From: "Pamela L. Gay" <pamela
Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2006 12:30:12 -0400
To: John Percy <jpercy
Cc: 

Hi Everyone,

I just made it home from a speaking tour that had me working with  
Girl Scouts, Project Astro teachers, and amateurs. From this broad  
sampling of folks I was able to come away with a bunch of info  
relevant to our committee.

Key points:

1) Amatuers love using the kits available through the Night Sky  
Network. The woman I was working with, Alice Few, is pretty sure  
their isn't variable star kits.
planned?
creating one for them to use
		+ What existing things can we use to make a observing kit
		+ What existing things can we use to make a data mining kit (all  

2) There was HUGE interest in creating an "Adopt a star" program  
where students "adopt" a potential variable and work to confirm or  
deny it's variablity and define it's light curve. People completing  
this would then get a patch.
(Person X) are doing to
system for looking for variations on
	  different time scales?
with this?

3) The idea of doing an instructional series of video podcasts was  
put forward and Alice is willing to do vodcasts on telescopes 101  
(collimation, polar alignment, star hopping, etc). Do we have someone  
(I'd like to encourage Mike Simonson here) to do visual variable star  
observing 101.
with Arne
together video (I'm game)
Alice and 1 from Mike?? at the fall meeting
	  and then release the whole series at the Calgary meeting

4) We need to figure out how to partner with Girl Scouts/Girl Guides  
and Boy Scouts better at the National and International level. Before  
I share my still forming ideas, I'd like to know what you guys know  
of that is already happening.

All these things are moving toward a model where we look for ways to  
create content that can be used and distributed by others, rather  
than a direct education model. This model helps to build stronger  
bonds with the people who have direct education experience and  
already have distribution infrastructure (which means as individuals,  
we can play). This is also a model that frees us to develop content  
without having to work through liability issues and pay for  
background checks on anyone we have going out and having student  
contact (in several states it is now legally required to have  
complete background checks on anyone who might possibly ever be alone  
with a student). These projects also work to raise awareness of  
AAVSO. This is a model that HQ likes and encourages.

At the council meeting, we are going to work to define the role of  
education within the AAVSO, and I need to prepare a document that  
defines specific goals in terms of X new members, Y observations by  
students, and Z new professionals (educators and astronomers) brought  
into collaborations and traces out projects to use to meet these  
goals. What goals do you see as reasonable, and how do we as  
individuals make our own goals for making sure these goals are met  
and exceeded?

Cheers,
Pamela
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