Difference between revisions of "Main Page"

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<big>'''Wiki for the Spitzer Teachers Research Project'''</big>
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<big>'''Wiki for the NASA IPAC Teacher Archive Research Program (NITARP)'''</big>
  
= What is the Spitzer Research Program for Teachers and Students?=
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= What is the NASA IPAC Teacher Archive Research Program (NITARP)?=
The [http://ssc.spitzer.caltech.edu/ Spitzer Science Center (SSC)] and the [http://www.noao.edu/ National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO)] are working together to provide teachers and students with authentic science experiences using observing time on the Spitzer Space Telescope. This program has as its goals the fundamental NASA goals of inspiring and motivating students to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics as well as to engage the public in shaping and sharing the experience of exploration and discovery. Our educational plan addresses the NASA objectives of improving student proficiency in science and improving science instruction by providing a unique opportunity to a group of teachers and students to observe with the Spitzer Space Telescope and work with Spitzer archival data. This program allowing a team of teachers and their students (with the help of a mentor astronomer) to apply for Director's discretionary observing time on Spitzer.  Once the observations have been completed the research team, made up of students, teachers, and a mentor scientist, complete the data analysis, and present their findings to others throughout the scientific community. [http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/cosmic_classroom/teacher_research/index.shtml Read more about us on the Cool Cosmos website.]  Or, [[What is this project?| keep reading about the goals and other background information we've collected here.]]
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[https://nitarp.ipac.caltech.edu NITARP, the NASA/IPAC Teacher Archive Research Program], gets teachers involved in authentic astronomical research. We partner small groups of largely high school educators with a mentor professional astronomer for an original research project. NITARP (combined with its predecessor, the Spitzer Teacher Program) has been running since 2005.
  
= What and Who is this Wiki for? =
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= What and Who this Wiki is for =
  
This wiki is a dynamic environment for the participants (teachers, scientists, and students) to interact as their research projects evolve over time. All participants are asked to share, and continue to develop materials based on their experiences with this program.  We ask that if you make a contribution to the Wiki that you PLEASE cite the source of your information and/or provide your contact information (EMAIL) in the event others have questions.
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This wiki has now been commandeered to be a place for us to '''collect bits and pieces of lessons that might be useful to NITARP alumni or other educators''' (grade 7 through college). It used to be a dynamic environment for NITARP participants to work, and as such, there may very well be pages here that are .. less than polished. We have tried to isolate those pages where possible. And, for sure, there are old pages from the prior incarnation of this site that may turn up during searches but that may not be relevant any longer.  
  
'''IMPORTANT NOTE:''' Since these projects and web pages are designed to evolve and change over time through the contributions of many different learners (including students, teachers, and scientists), you may from time to time find some information that is not 100% accuate.  This of course is part of the learning process we hope to foster.
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We encourage you to think critically about the information that is here, and ask for help or clarification if you need it.
  
Also see [[What is this project?]] for more information.
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[[What this site is not]]
  
'''Anyone can view these pages, but if you'd like to edit them or make additional contributions, please email Dr. Luisa Rebull at rebull@ipac.caltech.edu to get an account set up.'''
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[[Guide to NITARP participants for use of the wiki]].
  
=[[Introduction to Infrared and Spitzer]]=
 
A general introduction to infrared astronomy and the Spitzer Space Telescope, with links to go to for more information.
 
  
=[[Research Tools]]=
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= How to use this Wiki =
How to get started, software, tutorials, overviews, and more.
 
  
=[[Current Research Projects]]=
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I suspect everyone agrees that Legos are awesome. You can build nearly anything with them. You can get a set, build it according to the instructions, and then take it apart and build something wildly different than the designer intended with those very same Legos.
Students, teachers, and scientists throughout the US are working together on a wide variety of Spitzer research projects. Currently they include a variety of projects ranging from the hunt for young stars in IC 2118, to exploring the supermassive black hole in Arp102B.
 
  
=[[Future Research Project Ideas]]=
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That's what this site is designed to be -- a pile of Lego bricks. We have some components that are more like single Lego bricks, and some that are more like Lego pieces extremely customized to a single purpose. And, some of the individual constituents are more .. piles of melted plastic and not yet actually a Lego brick. We have provided in some cases ideas for how they can be put together to do something, and we plan more. You may see how something could come together that we did not envision!
Here is a place to explore future research project ideas.
 
