Curator:
Nate James

Responsible Official:
Don Sawyer, Code 633

Last Revised: Friday, 09-May-2003 [NLJ]

The NASA Sun-Earth Connection Education Forum (SECEF) and Passport to Knowledge (P2K) partnered for the major events of Sun-Earth Day, 2003. Sun-Earth Days, now in their third year, were created to communicate the excitement of the fast-moving field of Sun-Earth Connection science and research into the Sun's effects on Earth. Thousands of participants at science museums, schools, and star parties in North America and Europe talked with scientists, observed the Sun with telescopes connected to the internet, learned about the Aurora (Northern and Southern Lights), and the culture of the Northern Peoples.

Every NASA Center and many NASA Educator Resource Centers had planned events for the public or provided training for science teachers or students in conjunction with Sun-Earth Day. Specifically, more than 9,000 teachers had been invited to education workshops related to the science of the Sun-Earth Connection.  There were 215 teachers who registered through the website. Packets were distributed to support 186 scientist’s efforts within museum settings and classrooms.  An additional 39 museums also received support packets, and 100 packets were sent to support efforts by museums in Europe.  There were also 182 events supported  by Amateur Astronomers,.

Living With A Star, a solar science documentary, was first broadcast on February 11^th.  This documentary prepared students for Live From the Aurora- Sun-Earth Day 2003,, with content and exciting science to capture the interest of students and teachers.  Live From the Aurora on March 18^th featured a real-time webcast interaction between NASA researchers on location at Poker Flat Research Range, Alaska and youngsters at the Maryland Science Center, Baltimore, MD; Chabot Space & Science Center, Oakland, CA; Fernbank Science Center, Atlanta, GA; and The Imaginarium, Anchorage, AK.   Poker Flat is the world’s premier site to study the aurora with sounding rockets.  During the broadcast and for one hour after (13:00-15:00 Eastern Time) viewers could submit questions to a panel of NASA and University of Alaska/Geophysical Institute experts on the aurora as seen on the Passport to Knowledge website: http://passporttoknowledge.com/sun/main.html

The main website, http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/sunearthday,  provided additional resources to support educators, museums, and scientists for this year’s event.  In addition a new feature was added in January, the Student Observation Network.  Through the network students can track a solar storm and predict an aurora. Activities, web quests, and a multi-media gallery were also created to support and enhance this year's Sun-Earth Day and the ongoing Student Observation Network.

NASA's Sun-Earth Connection Education Forum (SECEF) translates and interprets the research results from NASA's solar science missions for educators and the public through training programs and educational products.  P2K is the longest-running series of interactive learning adventures on public TV, and many of the shows in the series were funded by grants from NASA.  In summary, the partnership between SECEF and P2K resulted in a very successful Sun-Earth Day 2003.