Now you can enjoy the wonder and mystery of outer space - without leaving your computer screen!
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory - home to the folks who've sent probes to Mars and paved the way for latter-day scientists and adventurers - now has two fascinating Web sites online, allowing you to boldly go where no school kid has gone before.
JPL's Telescopes In Education and Project SPACE Web sites bring the science of NASA into your classroom via the Internet. A brief overview of each follows:
The Telescopes In Education (TIE) program allows students to use a remotely controlled telescope and charge-coupled device (CCD) camera to search the heavens - all while in front of their computer screens.
Located online at http://tie.jpl.nasa.gov/tie/, Telescopes In Education enables students to increase their knowledge of astronomy, astrophysics, and mathematics, improve their computer literacy, and strengthen their critical thinking skills, all while having fun!
A 24-inch reflecting telescope, located at the world-famous Mount Wilson Observatory near Los Angeles, is now available to K-12 students. Through a modem and special astronomy software, students and educators can view such far-out things as galaxies, nebulae, stars, eclipsing binaries, and other ambitious projects and experiments. Hundreds of students from around the world have explored the universe through Telescopes In Education. Some even rediscovered and cataloged a variable star and assisted JPL's Pluto Express program, which revised the orbital location for the planet Pluto.
Educators and students can reserve observation time on the Mount Wilson telescope for any evening of the week. Observation sessions can last from one hour to an entire night.
For complete, detailed information on Telescopes In Education, visit the program's Web site today at http://tie.jpl.nasa.gov/tie/.
JPL's Project SPACE (Sun, Planets, Asteroids, Comets, Exploration) is an educational technology program that's been developed specifically for the Internet.
With Project SPACE, educators and students use the Web to learn how NASA's solar system exploration projects are planned, developed, and carried out - sort of like helping plan the next adventures of the Starship Enterprise.
The Project SPACE homepage, located at http://projectspace.arc.nasa.gov, provides educators with a wide variety of resources, all ready for classroom use. Among the resources available are:
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Products and materials, including space images and movies.
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Announcements about new products, program participation, in-service schedule updates, outreach programs, and educator workshops, conferences, and mailing lists.
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"Activity of the Month," where educators can find new Project SPACE experiments to liven any classroom. Also includes an "Activity Library" of past suggestions.
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Solar System Discoveries. See what NASA's found recently in our universe.
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Fun Facts. Find answers to questions like "If your school was located on the Moon, how long would it take your school bus to get you there?"
These Project SPACE happenings - and a whole lot more - can be found by visiting http://projectspace.arc.nasa.gov today.
Both Telescopes In Education and Project SPACE are part of NASA's Learning Technologies Project, a national initiative that brings US space agency technology to classrooms via the Internet.
Curator: Randolph Kim
Responsible NASA Official: Mark
Leon
Last Updated: 07/02/2002
