Teachers and home schoolers,
this is for you:
Subscribe to Sky Calls and you'll receive, as often as once a week, educational activities about breaking science news and astronomy. These materials, developed by Dr. Tony Phillips and a team of professional teachers, are suitable for 5th to 8th graders in home schools or traditional classrooms. Here are some sample activity sheets: Utterly Alien, Lunar Eclipse, Red Rovers, UFO Planet.
In addition to the activity sheets, you and your students get phone alerts reminding you to step outside and view events in the night sky. For instance, when the space station is approaching, the phone rings: "Go outside and look up. The International Space Station is about to fly over your house!" The voice is that of Dr. Tony Phillips, editor of Science@NASA.
Kids love receiving these calls, and because anyone in the household might answer the phone, they transform astronomy homework into a fun family activity.
Sky Calls is a family activity.
We have tested Sky Calls in 25 public school classrooms. More than 600 students and 20 educators participated. Here's what some teachers had to say:
Christine Lachaussee, Beach Elementary School, Pascagoula, Mississippi: "The Sky Calls program was wonderful! My students loved getting the calls from Dr. Phillips and were fascinated when they could actually identify the planets in the sky. The packets that were sent were very beneficial to me as a teacher. Parents have even told me how excited they were to be involved with their children in learning about the heavens."
Judy Hughes, Woodville School Woodville, Alabama: "My students at Woodville School were very interested in the Sky Calls program. Even the adults--teachers, principals, and parents--who participated were enthused. Each night we could not wait to see the events that were unfolding. If there is another opportunity for our school to participate in any of your astronomy programs, we would certainly welcome it."
Please visit our kudos page to read more teacher comments and to view the results of a survey of participating students, parents and teachers.
Never miss another meteor shower, space station flyby, planetary alignment or geomagnetic storm.
Caveat Educator: New discoveries and unexpected happenings in the sky will, from time to time, cause our schedule to change.
Oct. 26 -- Moon-Jupiter conjunction
Oct. 31: Halloween Special: Trick or Treating under the stars
Nov. 2: Full Moon ("Frosty Moon")
Nov. 9: Moon-Mars conjunction
Nov. 7 - 14: Space Station flybys of many US towns and cities
Nov. 16: Space Shuttle Atlantis launches to the ISS
Nov. 17: Leonid meteor shower
Nov. 23: Moon-Jupiter conjunction
Dec. 2: Full Moon ("Long Nights Moon")
Dec. 6-7: Moon-Mars conjunction
Dec. 14: Geminid meteor shower
Dec. 31: Blue Moon!