January 28 – February 1, 2002
WISH ON A STAR – Our annual Remote Access Astronomy Project is taking place this week. See http://www.rain.org/campinternet/wish_on_a_star.pdf to print out the invitation and send home to parents.
JAN. 29th LIVE REMOTE ASTRONOMY CHAT will be held Tuesday, January 29th, 9:30-10:30 am. Come learn how to submit a request for a robotic telescope to take a picture of a star of your choice visible in the night sky. Images will be available later in February due to weather and telescope alignment factors, but get your requests in now.
Jan 31st FAMILY NIGHT learning activities online will be held 6-8pm on the theme of ASTRONOMY. We have schools in the desert and LA area ready to participate and invite others to join in the fun!
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 .
Suggested star chart for locating brightest star coordinates:
http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~dolan/constellations/extra/brightest.html
Brightest stars this time of year are Sirius, Canopus, Capella, Rigel, Betelgeuse,
Aldebaran, Pollux, Adhara, and Castor because they are most visible
in January and February.
NOTE: After requesting a star image you will receive an email back listing the file name the image will be listed at on the RAAP web site. Please email that message to camp@campinternet.net so we can help make sure the image opens correctly.
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. Get your weather kit out and operating, and you can submit your weather reports in the dig.
GPS trips to Malibu have been consolidated to the 31st . Meet 8am at the Soto Street lab with GPS and Camp Field Note Book (b.y.o.lunch). Other teachers are invited to attend and can meet at the lab, or 1pm at the Malibu Lagoon State Park.
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 Dig 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.
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.
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.