  
=[[Misc. Lesson Plans, Activities, and Useful Websites]]=
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[[file:legopile.jpg|center|500px]]  
Please feel free to contribute.  We do ask that you include contact information (name and email address) when submitting lesson plans and activities.  This will help users of the site in the event they have questions.  Also, when posting a website, please provide a brief description of the site along with the web link.
 
  
=[[Wiki Development Plans]]=
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There are four main categories of resources on this site:
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* [[Background/general reference]] (e.g., units, central wavelengths, magnitudes)
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* [[Skill development]] (e.g., using IRSA tools)
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* [[Science background]] (e.g., about young stars)
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* [[Coherent ideas of what to do with these pieces]] (might be called "lesson plans")
  
Stuff we're still working on re-organizing or writing ab initio.
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Within each of these broad topics are smaller, well, "Lego brick" topics. Within each of these topics, the most polished stuff is at the top of the page, and the least polished stuff is at the bottom.  
  
= Leftover "Getting started on the wiki" stuff (including manuals for how to edit files) =
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Note that this wiki is not designed to replace a basic astronomy textbook for general introduction to astronomy information.  We're assuming that you've already gotten that information elsewhere. [https://openstax.org/details/books/astronomy Here] is a good, free, online one if you need a textbook.
  
Consult the [http://meta.wikipedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki_User%27s_Guide User's Guide] for tons of information on using '''(including editing files with)''' the wiki software.  [[Playground]] to experiment with formatting.
 
  
* [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Configuration_settings Configuration settings list]
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=Big open questions=
* [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:FAQ MediaWiki FAQ]
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* [http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-announce MediaWiki release mailing list]
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Yes, we are in the middle of a massive reorganization. Please bear with us.
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Categories : once we pick nomenclature, can tag them as belonging to the various "lego blocks" or whatever. can tag all of the recently edited ones differently than the mass of old ones?? https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Categories
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What to do with all the old, dead pages? originally it was not clear to me that we can/should delete all of them. BUT they still came up when you search on the wiki, so i deleted most of them. if there are new ones you find that need deletion, let me know.

Latest revision as of 02:36, 12 August 2020

Wiki for the NASA IPAC Teacher Archive Research Program (NITARP)

What is the NASA IPAC Teacher Archive Research Program (NITARP)?

NITARP, the NASA/IPAC Teacher Archive Research Program, gets teachers involved in authentic astronomical research. We partner small groups of largely high school educators with a mentor professional astronomer for an original research project. NITARP (combined with its predecessor, the Spitzer Teacher Program) has been running since 2005.

What and Who this Wiki is for

This wiki has now been commandeered to be a place for us to collect bits and pieces of lessons that might be useful to NITARP alumni or other educators (grade 7 through college). It used to be a dynamic environment for NITARP participants to work, and as such, there may very well be pages here that are .. less than polished. We have tried to isolate those pages where possible. And, for sure, there are old pages from the prior incarnation of this site that may turn up during searches but that may not be relevant any longer.

We encourage you to think critically about the information that is here, and ask for help or clarification if you need it.

What this site is not

Guide to NITARP participants for use of the wiki.


How to use this Wiki

I suspect everyone agrees that Legos are awesome. You can build nearly anything with them. You can get a set, build it according to the instructions, and then take it apart and build something wildly different than the designer intended with those very same Legos.

That's what this site is designed to be -- a pile of Lego bricks. We have some components that are more like single Lego bricks, and some that are more like Lego pieces extremely customized to a single purpose. And, some of the individual constituents are more .. piles of melted plastic and not yet actually a Lego brick. We have provided in some cases ideas for how they can be put together to do something, and we plan more. You may see how something could come together that we did not envision!

Legopile.jpg

There are four main categories of resources on this site:

Within each of these broad topics are smaller, well, "Lego brick" topics. Within each of these topics, the most polished stuff is at the top of the page, and the least polished stuff is at the bottom.

Note that this wiki is not designed to replace a basic astronomy textbook for general introduction to astronomy information. We're assuming that you've already gotten that information elsewhere. Here is a good, free, online one if you need a textbook.


Big open questions

Yes, we are in the middle of a massive reorganization. Please bear with us.

Categories : once we pick nomenclature, can tag them as belonging to the various "lego blocks" or whatever. can tag all of the recently edited ones differently than the mass of old ones?? https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Categories

What to do with all the old, dead pages? originally it was not clear to me that we can/should delete all of them. BUT they still came up when you search on the wiki, so i deleted most of them. if there are new ones you find that need deletion, let me know.