G. J. Taylor: Educational Outreach ProjectsAll of us associated with Hawai'i Space Grant Consortium are interested in education and outreach. My faculty slot was actually created as part of the State's matching funds for our Space Grant program. This is an exceptionally wise use of public funds!
Exploring planets in the classroom
Developing educational activities Linda Martel and I worked with a team of local teachers to develop a set of classroom activities about the Moon for use in schools, especially when a school borrows the lunar disk, which is a Lucite disk containing six rock samples from the Moon. The project was funded by NASA, and the activity set was published. It is available from NASA and is also on-line at SpaceLink. The experience of creating and testing classroom activities helped us develop additional activities to use in our summer workshop. I used some in my introductory geology class as well. Pertinent publication: Taylor, G.J., Martel, L.M.V. and Bays, B.G. (1997) Exploring the Moon: A Teacher's Guide with Activities, NASA EG-1997-10-116-HQ (Previously published in 1994 as NASA EP-306), 146 p. An accompanying slide set with script is available as publication ES-1997-12-002-HQ.
Planetary Science Research Discoveries Linda Martel and I write, edit, and maintain (with the help of funding from NASA) a web site called Planetary Science Research Discoveries (PSRD). PSRD is an educational site on the world wide web devoted to sharing the discoveries being made by planetary scientists through the research programs sponsored by NASA's Office of Space Science (OSS). It is aimed primarily at teachers, students, and the general public, and provides all planetary scientists an opportunity to share their ideas and discoveries. All articles are based on published research and are reviewed carefully for clarity and content. Issues are posted monthly, and past issues are archived online.The site can be found at: http://www.psrd.hawaii.edu.
Explore the Planets CD-ROM Here is an unambiguously self-serving advertisement for an excellent
educational program on CD-ROM, Explore the Planets, revised in 2005.
I wrote it and Dennis Tasa, a renown graphic artist, illustrated it. Everyone
should own a copy or two. To learn more about it and other Tasa programs,
go to: http://www.tasagraphicarts.com/ Pertinent publication: Taylor, G.J., (2005) Explore the Planets, Interactive, multimedia,
educational computer software. Tasa Graphic Arts, Inc., Albuquerque, New
Mexico. |
Exploring Planets in the Classroom is a K-12 education program of the
Hawai`i Space Grant Consortium. Linda Martel and I conducted summer workshops
which provided background science and classroom-ready and classroom-tested,
hands-on activities for full-time teachers and librarians from Hawaii's public
and private schools. The activities are available on-line at: 
