Fairview High School, Boulder, Colorado
11, 12
Dr. Petach was one of the first educators through the NITARP program.
Dr. Petach carried out a workshop for two new physics teachers in her region (Niwot High School and Centaurus High School). The astrophysics content is especially useful for International Baccalaureate (IB) Physics programs since Astrophysics is one of the study units. Both Niwot High and Centaurus High are trying to develop IB physics programs.
The 2010 class has been selected!
My takeaway lesson is that the students are much more tolerant of "issues" that make the research projects difficult to carry out and are generally content to be involved and learning something new.
... I find that much of the NASA/space policy is unusual relative to other branches of science since the money comes from such a finite collection of sources.
The most valuable learning in high school arises when students take ownership of the content. Project such as the analysis of NASA telescope data, provide some optimal examples of this type of learning experience.