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Sorry, due to the connection from the
Mojave, some of this transcript is missing.
>> The theme of this event is
astrobiology because it's interdisciplinary and inclusive.
I think that's one of the things that has been able to
open us up and have -- please stand by.
Audio problems being encountered.
>> Also looking at surface features like rock formations in
the field.
It's a big spectrum of work we're doing.
[Inaudible] -- giving off from cave mouths.
That's the spectrum of what we're doing.
>> What are some of your thoughts?
You've been involved with all three Spaceward Bound! programs and
how it's going to work.
What have you seen as far as the interactions between the teachers
and the scientists?
Maybe a funny story or some funny -- [inaudible] >> New
experiences outside of their normal realm of dealing with things
in the classroom and how adventurous they are.
Because, really, what underlies all of my interests in science really
is kind of the spirit of exploration and adventure.
I find it very heartening and -- inautomobile
[Inaudible] >> I've heard several teachers talking about,
since we've been here, is that enthusiasm.
As teachers in the classroom, I know we don't forget but sometimes
we need to be reminded of how important our enthusiasm is because
we tried to do that day in and day out and it's hard because it takes
a lot of energy to be that enthusiastic but it's so important.
If we were here experiencing this and you -- [inaudible] -- again
how important that enthusiasm is.
Thank you very much.
>> Our pleasure.
>> At this point we're going to bring some of the teachers
on the set and get a chance to talk to them and hear a few of
their stories.
Hopefully they'll have some comical stories as well to add into the
mix.
>> Okay, Matt.
I see that the person you're going to start with is going to take
a little loadup time.
[Inaudible] >> We have lots of good questions in there
already.
Please make sure you ask your questions early because when we close
down, the questions are gone so please get them into the chatroom
and we'll try to answer them if we can.
Thanks, Matt.
>> Thanks, Linda.
Okay our first teacher is Luther Richardson and Luther, if you can
tell us a little bit about yourself and where you're from.
[Inaudible] A little bit about it and some of your ideas on how you
might be able to bring this back into the classroom and do some activities
with your students.
>> Sure.
This is my friend here and I have some specifics I'll mention with
that in terms of picking something favorite.
So many things have happened out here it will take a while to get
it together but many things will come back to the classroom.
From -- [inaudible] I have an idea.
We're also going to caves later on so we'll take a trip there.
With the robot specifically this robot and another one that we have
here is capable of doing essentially a road sensing.
Imagine you go to Mars, there are some challenging places to go.
You might not want to be the first one to go there.
So these robots are perfect candidates to do that sort of thing and
so -- [inaudible] Pop up on the computer screen and really be able
to do those kind of investigations.
Taking back to the classrooms.
We'll try to integrate some sensors into this where it can send information
back to and simulate the kind of things we want to do on Mars.
I hope that the students I have will be able to walk into a job
-- [inaudible] >> Great, thank you, Luther.
I appreciate you joining us today.
We'd like to next bring on the set robin SALONICH.
That's quite a robot.
Hi, how are you today?
>> I'm doing good.
How are you doing?
>> Real good.
Thanks for joining us.
[Inaudible] >> It started a chain reaction of stuffed animals.
>> This is my counterpart's classroom mascot Mr. tiger.
>> Is there anything you are planning on Mr. tiger when you
go hope or photo ops that you're doing?
>> There are photo ops we'll be using with Mr. tiger.
We plan on taking him to some of the lava flows later on.
We went -- [inaudible] >> We stood on a lava flow that
was 500,000 years old and to our right was another lava flow
that was 300,000 and to the left 175,000 years old.
The geological features were amaingz.
As far as the classroom when we were doing a rock sampling, she went
through step-by-step and showed us how she did some -- [inaudible]
-- we've begun science notebooking so this will be definitely an
important factor to bring back to show them that yes, what you're
doing in the classroom is relative and scientists do do this and
it actually does happen in the real world.
>> Very good.
What are some of your experiences with the scientists?
What has been that like from a teacher perspective?
>> From a teacher perspective it's been an awesome open door.
[Inaudible] >> Open to some of our questions and helpful.
>> All right, great.
Thank you for being with us today.
>> Thank you.
>> I would like to next bring on Mike MARCIONDO.
We have had great stories going around from lots of teachers that
we wish we had more time to share with you but hopefully as we
have our teacher presenters come up -- [inaudible] >> Okay.
Greetings from Zzyzx and good afternoon to my family and friends
and students back home.
I teach integrated science 7th grade in Pennsylvania.
