This demonstration project focuses on a fascinating scientific topic: how robot explorers now open up this world and others for discovery. It shows how telepresence research sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) extends human eyes and minds to the depths of the Antarctic oceans as a prototype for techniques by which humans on Earth will in future be able to probe the planet Mars.
LIVE FROM... OTHER WORLDS is supported by integrated print and computer materials: this Teacher's Guide and other materials included in the package provide you and your students with information about the programs, the people and places you will be seeing and how to contact them with questions via computer and e-mail. Since electronic correspondence may be new to you, as it is for many educators, this Guide has a section designed to help you take a quick and easy first spin along the Information Highway.
As you'll soon see, your guides on this virtual field trip will be a diverse group of dynamic and eloquent researchers, men and women often in their late 20's and early 30's, who have made scientific achievement their passport to a lifetime of discovery. We've provided some background information in this Guide on how they began their careers and what motivates them so that just as on the best of field trips you and your students can have a more personal response to the people they'll meet rather than regarding them merely as distant experts on a television screen.
The interactive component of the programs allows some students at our live video origination sites of WHRO/Hampton Roads, Virginia, the University of Hawaii and NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, to question these researchers, live and on-camera. But the use of computer- based "discussion centers" organized by PBS LEARNING LINK and NASA's NREN (National Research and Education Network) K- 12 Initiative will allow any pupil and teacher to contact the scientists seen during the programs and other expert resources through electronic correspondence for further information. We have provided some suggestions about how you and your class may decide who goes online and how this project may also serve to introduce new uses of computer technology to your students. The online networks will also allow researchers in Antarctica and in America to post regular updates on their activities, providing a more personal glimpse of what careers in science are really like. Two sections are already online: (1) THE TELEPRESENCE PROJECTS RESEARCH LOG, posted weekly by team leader Carol Stoker and artificial intelligence researcher Butler Hine; and (2) DALE'S DIVE DIARY, a more anecdotal view of the ups and downs of the research, posted (when he has time!) by diver and exobiologist Dale Andersen. See the ONLINE RESOURCES section of this Guide for more information and for HOW TO GET ONLINE. The programs are 35 minutes in length and designed for use within a normal classroom period. The series is being distributed over Public Television stations and other satellite education networks and outlets such as NASA Select Television (depending on the flight schedule of the Space Shuttle).
The educational content of the project is suitable for all Middle School grades, though the Educational Materials design team feels sure that upper Elementary students as well as High School grades 9 and 10 will find the programs interesting and instructive. We hope this project and the potential future series will provide exciting, current and informative instructional modules directly relevant to the existing curriculum. This Guide and the computer materials available online suggest interdisciplinary, hands-on classroom activities appropriate to various grade levels and provide additional background on topics covered in the programs, including Mars and Antarctica.
The subject matter may be fascinating high- tech research, but responding to the programs and engaging in electronic correspondence clearly will enhance students language and communications skills and invite them to get their feet wet in the vast ocean of electronic data so important to your students' future.
This project has been developed by some of PBS's most experienced producers of science specials and series (Carl Sagan's COSMOS, several NOVA programs, CREATION OF THE UNIVERSE, LIFE ON ICE: Antarctica and Mars, CHILDHOOD winners of multiple Emmies, the Peabody and AAAS- Westinghouse awards for science journalism.) The programs originate from WHRO, the Public Telecommunications Center for Hampton Roads, Virginia, a leader in the use of satellite technology for distance education. NASA has been instrumental in advancing every aspect of the project, from making the communications links possible to designing the educational materials.
A high point of this pilot mini-series will come in the second program when a group of students at NASA's Ames Research Center in California will actually drive a robot camera system the Remotely Operated Vehicle, or ROV 10,000 kilometers away, deep under the Antarctic ice. In a further demonstration of the powerful global connectivity now possible, students at other remote sites will use ordinary school computers to control the Antarctica ROV and wheeled robots at NASA Ames. The first program will also show why Antarctica serves as an analog for other worlds in space and how technology being researched there can assist in the exploration of the planet Mars. The third and final program will show cutting- edge NASA research on virtual reality, robotics and telepresence, and again will provide for live student interaction with expert researchers and advanced technology.
Geoffrey Haines-Stiles or Erna Akuginow
GEOFF HAINES-STILES PRODUCTIONS
voice: (908) 273-4108 fax: (908) 277-9590
e-mail: ghstiles@ll.pbs.org
(FOR COMMENTS ON PROGRAM CONTENT)
Mark Jenkins or Terrie Jenkins
THE INNERSPACE FOUNDATION
9104 Fordson Road, Richmond, Virginia, 23229
voice: (804) 747-1168 fax: (804) 747-7315
e-mail: mjenkins@llwhro.ll.pbs.org
(FOR COMMENTS ON PROGRAM CONTENT)
Marc Siegel NASA NREN K-12 Initiative
voice: (415) 968-2598 fax: (415) 968-9505
e-mail: msiegel @quest.arc.nasa.gov
(FOR INTERNET DISTRIBUTION)
PBS LEARNING LINK Customer Service
voice: (703) 739-8464 e-mail: pheeter@ll.pbs.org
Introduction to This Guide
Return to description of lessons on 1995 CMEX Mars Sampler CD ROM