P1.40
Teaching with the new GEMS guide, "Living With a Star: From Sunscreen to Space Weather"
Gregory R. Schultz, Univ. of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA; and I. Hawkins
Teaching With the New GEMS guide, "Living With a Star: From Sunscreen to Space Weather"
"Living with a Star: From Sunscreen to Space Weather," for grades 6-8 and released June 2003, is part of the award-winning Great Explorations in Math and Science (GEMS) series. This teacher’s guide, produced by the GEMS program at UC Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science in close collaboration with NASA’s Sun-Earth Connection Education Forum, examines the Earth’s relationship to the dynamic Sun. The guide provides a series of engaging activities for students to help them understand aspects of the Sun-Earth system that affect life and society. A key goal of the guide is to make students aware of the risks of living with our nearest star, the Sun, and how space weather impacts astronaut safety, satellite operations, power grids, and communications. Over the course of this unit students engage in activities that lead them to discover for themselves the potential risks of living with a star, and about many important and useful concepts in space science, earth science, technology, physics, and health science.
In recent years, learning more about the Sun and its effects on Earth has become a critical research priority. Correspondingly, it must be viewed as an increasingly important part of our students' science curriculum. Most of us know that the Sun is a star, and that all life on Earth depends on the Sun's constant output of heat and light. What's not so well known is that the Sun's seemingly steady energy output is actually tremendously variable, and includes much more than just light and heat.
In the "Living with a Star" unit, students become solar scientists, studying fascinating and lesser-known aspects of the Sun and Earth and the connections between the two. They learn that a whole spectrum of electromagnetic energies, as well as a continuous wind of solar energetic particles, sweep past our planet every day, and that Earth is bombarded much more intensely by these energies and particles during periods of high solar activity. "Living with a Star" provides students with valuable experience in risk assessment, making considered choices, and assessing priorities now and in the future-for themselves, their communities, and the planet as a whole.
Through their activities, students discover that life on Earth is naturally protected from most of the Sun's harmful effects. Our planet's permanent magnetic field, the magnetosphere, shields us from the solar wind, and our atmosphere shields us from the most harmful solar electromagnetic energies. Students also discover that, in fact, our skin acts as a third "shield" from the potentially damaging effects of ultraviolet light, some of which penetrates the atmosphere. Students do experiments on how best to protect themselves from UV, and discuss issues related to the thinning of the ozone layer.
Students learn how today's fast-growing technologies have raised new questions about our vulnerability to solar storms. In the years to come - whether we live on Earth's surface and rely on satellite communications, or venture into space beyond Earth's natural shields - we are increasingly at risk of disruptions or damage resulting from our star's tempestuous activity.
Over the course of this unit, students engage in activities that lead them to discover for themselves the potential risks of living with a star, and to generate ideas about predicting solar storms and minimizing potential damage. They do research, gather data, make and interpret graphs, conduct controlled experiments, assess risks, and engage in a simulation activity that incorporates what they've learned. Through these activities, students gain an understanding of the history of solar science and an appreciation for the excitement and importance of current scientific research on living with our dynamic, magnetic, and variable star.
"Living with a Star" includes a CD-ROM and links to a parallel website that supplement the unit with exciting, highly visual resources. The materials on the CD-ROM and website are identical, and include articles, images, movies, scientist interviews, Web links, and student exercises that allow teachers to expand on themes in the guide or simply pause to flesh out the main ideas. The website can be accessed directly at http://www.lhsgems.org/lws.
"Living with a Star" and Content Standards
This guide focuses on Sun-Earth connections, including scale, dependency, and risk. It supports the following content objectives in the National Science Education Standards: Earth and Space Science, Science and Technology, Life Science, History and Nature of Science, Science in Personal and Social Perspectives, and Science as Inquiry. In particular, the following concepts are directly addressed in "Living with a Star":
* The Sun is the major source of energy for phenomena on Earth's surface.
* The atmosphere is a mixture of gases [and] has different properties at different elevations.
*In historical perspective, science has been practiced by different individuals in different cultures.
* Risk is part of living in a highly technological world.
* The potential for accidents and the existence of hazards impose the need for injury prevention. Safe living involves the development and use of safety precautions and the recognition of risk in personal decisions. Injury prevention has personal and social dimensions.
* Human activities also can induce hazards [and] accelerate many natural changes.
* Risk analysis considers the type of hazard and estimates the number of people that might be exposed and the number likely to suffer consequences. The results are used to determine the options for reducing or eliminating risks.
* Individuals can use a systematic approach to thinking critically about risks and benefits. Examples include applying probability estimates to risks and comparing them to estimated personal and social benefits.
* Important personal and social decisions are made based on perceptions of benefits and risks.
In addition, this guide directly addresses the following concepts represented in one or more state science content standards:
* Energy can be carried from one place to another by waves, including light waves.
* Radiation can travel through space.
* Solar energy reaches Earth through radiation, mostly in the form of visible light.
Poster Session 1, Poster Session Educational initiatives (Hall 4AB)
Sunday, 11 January 2004, 5:00 PM-7:00 PM, Hall 4AB
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