I want you to know your tanning was much more successful than our
tanning here in the Mojave yesterday.
[Inaudible] >> Is there anything you're planning to bring
back to your students when you go home?
>> I've been fortunate as part of a research team.
Finding life in extreme environments.
Where is it, what is it and why is it there and part of a research
team of where is it?
One of the areas of main interest is lava tubes and lava caves.
[Inaudible] Collapsed areas of lava tube that access into the tube.
They show up temperature gradients in a pixel form and then we do
the ground work first and then we follow that up with verification
from hot air balloon.
I've been part of the balloon crew here.
My prop is my gloves.
You have to have the gloves all the time for both -- [inaudible] >> Of
course, with the temperatures being a little chilly today being
involved with a balloon wasn't bad.
It may not be a place where you're sweating today.
That ought to be a nice thing.
Thank you, Mike, appreciate you joining us today.
We'd like to next bring on Linda Hoover.
[Inaudible] >> The area and I teach at a middle school
and I teach math and science.
>> Okay.
Tell us a little bit about what you've been seeing and experiencing?
>> I'm part of the cave and ballooning crew also.
I'm excited about that.
I'm hoping to bring my actual classes out to the area and do
some of the same caving and experience some of the things we've
been doing when we've been here and -- [inaudible] >> Your
time getting to interact with them as well?
>> I felt that the teachers were welcomed farmly and we were
pulled in like family with them and as we are taken into the
field we're taught and treated like we're one of them and that's wonderful.
I think to hear that from us as teachers that scientists are people
and they are like family.
[Inaudible] >> Good morning, Matt.
>> Good morning, Jim.
Thanks for being on with us today.
Tell the audience a little bit about yourself, where you're from
and what you teach?
>> I'm Jim cool, I teach middle school 6th grade Earth science
at central square middle school to the yellow house.
>> And what are some -- [inaudible] >> Kind of felt like
that especially when I heard I was settling in Sunday afternoon
and I heard the distinctive blast of a blast valve for the hot air balloon
and I knew this is a place -- my students know that I'm really
interested in both geology and hot air balloons.
I've been doing that all week, out with the balloon team.
[Inaudible] >> Fascinating and just great for me.
>> What's neat, too, Jim your situation is almost the reverse
of what some teachers are doing.
Most of us are getting ideas of what new to bring back to the classroom.
You're getting ideas on how to improve what you've been doing.
You shared with me early on even before we came here that you
start off your year with a hot air balloon activity to -- [inaudible] >> Validates
what we're doing and we're going to be doing another flight in
early May with our balloons.
We've packed them up for the winter.
Bad weather for the winter but we'll be getting them out and trying
some of the things that they're trying here.
>> Great.
I've really enjoyed watching your enthusiasm around the balloon and
I know you'll be able to take it back to your students.
Thank you for being here, Jim.
>> I have a -- [inaudible] >> I got a lot of photos,
too.
I did want to tell RACHELLE her research was really good.
It appears she was correct there are no venomous lizards in the Mojave.
>> Thanks, Jim.
Next I would like to welcome on the set Evan Justin.
Hello, Evan.
>> I work in Washington
I like to tell people I live in the bottom of PUGET sound.
>> Can you tell us -- I know you've been excited about some
things you've seen since day one and you've been sharing some
of the things that you're hoping to do with your students.
[Inaudible] >> -- in college.
Anybody begins to feel like a time traveler looking at data that
is 20,000, 50,000, 2 billion years old.
I feel like I'm walking on STRATA.
I can go over to us is what a dry, desolate landscape and see,
now that I have discovered -- [Inaudible] >> The far west
end of what you guys did.
The continuity of our work as a program and the planets that share
our Sun, this is a large commune experience for me.
I've got this great idea from Jim that I can get a whole bunch
of literally -- [inaudible] >> To classrooms all over the
place looking for anomalies and interests.
>> Evan has a nice blog that he's set up for his students and
he's been working really hard at getting the word out.
We appreciate all that the teachers are doing for the program.
>> Thank you.
>> Thank you, Evan.
Appreciate you joining us today.
We'd like to next bring on sandy -- [inaudible] Tell us about yourself
and where you're from.
>> Sandy RISBERG.
I'm a science teacher here in the high desert.
This is my first year here.
When I moved here I wanted to learn the geology about this area and
learn about the desert environment.
And this opportunity has just been beyond my -- [inaudible] -- firsthand
the changing Earth.
How organisms can live in this environment and the word we learned
was analog.
The analogs on the Moon and Mars, my first vocabulary word this week.
