Dear Ms. Mills, Mr. Preston, and Mr. Green,

As you are about to lead manned missions to Moon, Mars, and ISS, here is a combination of notes, requests, and other types of information that you may find useful.

Blocks

Moon, Mars, and ISS was designed for 10 blocks of 1.5 hours each. Program contains eighteen 45-minute activities and a block for presentation of final projects. You now have scheduled 11 blocks, which means that you have a spare block. This is good, as you will undoubtedly want to add more time to various aspects of the Program, especially to the preparation and presentation of the final projects.

Videos/DVDs

The videos/DVDs that have been selected can be obtained from unitedstreaming (www.unitedstreaming.com). It is great that your school has a subscription. We suggest that you download the videos ahead of time and write them onto a DVD for classroom viewing.

Materials and Equipment

The equipment to perform the “Radiation” and “What are the stars and planets made of?” demonstrations is rather expensive and only one set will be provided. You will need to coordinate your schedules accordingly. A video has been selected that is a perfect match with the spectroscopy demonstration (What are the stars and planets made of?). It best to show it either in the same rotation or the previous rotation. (What do you think is best?)

We have another implementation right after this one and will need all the materials, equipment, and leftover consumables back. You will be able to check them out again next year. If we get the Phase II grant, we will give the school all the equipment that is required to run the program. The materials that were obtained from NASA and the notebooks are yours to keep.

Exhibit

Student final projects will be picked up at school on Friday June 17. Projects that will require special handling, such as videos that will need to be converted into DVDs and edited for presentation will need to be submitted earlier. Projects will be on display June 18-22 and will be returned to school on the 23rd. We will have an award ceremony at the Museum Saturday afternoon (June 18th). All students will get free tickets for themselves. Accompanying adults will need to buy at ticket. There will probably be enough space to exhibit 1/3 of the student projects. This will also depend on the nature of the projects. There is some possibility that follow-on exhibits will also be scheduled. As the date nears additional details will be provided. (There might be merit to end the exhibit a day earlier, so that students can pick up the projects on the last day of school.)

Feedback

Your feedback is EXCEPTIONALLY important to us. We want to know what you and the students liked, disliked, how you explained things to the students, organized them in teams, etc. This will enable us to improve the instructions and make the program more effective and “user friendly” for other students and educators. Don’t feel that you need to be formal. Notes, sketches, tips, and thoughts will be greatly appreciated, regardless of format. Please do not hesitate to contact Miriam at (858) 487-8149 and miriam@nu-trek.com with any questions you may have. Feel encouraged to contact other team members if you think they will better be able to address your questions.

Programmatics

Our final deliverable is an electronic program that will be posted on DLESE (Digital Library for Earth Science Education). After program conclusion, we will update the materials based on the feedback and submit it to DLESE. The contract comes to an end on July 20th, on which day the Phase II proposal is due. Towards the end of the Meadowbrook implementation we will start working on the proposal and will be asking for your input and assistance. The follow-on grant will run for two years and will enable us to significantly improve the program as well as to implement it in many other schools. We will also extend Moon, Mars, and ISS to other grade levels, in particular 3rd and 5th, which have Astronomy standards.

The Nu-Edu team is exceptionally pleased that you have embarked on this journey with us.

Bon Voyage!