Fourteen Year-Olds Doing Real Science with Multiple NASA Missions!
October 9, 2007
The Goldstone Apple Valley Radio Telescope (GAVRT) Program has Middle School and High School students from around the country, and on American military installations worldwide, working alongside scientists on multiple NASA missions. Students are using a decommissioned NASA radio telescope to collect data of interest to professional scientists at the same time they carry out "hands-on" activities that meet their educational standards. This collaboration currently involves teachers in 31 states and with Department of Defense schools in 13 countries. Students use the internet to collect data and remotely control the giant radio telescope from their classrooms. The GAVRT program is being described in a poster talk on October 9th at the American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Sciences meeting in Orlando, Florida. Mr. David MacLaren of the Lewis Center for Educational Research (LCER) in Apple Valley, CA will present the talk, with co-authors Dr. Mark Hofstadter (JPL/Caltech, Pasadena, CA), Ms. Kim Bunnell and Ms. Kelli Cole (LCER, Apple Valley, CA). Here we describe some of the activities in which GAVRT students have been involved.
Students have participated in radar measurements that helped characterize the landing sites for the Spirit and Opportunity rovers on Mars. Powerful radar transmitters at NASA's Goldstone tracking station and at the National Science Foundation's Arecibo telescope in Puerto Rico illuminate Mars, while several telescopes receive the echoes. The received signals are used to characterize the surface properties of Mars. This winter students will be working with scientists in support of the next U.S. rover to visit Mars, the Mars Science Laboratory.
Students and their teachers are measuring radio and infrared emissions to study the energy balance of black holes at the centers of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). This project is a collaboration with the Spitzer Space Telescope, NASA's great infrared observatory. Student data will be used to determine if there is a relationship between the accretion disks surrounding black holes (as seen in the infrared), the gigantic "jets" of particles shooting out from the center of these galaxies (seen at radio wavelengths), and the mass of the central black hole.
GAVRT students have conducted ground-based observations for the Cassini mission that helped calibrate an instrument on the spacecraft that was used to study Jupiter's radiation belts, and is now taking measurements of Saturn and its moons.
Students in grades 5-12 will be participating in the upcoming Juno mission which will look for clues as to how our solar system formed. Ground-based measurements will be supporting the spacecraft on its journey and while it conducts 32 orbits of the giant planet.
The planet Uranus takes 84 years to orbit the Sun, with each season lasting 21 years. There is evidence that the planet's atmosphere undergoes dramatic seasonal variations which are not accurately predicted by current models. GAVRT students have joined with scientists to observe changes on Uranus, in hopes of better understanding weather and climate on giant planets.
The GAVRT program is available to students throughout the U.S.. Interested teachers should consult our website at http://www.lewiscenter.org/gavrt/. GAVRT is a cooperative effort between the Lewis Center for Educational Research and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (managed by the California Institute of Technology). Our DPS poster number is 27.10.
For more information contact:
Mr. David MacLaren
Lewis Center for Educational Research
17500 Mana Road
Apple Valley, CA 92307
(760) 946-5414 x221
dmaclaren@lcer.org
