Published: January 15, 2010
Ms. Hemphill is retired from OES. But she remains interested in the Spitzer (and NITARP) programs and in bringing the findings to students.
The Spitzer program and NITARP have both been resources for providing astronomy materials for ELL students in San Antonio, Texas and in Canby, Oregon. Linda Hermans of Spitzer sent astronomy materials to Lilia Smith in San Antonio, who was teaching in a new charter school with a predominantly Spanish-speaking population. She used Spitzer bookmarks and small posters (and other Spitzer materials) as reading incentives for students in her reading classes (students LOVED the posters and bookmarks). Ms. Hemphill suspects that many of Ms. Smith's reading students improved (and passed their state reading test) due to the use of Spitzer materials. She provided large posters to the teachers in the K-7 school for their classrooms. Even the janitors in the school, some of whom spoke only Spanish, would read the backs of the posters. [She has a thank you note that Lilia sent her, addressed to "Astronomers" with some photos of posters on her wall with students looking at them.]
Luisa Rebull also provided contacts for obtaining space materials for Ms. Smith's students. From those contacts she received 3 different sets of materials that she used. She incorporated Spitzer and NASA materials into her reading program.
Ms. Hemphill has been helping in the ESL classroom at a local middle school in Canby. She has provided some astronomy CDs to the ESL teacher. She is working on a presentation for these students, who speak only Spanish, on the infrared spectrum or on the evolution of the Spitzer program.