January 22, 2005
Students of Space: They're helping NASA with study of Saturn.
Darrell R. Santschi, Staff Writer. The Press-Enterprise [Riverside, CA]
Elementary school students in Moreno Valley and high school students in Apple Valley are playing a key role in the exploration of Saturn.
Even as U.S. and European space scientists were guiding the Huygens probe from the Cassini spacecraft into the mysterious Saturn moon of Titan last week, students at the Lewis Center for Educational Research in Apple Valley were using their giant, 34-meter radio telescope to stand watch over the planet. With the help of fourth-and fifth-graders at North Ridge Elementary School in Moreno Valley, the Lewis Center students calibrated a sensor as Cassini passed Jupiter. It is now collecting data on Saturn's atmosphere.
"They do scientific work that radio astronomy observatories can't do because they're over-subscribed," says Mark Hofstadter, a research scientist for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. "These kids are filling a niche."
They help so much, Hofstadter said, that he is proposing a research project over the next two years in which the students may be the first observers on Earth to determine whether Uranus has a climatic change during its equinox, when the length of daylight matches night.
The Lewis Center is a charter school that draws students in kindergarten through 12th grade from as far away as Palm Springs. From its Mission Control-style classroom, the school operates a massive radio telescope maintained by NASA at its Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex adjacent to Fort Irwin, north of Barstow.
HANDS-ON EXPERIENCE
Students at the Apple Valley school, and 14,000 other students in 23 states and 14 other countries, manipulate the telescope via the Internet.
They helped radar map the landing sites for the Spirit and Opportunity rovers now exploring Mars. They helped measure changes in Jupiter's temperature as the Galileo spacecraft plunged into the planet's atmosphere in September 2003.
And when they aren't busy helping NASA, they have explored quasars, black holes and other space phenomena.
"The beauty of the program is that the kids can get hands-on science experience," said Lynn Kollar, a fifth-grade teacher at North Ridge. "The students are compiling their data on spread sheets, which gives them a chance to practice math skills," she said.
Hofstadter, the NASA researcher, said the school's radio telescope can be aimed at a planet for weeks or months at a time, year after year. Astronomers cannot get that long and hard a look anywhere else. "If you go to a radio astronomy observatory and ask for a week to look at a particular planet, they'll give you half a day," he said. "They're cooperative, but they have a lot of requests."
Manipulating the giant telescope by remote control, and watching it shift positions via a camera mounted at Goldstone "is kind of scary," said 14-year-old Apple Valley student Alex Sanchez. "If you mess up, it's, `Oh, oh. I need a lot of money to pay for it.'"
The telescope was retired by NASA nine years ago in favor of more maneuverable models and turned over to the school after lobbying by Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Redlands. For schoolteachers, the telescope is a great motivator, says John Nyhoff, 45, an Earth science and physics teacher at the Lewis Center. "If you have enthusiasm in the classroom, you don't have the discipline problems," he said. "They're anxious to see what it is they are going to learn."
The Saturn project will continue for more than a month, MacLaren said, with the Apple Valley students sharing time operating the telescope with schoolchildren from Moreno Valley to Guam.
'PRETTY EXCITING'
Dane Pitchford, 15, said students enrolling in space-related classes are considered nerds by their classmates. "I've gotten a few of those comments," he said. "But again, those are the people who haven't actually done it. I did this when I was back in fifth gr! ade or so. I understand how much fun it is and that it's actually pretty exciting."
Ninth-grader Alex Sanchez of Apple Valley said he isn't quite sure what he's doing with the telescope, but he was certain it's important. "It's something interesting that I would like to learn how to do," he said. "If I go any further (in science) I will already have some experience with it."
Nyhoff said he has had gratifying moments when unmotivated students have been turned around by the radio telescope program. He is looking forward to the day this spring when the school unveils its newest science project - remote control rovers that will explore a planet-like landscape being carved out of an acre of land behind the school. It will have craters and caves and earthquakes to explore and study. Even a couple of volcanoes. Students will operate the toaster oven-size rovers by computer, using software much like NASA's. That should get even more students hooked on science, Nyhoff said.
"I want to become an astronomer," the freshman Pitchford said, then paused a moment. "Or a stunt man."
SPACE STUDY
Inland students from elementary to high school age are playing a key role in NASA's exploration of Saturn. Schools involved: * North Ridge Elementary, Moreno Valley * Lewis Center for Educational Research, Apple Valley.
Reprinted with permission from The Press-Enterprise 2005