A Great Example of Using Multiple Forms of Media
Last year “We Choose the Moon” was launched in celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 launch. This is a fantastic example of using video, audio, photos, and animation all in one course. Here is the link, www.wechoosethemoon.org. It is absolutely worth the visit.
Also, here is a video from AdobeTV that provides some background on the development of “We Choose the Moon.”
If you liked this course, you will also like these courses on space and NASA.
Explore the Apollo 11 Landing Site - NASA
International Space Station - NASA
One Small Step - NASA
NASA 50 Years - NASA
Rocket Science 101 - NASA
A Sense of Scale - The Elegant Universe
Trace Space Back to You - NASA
And there are plenty more on the Free e-Learning page.
A Peek at Astronaut Training
Here is a video that gives us a glance at astronaut training including NASA’s use of virtual reality.
To read more about Cady’s training, read the CNN article “Training Day for Astronaut-mom Cady Coleman.”
Learn About Tomorrow’s Lunar Impact
Tomorrow NASA has a planned impact with the Moon. Here are a few resources to learn more about the Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) mission, which if successful will identify water on the Moon.
And here are some LCROSS resources directly from NASA:
Good luck NASA, if there’s H2O up there, you’ll find it!
A Lot of Ingenuity and $148
Two MIT students were able to accomplish a near space flight, capture images at 93,000 feet, track it with a GPS, and recover the equipment upon its return to Earth. You would think this would involve very high tech, expensive equipment. It did not. They did it with a weather balloon, cooler, a used digital camera, GPS enabled cell phone, and open source software. A total cost of $148.
I think this is very inspiring for those of us who may not have access to high end technology and large budgets. These students truly demonstrate that with ingenuity and “can do” attitude a lot is possible in spite of limited budgets.
FYI: The time lapse video is shaky because the cooler that held the camera was not stabilized.
Go to their website to read the details of the Icarus Project and find links to pictures and interviews - http://space.1337arts.com. I am sure we will be hearing a lot more from these MIT students.
NOVA’s Interactives Archive
I absolutely love seeing great examples of e-learning. While watching NOVA, I took a trip over to their website and found their Interactives Archive. It has hundreds of educational interactives. They are organized by interest and range from anthropology to technology. Here is the link, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/hotscience, take a look. It will be added to the Free e-Learning page too.
Explore and Learn About Mars
Google Earth now includes Mars. It is free and uses updated photos taken by NASA. Besides being able to explore the red planet and its features, it also includes an interactive tour with Bill Nye the Science Guy, visits to landing sites of craft that have visited Mars, historical maps and a whole slew of other educational material.
If you are interested in the rest of the solar system and deep sky objects (e.g. galaxies and nebulae), they also have a Sky view. This allows you to explore a plethora of objects and plenty of info about these objects. This is definitely a must see for anyone interested in astronomy.
Below is a video tutorial for exploring Mars. Or go straight to Google Earth and start exploring.
