Digital library and learning objects, virtual field trips, remote instrumentation, virtual worlds, remote labs - - join this session for an overview of various resources available over the Internet2 and MAGPI networks that can enrich and support STEM initiatives in your classroom or institution. Participants will be provided with a resource handout and activities that they can integrate into their classroom next day, as well as long-term strategies for developing collaborative partnerships and integrating STEM technologies into the classroom.

Scheduled Presentations:

Inspiring future scientists and engineers with deep underground science

The Sanford Center for Science Education (SCSE) will be the education and outreach arm of the Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory (DUSEL), to be located in Lead, South Dakota. This science education center will provide innovative programs, expand educational opportunities for a wide array of students, and generally enhance the efforts of Homestake DUSEL. Key to the vision is the weaving together of on-site and distance components. Select audiences will be able to access the 4850L directly, and all will have access to the underground through computer-simulated environments. Students will be able to design their own inquiries, under the mentorship of a scientist or engineer either on site or thousands of miles away, using data from DUSEL. Current programs are building capacity and prototyping programs for the future.

Remotely Controlled Telescopes: A New Look at the Cosmos for Educators
A collaboration between the University of Louisville, and the University of Southern Queensland is developing remotely and robotically operated astronomical facilities for research, teaching and informal education. Telescopes in the southern and northern hemispheres, with a longitude difference that enables students to observe the night sky in daytime classes, are linked by Internet2 to campuses in Louisville, Kentucky, and Toowoomba, Queensland. The very dark sky at Mt. Kent Observatory in Australia offers the center of the Milky Way, the Magellanic Clouds, and transient events not visible from mid-latitudes in the northern hemisphere. Moore Observatory, in a forested nature preserve near Louisville, Kentucky, offers complementary remote services, live images of bright planets and the Moon, and the occasional northern comet and supernova to students in Queensland.

About Our Presenters

Dr. John Kielkopf is a Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University
of Louisville. A Louisville native, he received his Ph.D. in Physics
from The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore in 1969. He has been an
Associate Research Scientist at Johns Hopkins, a Visiting Scientist at
Argonne National Laboratory, and an Adjunct Astronomer at the
Observatory of Paris - Meudon, and is currently an Adjunct Professor of
Biological and Physical Sciences at the University of Southern
Queensland, Australia.

Dr. Peggy Norris is the Deputy Director for Education and Outreach for
Sanford Underground Laboratory/DUSEL. Dr. Norris received her education
at Rice University (B.A.) and Columbia University (PhD) in physics and
chemistry and worked more than 25 years at Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory (LBNL) in the area of low energy nuclear science.