Ed Home (text) - TRC Home - sciencelines IndexExplorations of the Universe
Cosmic Voyage and A Travel Guide for Educators
TV Field Trip Visits Fermilab
Resources for the Cosmic Puzzle
Cosmic Voyage and A Travel Guide for Educators
Two additional resources are available to add to our understanding of the early universe. Cosmic Voyage is a video produced for IMAX/OMNIMAX theaters. Check with the IMAX theatres in your areas to see if it is scheduled. The video is also available as a VHS tape for personal viewing and is available for purchase through: 70 MM Inc., 7 McCarty Crescent, Markham, Ontario L3P 4R4, Canada, 1-800-263-IMAX (Outside of North America call 905-472-9575) for $29.95 plus $5.00 shipping.
The video Cosmic Voyage explores the inner and outer space
connection in a similar fashion to the classic film, Powers
of Ten (available through the Astronomical Society of the
Pacific) but adds the impact of the 3-D and IMAX technologies.
Starting on Earth, the foundation and interval for measurement
is established as one meter--the size of a Hula-hoop. The film
"creates a cosmic zoom" showing scene after scence that
is ten times broader than the one before expanding out into solar
system, galaxy and cosmos. Returning to Earth the inner space
connection is established by taking a similar journey into a drop
of pond water to explore the molecules and subatomic particles
of life.
The Cosmic Voyage: A Travel Guide for Educators is a teacher's
guide prepared to supplement the viewing of the film. The Smithsonian
Institution National Air and Space Museum piloted activities and
prepared a final teacher's guide for middle school classrooms.
The guide includes activities in three parts: "Our Space,"
"Outer Space" and "Inner Space" including
activities on astronomy, metric measurement and the nature of
matter. The activity on pages 7-8 are adapted from Cosmic Voyage:
A Travel Guide for Educators.
To obtain a free copy of Cosmic Voyage: A Travel Guide for Educators
contact: Smithsonian Institution, National Air and Space Museum,
MRC-305, Washington, DC 20560; 202-786-2524.
TV Field Trip Visits Fermilab
Field Trip is an educational program designed to take television
viewers on trips that are normally not accessible to the general
public. Visits in the series have included Disney World, animation
in Florida; Antietam Battlefield in Maryland and in the spring
a program from Sea World in California is scheduled. This fall
Fermilab was the focus for the television program. Field Trip
is produced by Allbritton Television Production in Washington
DC and was aired locally by WGN, Channel 9 on December 1, 1996,
at 6:00 a.m.
Students from Skokie, Evanston and West Chicago toured Fermilab and met with scientist and engineers. During the two-day visit, each student documented their visit in a unique way by photographing with a computerized camera. These images were then downloaded onto the computers and placed into the field trip Web site.
Mike Becker assisted the students in harvesting seeds in the prairie.
In Wilson Hall they met with Roger Dixon, Head of Fermilab's Research
Division to learn about high-energy physics. Maurice Ball talked
about the cooling system used to cool the Main Ring magnets. They
also visited Rocky Kolb in his offices in the Astrophysics Department
and learned about primordial soup. They were able to get a close-up
view and explanation of the Collider Detector at Fermilab with
Brenna Flaugher. In the Lederman Science Center, they explored
the exhibits with Chuck Ankenbrandt and Priscilla Meldrim. In
the Center computer lab the students then created their Web pages
under the direction of Liz Quigg and Laura Mengel of the Computing
Division. You can see their Web pages at: http://www-ed.fnal.gov/field_trip/field_trip.html.
The students had an opportunity to experience how a television show is filmed and learn about Fermilab.
Copies of the video are available in the TRC for viewing and borrowing. Call the Teacher Resource Center at: 630-840-3094.
Resources for the Cosmic Puzzle
The Teacher Resource Center contains a great variety of resources
for all areas of K-12 science, mathematics and technology. The
following resources deal with the explorations of the universe
in some exceptionally creative ways. Some of these are written
for younger students beginning their journey of understanding
and some are meant for young adults or the adult reader.
Odyssey: Science That's Out of This World, Cosmic
Puzzles, December 1996, vol. 5, no. 9 is produced by Cobblestone
Publishing, Inc., 7 School Street, Peterborough, NH 03458. Cosmic
Puzzles is a creative way for students in grades 3-8 to continue
their natural curiosity of their world through stories and factual
articles written to inform and motivate. "The Subatomic Zoo"
and "Alice in Atom Land" are examples of story titles.
Odyssey: Science That's Out of This World is published
nine times per year. Subscription cost is: $24.95/year.
Blind Watchers of the Sky: The People and Ideas that Shaped
Our View of the Universe, by Rocky Kolb was published
this year, 1996. The goal of this book is ambitious and accomplished.
It begins by detailing with humor and first person accounts the
history of early astronomy with a feeling for who these scientists
(the blind watchers) were in relationship to the culture and history
in which they lived. Further chapters delve into the stars, Milky
Way and the early universe. What is unique about this book in
light of the vast amount of others written on these topics is
the humor and humanness that is used to present the excitement
of discovery that can belong not only to cosmologists and astronomers
but to the rest of us blind watchers. "After all, it's our
universe too!" This publication is available through most
Chicago area Borders bookstores. ISBN: 0-201-48992-9. $25.00.
The new Dorling Kindersley CD-Rom "Eyewitness Encyclopedia
of Space and the Universe" describes itself as "the
ultimate interactive guide to space" and "a visit to
your own virtual observatory." The main menu screen serves
as a space console where the user selects from sections on cosmology,
history, a star dome, the solar system explained, etc. DK Multimedia,
95 Madison Ave., New York, NY; 212-213-4800. ISBN: 0-7894-0881-3,
1995, $39.95.