Just a great opportunity right in our backyard.
>> You know, it's so amazing when you talk about extreme environments.
[Inaudible] >> To adapt and switch to the environment but the
same token humans are very similar in that respect, maybe we
can't quite live in those extremes or not yet.
A very interesting note.
All the things that you've been seeing while you're here, the ideas
you have bringing back you have a huge advantage and I know several
peoples are from the surrounding area, Las Vegas and they have the
desert in their backyard.
I'm from a -- [inaudible] >> Two weeks from now we have
a volcanic mountain right literally a quarter mile from campus
right walking distance and I already have a field trip planned,
a walking field trip.
To be able to talk about -- [inaudible]
[captioner is experiencing poor audio]
[The audio keeps cutting in and out]
>> About the geology -- [inaudible] >> Some of the things
that you've seen here.
>> I think every aspect of what I'm doing here is applicable
to my classroom because one of my classes is like actually what
I call astronaut training 101.
Since my students are the ones going to the Moon and Mars , I think
ss our future astronauts and explorers learn how to take the
soil samples and they need to learn what to look -- [inaudible] >> Getting
ideas.
Can you tell us a little bit about something that you plan on taking
back from this experience?
>> Well, I got an opportunity to work with the robots yesterday
morning.
And I was really examining them very closely and noticed that they
didn't look that difficult to build.
We already have a robotics program at our school where the kids
build -- [inaudible] >> How is your -- what has your experience
been here as far as the station?
What have you enjoyed?
What has been fun here?
>> The challenge of doing the science in these conditions.
I mean, yesterday it was windy and I'm told by another teacher that
the winds were like 50 to 60 miles-per-hour so it really felt
like -- I felt like a hard-core -- [inaudible] >> We actually
got the problem solved.
That was kind of fun also.
>> I can definitely relate to the flat tire incidents.
We had a few of those.
We weren't as close to a gas station.
You guys were able to fix that in a timely fashion and still a mystery
behind why the tire went flat.
I guess that's Mojave ghost taking over there.
Thank you for being with us today.
[Inaudible] >> Thanks, sweetie.
I think the main difference has been we're around more teachers.
There are new scientists.
It has been a great reunion having an opportunity to come back and
be among who I consider friends that we spent a lot of time with
and went through some struggles in a Atacama with flat tires and
-- [inaudible] some different perspectives how to bring it back to
the classroom and an opportunity for me to share some of the things
I've learned and pass that onto the teachers.
I know the first day that we were out on the transect and I took
the opportunity to show some of the teachers to use GPS because they
had never learned and I had never learned.
In the Atacama I had a little introduction to that so it's been
nice -- [inaudible] >> Come on over.
Come on over.
>> Front and center and if you want to field the questions
to someone else that's great, too.
All right.
Okay.
First question, what natural resources are there?
>> Wow, lots of dirt, rocks, lots of wind.
We actually have a -- [inaudible] >> White minerals on it.
It has been very, very fascinating.
Of course, my fascination has been with the volcano.
I have lots of pictures to share since we'll be doing that when I
get back to school.
>> Moving along.
Of course, if you haven't been directly involved in any of these
things you maybe will pass it to someone who has.
[Inaudible] >> Cold and windy.
A teacher on her blog site has a picture of me huddled in front of
the car radiator with my hoody and hat on so it was just really cold.
Didn't see much heat radiation yesterday.
It has been really interesting, though, to -- [inaudible] >> It
was a dry lake bed so yes, lots of infrared photograph re going
on especially with the hot air balloons that we just did last
Friday.
This one goes up a lot higher than ours did.
They are actually using the thermography to search for the openings
to lava tubes.
We'll talk about that when I get back.
>> Great.
[Inaudible] >> Would anyone else like to add to this?
Go ahead.
>> Just a quick one.
Last night in the science meeting we found out apparently old hat
that old weather conditions involving wind distribution on landforms
has a lot to do with microdensity in the Atacama and we don't
know yet whether or not it's a -- [inaudible] >> We have a question
here for robin from Irene in Florida.
>> That's my aunt.
>> Okay.
Does it truly feel like another planet in your location when you're
suited up and doing your experiments?
And how are you adapting to that?
[Inaudible] >> And have you seen anything meteor?
>> I can answer that.
I actually was out at 4:00 this morning making a run.
Was the first time I had gotten to see the sky and the stars.
It was just phenomenal.
The stars are extremely bright and they're beautiful and Cheryl Lynn
will give me an astronomy lesson later.
