festival’s eleventh year, with an estimated 140,000 visitors over two days. FOB includes literary awards, food, … Continue reading →

Astronomy Club Stories

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On March 22nd 2013 Br Guy Consolmagno came to visit St Cronans National School in Bray Co Wicklow. Even though he had  a very busy schedule while in Ireland,  he had kindly agreed to this extra task. The object was to say hello to my astronomy club boys. I had been running the club since 2010. Its members were school boys and their parents. We met once a month  and engaged in wide-ranging interesting astronomy. There was great excitement and anticipation at the school that day. So when we arrived the hall was filled to capacity with 500 boys. My club had about 18 boys. Br Guy wasn’t phased by the unexpected volume of children waiting for his every word. He also signed a copy of his book Turn Left at Orion for the school library. It was a red-letter day for the school, everyone was so happy. St Cronans Stargazers Astronomy Club In our little astronomy club we took … Continue reading →

NASA’s Pi in the Sky Challenge

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On March 14, NASA will join schools, students and science centers across the U.S. as they celebrate one of the most well known and beloved numbers: pi. Used throughout the STEM world – especially for space exploration! – pi is the number that results from dividing the circumference of any circle by its diameter. Pi can be and often is rounded to 3.14 (even though its decimals never end), which is why 3/14 has been designated National Pi Day. Educators and students can participate in honoring this mathematical marvel by taking part in the 2019 NASA Pi Day Challenge, an illustrated math problem set that gets students solving the same problems scientists and engineers do to explore space. Answers to the 2019 challenge will be revealed on March 15. Explore even more pi-related resources for educators and students below! For Educators Pi Day Challenge Lessons These illustrated math problems and problem sets featuring pi and NASA missions and science work all … Continue reading →

Annie Jump Cannon: Two Books

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Annie Jump Cannon was an astronomer with Harvard Observatory in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  She was one of a number of women who were hired by Edward Pickering, the director of the observatory at that time.  Cannon’s specialty was stars and their spectra.  She worked on the Henry Draper catalog of stars, and she is the one who developed the OBAFGKM classification system for stars (O stars being the hottest, M being the coolest).  If you know that the sun has a spectral type G, or that Rigel is a type B, you are referencing Cannon’s classification system. But Cannon was the author of another book besides the Henry Draper catalog.  When she was in her late 20’s she went to Spain to photograph an eclipse of the sun.  Cannon had received a degree in physics from Wellesley college.  After graduation she had returned home, where she taught herself photography, tutored students in math and history, and … Continue reading →