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How Telescopes Have Changed Our View of the Universe - Web
Seminar Series
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Lynn Cominsky
Lynn Cominsky is the Chair of the Physics and Astronomy Department at Sonoma State
University (SSU), where she has been on the faculty for over twenty years. She is
an author on over 60 research papers in refereed journals, and the Principal Investigator
on over $10 million of grants to SSU. Prof. Cominsky is the founder and director
of SSU’s Education and Public Outreach Group, which supports several different NASA
high-energy astrophysics missions. The group excels at K-12 teacher training, curriculum
development, and the development of interactive web activities for students that
teach math and science. Recently, she has served as the scientific director for
the PBS NOVA television program “Monster of the Milky Way” and accompanying planetarium
show “Black Holes: The Other Side of Infinity.” In 1993, Prof. Cominsky was named
SSU’s Outstanding Professor, and the California Professor of the Year by the Council
for the Advancement and Support of Education. In 2007, she was named a Fellow of
the California Council on Science and Technology.
Dr. James Lochner
Dr. James Lochner has developed educational materials for NASA for the last 10 years.
To this endeavor, he brings a lifelong fascination with astronomy and a background
as an astrophysicist, as well as his experience enabling teachers and students to
improve their understanding of the universe. His team in the High Energy Astrophysics
Science Archive Research Center (HEASARC) at NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center has
developed curriculum materials on topics ranging from black holes to the origin
of the chemical elements to our evolving understanding of the nature of the universe.
These materials include educator guides, classroom resources, and student access
to astronomy data, all collected on the Imagine the Universe! web site. He has given
numerous educator workshops nationwide at locations that include National Science
Teacher Association national and regional conferences and at the National Educational
Computing Conference. Dr. Lochner is also currently the acting E/PO Lead for the
Astrophysics Science Division at NASA/GSFC
Dr. Jatila van der Veen
Dr. Jatila van der Veen has been in the field of physics and astronomy education
for nearly two decades, as a high school physics teacher, a lecturer in physics
at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and as a Professor of Science Education
at Purdue University-Calumet. She earned her Masters in Geophysics from Columbia
University and her Doctorate in Education from the University of California, Santa
Barbara, where she studied under the famous sociolinguist, Professor Jenny Cook-Gumperz.
Dr. van der Veen's research in Education has focused on interdisciplinary arts-sciences
education, math as a language, and applying research from sociolinguistics to improve
physics education.
In 1990 Dr. van der Veen began a collaboration with Professor Philip Lubin, director
of the Experimental Cosmology Lab at UCSB. She was one of the original collaborators
on the Remote Access Astronomy Project (RAAP), one of the first robotic telescopes
for education in the United States. van der Veen and Lubin have written curricula
for high school and college in digital image processing and modeling in astronomy
and cosmology, for nearly two decades, and have given numerous workshops for teachers
through the American Association of Physics Teachers and other organizations.
Dr. van der Veen is currently a Visiting Project Scientist at the University of
California, Santa Barbara, and serving as the E/PO Lead for the NASA collaborators
on the Planck Mission. She also teaches in the Interdisciplinary Studies program
at the College of Creative Studies at UCSB. This fall she has begun a new collaboration
with Professor JoAnn Kuchera-Morin, director of the AlloSphere at UCSB, to utilize
the visualization and sonification capabilities of Virtual Reality to teach cosmology.
Some of this research will be part of this evening's presentation.
Dr. Frank Summers
Dr. Frank Summers is an astrophysicist working in the Office of Public Outreach at the Space Telescope Science Institute. His expertise spans a diverse range from research cosmology and high performance computing to scientific visualization and general astronomy outreach. At Space Telescope, he contributes to all aspects of Hubble and astronomy outreach through news media, web sites, educational programs, museums and planetariums. His specialty is creating accurate and aesthetic scientific visualizations by combining research computer simulations and Hollywood rendering techniques. He contributed to the Academy Award nominated Imax film "Cosmic Voyage", directed an Imax short film, “Hubble: Galaxies Across Space and Time”, and is currently working on the Imax film “Hubble 3D”. On the web, he is the host of the “Hubble's Universe Unfiltered” video podcast. He lectures widely, consults on books and documentaries, and has created a 24 lecture course on our new views of the solar system for the Teaching Company. Previously, Dr. Summers was the lead astronomer developing the exhibits for the year 2000 rebirth of the Hayden Planetarium in New York City.
For more information contact symposia@nsta.org
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Underwritten in part by NASA |