*************************** ** THE GEM MESSENGER ** *************************** Volume 6, Number 3 January 12, 1996 ----------------------------------------------------- Request for Participation in Public Education Project ----------------------------------------------------- From: Patricia Reiff (713)527-4634 Dear Colleague: As part of my "Creating the Public Connection" program I would like your participation in two ways of reaching schoolchildren and the public. Neither should be too onerous in time or effort. I am organizing a series of interactive video conferences - in "ask the scientist" mode, but over the internet via Cu-SeeMe. Students from schools around the country hear a brief presentation about a timely topic, and then ask questions (1 hour total time). The time and monetary expense is quite modest: if you have an A/V Mac on the net and a camcorder, you're set. Even with a modest Mac (LCII or better), you can use a Quickcam digital camera ($100); the camera plugs into a serial port (you can use its mike, but the mike that comes with the Mac works better). Quickcams are also now available for PC's, but take a bit more effort to set up. We are using two videoconferencing modes: Cu-SeeMe (available free from gated.cornell.edu, directory /pub/video) and Apple Quicktime Conference (which comes with most new Mac's). Apple conference (unlike Cu-SeeMe) is color, and has some great shared window features (you can paste in a color graphic and see each other's cursor on it) - terrific for just a few nodes online. But for a large number of participants, Cu-SeeMe is faster (it uses a reflector site to gate the transmissions). Schools need not have a video source in order to watch your transmission - they can tune in as "lurkers" to watch and hear the proceedings. We prefer questions to be submitted in written format (using the "talk" window); it is less confusing. We have a web page describing the program and the tentative list of speakers and dates - check out http://space.rice.edu/hmns/dlt/video.html. If you would like to participate, please give me your topic and a suggested date. The schedule is pretty flexible at this point; naturally, we would like it during school hours (near noon CST hits most of the time zones). If you are interested, I can organize a live test any time... send me email ahead of time, and I can be available on one of our reflectors (128.42.10.16 or 198.64.198.250). The second way you can help us reach the public is via our educational software. We now have five modules: "Welcome to Planet Earth", "Space Weather", "Weather Watch", "SL-9" and "Astronomy Today", operating in the Houston Museum of Natural Science and ready to distribute to schools on CD-ROM. We are still looking for material (images, movies, sound, etc.) to add to any of these modules. (Or to "tag along free" on the CD-ROM). In addition, in our museum exhibit (due to go to many more museums in the coming year, including "Electric Space" and, we think, the lobby of NASA HQ), we have a real-time component, where we can show today's data or imagery. At present we have daily solar images in UV, H-alpha, and coronal lines, auroral forecast images, and equatorial fluxes from the MSFM. We are presently adding the latest WIND data and the Rice magnetospheric predictions based on that data (3-D magnetic field model, polar cap potential drop). If you have a consistent source of realtime data that you post to the net (or at least have accessible to us), please let us know the URL and we can incorporate it into the exhibit. For more information on our program, see http://space.rice.edu/hmns/ and links therein. If you would like to have a preliminary version of this (Mac) CD, contact us at connect at space.rice.edu or reiff at rice.edu. We charge $25 to cover the costs of making and sending the CD. (Note: there are limited versions of the modules accessible from our web site, but the museum/school version is much more extensive.) Finally, as a reminder, please answer the education survey sent to you before Christmas and return it to Rita Beebe or Jeff Rosendhal. If you did not save the survey, it should be available from http://ednet.gsfc.nasa.gov/oss/form.html Thanks.... Pat Reiff +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ |To add name to the mailing list, send a message to: editor at igpp.ucla.edu | |For message to whole GEM mailing list, send to: gem at igpp.ucla.edu | | | |URL of GEM Home Page: http://igpp.ucla.edu/gem/Welcome.html | |Please update your e-mail address. | |CAUTION: Do not send messages to gem at igpp.ucla.edu unless you want | | your message to go to everyone in the GEM mailing list! | +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+