[Inaudible] >> Kind of habitat and environment is there
for the animals?
>> Mostly under rocks.
As we've been out in the field, big holes in the ground and they're
everywhere.
So you look at the holes and go, I wonder what's in that hole?
You try to sidestep but then you're next to another hole on the opposite
side.
We did see -- [inaudible] >> Virginia and I noticed that
yesterday everyone was wearing heavy coats and I was taking my
shirt off so it ranges.
It's been very windy, even driving we noticed a horse trailer was
having a hard time so -- it's very different from back home.
[Inaudible] >> He's coming.
He's coming.
>> In the meantime.
>> While Dan is running in on the weather note.
Yesterday Kobe and I had a chance to go out with penny and Mike and
Ted and do caving expedition.
It was very cold and windy.
We went up to 7,000 feet and went into a cave -- [inaudible] >> It
makes it very, very extreme.
>> Which is why we're all wearing coats.
>> It's really cold.
It's hot and dry in a cold way.
[LAUGHTER]
>> It -- the type of creatures that live out here have to deal
with very, very high -- [inaudible] >> At the end as we
get ready to sign off that might be -- we're kind of covered
in here to protect ourselves so it might be--
>> A lot of sand.
We're looking out over a lake that has no water in it.
It's just flat and it's very, very dry.
And a lot of salt and stuff like that.
Creating a very harsh environment.
[Inaudible] >> There I was sitting in that lead van and
the decision was made by Chris and a number of others that we'll
send this van, the one I was sitting in, across and if that van
can make it, we can all make it.
And next thing I know there are people flocking out of the van
and I should have probably -- [inaudible] >> As it turns
out in that stream that was about knee deep all around, there
were two rocks and we're guessing we must have hit one of those
two rocks in such a way that it made the tire indent in enough
to allow the air to escape and then, of course, we had to change
the tire.
It was a rental.
We had to find the spare because it -- [inaudible] >> It
always becomes a great story later.
That's the best part.
It is good to have the problems come up as long as you're able to
get back for dinner, right?
>> Exactly.
>> Again originally we thought the only way to get there was
to cross the river.
It wasn't until they saw us with a flat on the other side and decided
nobody else wanted to try it.
[Inaudible] >> What new things about Mars have you discovered?
That's a good one to pass around a little, I think.
>> Yeah.
My fascination, because I was in Chile, we didn't really talk about
lava -- [inaudible] >> Living inside those lava tubes has
just fascinated me this trip.
Anyone else?
[Inaudible] >> Fantastic place to do research.
>> All right.
Additionally some of the theory of the lava tubes potentially could
be used for human habitation once we get humans on Mars.
An enclosed environment, can be sealed off.
[Inaudible] >> Protection.
>> I found out how hard it was the drive the Mars rover when
you couldn't look at it.
You had to do it through the computer and not run into people, although
you wouldn't really have that problem on Mars.
But running into rocks and things and then making repairs.
Because you aren't there.
So that -- [inaudible] >> In the Mojave as you go deeper into
the Earth from the surface of -- [inaudible] >> Of the
surface environments to the lava tubes and other caves.
They aren't necessarily the same organisms but they serve the same
ecological functions.
So one of the things we're studying is who are the guys who are living
on the surface.
[Inaudible].
That's what we're finding out so far.
>> Isn't it different because the soil on the top is older?
Isn't it different because the soil on the top is older than the
soil underneath which is strange?
>> There are a lot of complexities here, one of the issues
is -- [inaudible] .
>> Remain active or at least viable -- [inaudible].
>> Adaptation patterns to radiation related to depth of the
things in the Earth.
>> A most excellent question.
[Inaudible] >> Related organisms on the surface to see if the
ones in caves have actually -- [inaudible] .
>> Can you hang around for that webcast with us?
>> Sure.
>> Which gives me a good time to put in an ad.
At 11:00 our time here there will be a webcast in Spanish and some
of our Spanish-speaking teachers are going to be on it, as well as
-- [inaudible] .
Matt, wrap it up here and maybe we can do a pan so you can wave and
your loved ones and classrooms.
>> I want to say thank you to our audience for the great questions
and staying with us for the hour.
On behalf of the teachers, I just -- [inaudible].
>> Share stories of -- [inaudible] .
>> Collaboration effort on going to the Moon and Mars down
the road.
Thank you so much for all the opportunities and I know the teachers
are all very grateful.
To our viewers, as we sign off we want to say thank you again and
we invite you to join us in our audience in the future as future
space robotics -- [inaudible]. |
