Campwide Briefing

January 21-28, 2002

THIS WEEK’S NEWS

WISH ON A STAR – Our annual Remote Access

Astronomy Project is taking place this month in preparation for classroom use and Jan 31st FAMILY NIGHT learning activities. You will submit your selected star coordinate request ( or they have a list of stellar objects you can choose from), submit a request form, and then the telescope will scan the night sky, capture the image you requested and mail it to your desk top. Please note that this time of year the RA coordinate needs to be in the 06 - 07 range. Then you can chat with the RAAP folks from UCSB Feb 27th, 3-3:30pm as they are our online guests at the Tech Ed Symposium.

See the Camp Astronomy section at

http://www.rain.org/campinternet/astronomy/

And then open the Remote Access page at

http://www.rain.org/campinternet/astronomy/remote_telescope.html .

From there you can review how to use RAAP in a tutorial (look for Submitting an Observation Request to the Remote Optical Telescope (ROT):

http://www.rain.org/campinternet/astronomy/raap_instructions.html

Or go right to requesting a star’s image at

http://www.deepspace.ucsb.edu/ir.htm .

You will need to know the star’s coordinates inorder to submit the request online – see our .pdf of RAAP’s suggested stellar objects.

Be sure to list school name / Camp Internet so we can route them faster.

CAMPWIDE DIG this week – open to all tracks – is on WEATHER plus you have your own track DIGS giving you two DIGS to work with all month long.

GPS at the Huntington for LAUSD Teachers has been consolidated to the 23rd. Meet 8am at the Soto Street lab with GPS and Camp Field Note Book (b.y.o.lunch). GPS sessions also planned for Jan 30,31 and Feb 5th. See LAUSD calendar of sessions under News and Events on the main portal at http://www.rain.org/campinternet/lausd_training.pdf

GPS LOW TIDE WALK  - All Camp Teachers and their families are invited to attend a low tide GPS Day walk in Santa Barbara, weather permitting, on Saturday, January 26th , one of the lowest tides of the year. We will convene for the GPS/GIS intro (teachers only please) 9:30 am at the Camp Headquarters, 1129 State Street for the morning hands-on session, and then reconvene (after lunch on your own) at Leadbetter Beach for a low tide/ family-members-welcome GPS walk with Julie Bursek from the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary. Come see the amazing sea life revealed during this unusually low tide ! Please RSVP to camp@campinternet.net  if you plan to attend. (LAUSD teachers can attend as their Day Two training activity). Bring your GPS and Field Note Pad.

This week we continue working with the new METEOROLOGY section http://www.rain.org/campinternet/meteorology/ and invite you to follow the instructions to get your weather kit installed and then select students to take reading each day to form your own weather journal. We also have a weather report form online at http://www.rain.org/campinternet/meteorology/campweatherform.html . It will feed to Camp and to the Teacher’s Email if the student understands to enter the Teacher’s Email where prompted on the form.

Two New TEACHER Workspaces have been opened in the Teacher’s Web. One chat room provides instructions on creating field reports – see Field Report Chat Room. The other provides instructions on HOW TO CREATE AN INTERNET DIG – see Workshop Chat Room. Teachers Assignment for January-February is to Create an Internet Dig so jump in and begin working on the four levels to this primary teacher activity. Your finished piece will then go public for student use in March and April on appointed days.

COMING UP COMING UP COMING UP

FAMILY NIGHT for January will be on Thursday the 31st, online or in your classroom. Theme is Astronomy and we have an announcement online you can print out and send home to parents. Help us bring the generations together ‘round this electronic campfire!

The flyer for printing / sending home to families is available in the News and Events section from the main portal, online.

VOLCANO TRAIL GUIDE – On Friday February 15th we will host a LIVE Trail Guide Chat with Dr. Trombly form the Southwest Volcano Research Center. They are busy this month tracking the Congo eruptions and will fill us in on volcano activity around the world – and in our own region. 9-11am. Please prepare in advance 3-6 questions per class.

TECH ED Conference – February 25-27. Three day full conference passes are available for up to 6 teachers who would also like to help out at the Camp booth sharing how they use Camp Internet with fellow teachers. Camp is leading their first K-12 Symposium on Feb 27th, 2-5pm, featuring presentations by teachers from LAUSD, Lake Arrowhead-Rim of the World, and Yucaipa-Calimesa urban/rural districts. We have 50 exhibit floor passes for teachers who can attend any of the three days, or afterschool. See techedevents.org for details.

NEW WEB FEATURES – Please Get Familiar with these new online tools

1.                  TWO NEW TEACHER WORKSPACES – In the Teacher’s Web – Field Report workroom on how to create a Field Report, and Workshop workroom featuring how to Create and Internet Dig.

2.                  NEWS AND EVENTS – We have a new area on the main Camp portal - #5 under TODAY AT that will now be your source for viewing Camp community-wide and special events with pdf file invitations or schedules you can print out. Teacher trainings, Family nights, field trips suggestions, and conference / meetings are listed.

3.          NEW ACTIVITIES Learn-By-Doing Pages- We will continue to host the live Internet DIGS where students post answers to their research findings right on the live computer screen, but we have added a new dimension to the DIGS – an activity library of past DIGS organized by track. See the ‘Activities’ link from your track trailhead.

Channel Activities link http://www.rain.org/campinternet/channelhistory/activity_menu.html

Backcountry Activities link http://www.rain.org/campinternet/backcountry/backcountry_activities.html

Southwest activities link http://www.rain.org/campinternet/southwest/southwest_activities.html

4.       NEW BRIEFING DIGEST  - Each week we send out your weekly briefings – and then any other special announcements – to your preferred email address. We also make those briefings available on the web to refer to anytime with out opening your email. The main Camp portal has the general Campwide Briefings listed under Today At, #4, and inside each track there is a link to that track’s unique briefings as they come out each week.

New this year, we are making the entire digest of each listserv also available. Now you can not only read the main briefings online on the web – you can also read the special announcements via the Camp web site. Check out your track trailhead and click on the briefing link. You will see Track Listserv Digest as a new link, and when you open that it will include a chronological list of all postings to the listserv. This way, if a special event is announced mid week – maybe an exciting Trail Guide confirmation for a Chat, you can get to the announcement on the web with out opening your email.