hello blog readers!
I've come to the realization that blogging during the school year
is near impossible, which isn't the greatest thing. I feel like reflecting on
what I'm going through (an awesome experience like NITARP or just everyday
teaching) helps me to process and get better. Things have been pretty
great when it comes to NITARP, my team and I finished our proposal and were the
first to send it in! Now we’re just waiting to hear back from the team who
reads them as to corrections/improvements so we can revise.
We started our actual research this
week and it’s really fun. I've never done research like this before, and I’m so
glad I can now. When I did research in college it was mostly for geology stuff,
and it was so different than this. Each member of the team had to go through
the process of finding a star in the Kepler data database, normalizing that
data, creating a periodogram for a specific date range, recording some data,
making a phased curve, then phase binning the data in this CRAZY excel
spreadsheet that one of our scientists made. The first one took me about 20
minutes to do, but I cut it down to about 10 minutes per star by the last few.
I kind of wish I understood the math behind it all a little better for when I
have to explain it to my students, but every time I look something up the
internet just spits all kinds of calculus back at me… and I’m just not quite
there anymore. (Maybe I could have figured it out when I was in calc in college…
but definitely not now.) All I kept thinking the whole time was I wonder if
this is really what it’s like to be an astronomer, and if it is, I want in. I
obviously love teaching, but I think after talking to my students for 7 years
about how what scientists do is so cool, actually doing it myself makes me
realize that it really is so cool (hooray for not being a big liar!). I think
the coolest thing about this whole project is also that our scientists aren't even sure if this is going to work, and at this point, I don’t really know if I
want it to or not. Sure, it’d be cool for it to work out and for us to have
something awesome to share with everyone, but what scientist hasn't struggled a
few times with figuring something out? Just being part of this is awesome
enough for me.
The rest of this blog is a little
more about looking toward the future though, so fasten the seat belts kids, this
summer has the potential to be the greatest ever! J I already
know that toward the end of the summer, I'll be going to Caltech for part 2 of
3 of the NITARP experience. I have to choose the students I'm going to bring
with me soon, but I only had about 6 apply. I really hope all of them participate
at school, even though I can only bring 2 with me to California.
But right now, I'm very impatiently awaiting some news on three
other things. First, I'm waiting to hear on if I got into the Honeywell
sponsored Educator Space Academy in Huntsville. Applications were due December
14th, but I finished mine in October, so needless to say, I just really want to
know already. I'm not the only impatient one, as there are quite a few people
posting on the Honeywell Educator facebook page, but from what I've heard, it
should be by the end of March. There hasn't been any official posting anywhere on
behalf of Honeywell though, so I'm a little frustrated by that. I only got my
answer via a tweet from the folks at Space Camp. :)
I also just applied for NASA explorer schools summer research
experience (like the one I went to in Baltimore last summer). According to
their website, I'm supposed to be notified if I was accepted by April 12th. The
deadline was March 15th, so this one (thankfully) has a much quicker turn around
time! It looks like the format is a little different this year, but like last year;
I had to pick my top 3 choices. I went with Orion
MPCV Research Experience, Mobile and Remote Sensing Lab Research Experience,
and Simulated Lunar Operations Facility Research Experience. Think they sound
cool? Then you should sign up to be a NASA Explorer Schools teacher! http://www.nasa.gov/offices/education/programs/national/nes2/home/index.html . I
really hope I'm accepted to one or both of these, but Teacher Space Camp could
occur on one of two weeks in June, and one of those is the same week as the
summer experience. Fingers crossed I’m chosen for both and can make it
work!
But, even if I'm accepted to both, there's another opportunity
that I'm really REALLY hoping I'm chosen for… and I’d be willing to do just
about anything for it. I got an email a few weeks ago (when I was still smiling
on the bus on the way home from Epcot with my students) from a person at our
county office that Kennedy Space Center has ONE opening this summer for a teacher
intern. The application was also due March 15th, but I was so excited I
sent mine in on February 27th. Needless to say, I'll be super disappointed if
I'm not chosen, but I think my application was pretty good. The internship is
with the Ground Systems Development and Operations Program, the people who take
care of the crawler/launch pads/VAB... yes, really(!!!). You can learn more
about them here: http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/ground/index.html
and here: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/pdf/642081main_gsdo.pdf
. From what the application said, it
looks like the internship involves creating an education program for them that
others can use to teach students about what the GSDO does, especially in
the transition time and in the future. I did a bit of research, and lots of the
stuff that I have in my classroom from them is all about shuttle. How exciting
would it be to learn all about all the cool stuff they’re making happen now and
doing to prepare for the future? I’ve pretty much been in love with the idea of
this internship since I’ve heard about it, and any positive vibes you could
send my way would be very much appreciated.
Thanks for reading… hoping to post
some good news soon!
-d
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