Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2006 11:06:51 -0400 From: Donna Young In light of the upcoming futures meeting for the AAVSO Education Committee, there are some thoughts about two ways that at least myself ways are connected to each other:

they are all located on the Chandra education website. On the Chandra website I have two of the activities from HOA in HTML, PDF, and Flash formats. As part of the approximately 40 clinics/workshops/conferences I present each year I always include an HOA activity and variable stars and talk about AAVSO. The Stellar Evolution module on the Chandra website has been given many accolates, and recently the NRC had a panel of that review was that the Stellar Evolution module was outstanding. I am in the process of developing a module similar to the Stellar Evolution one that is about Variable Stars. It will be complete with Benchmarks. As with what is on the website already, there will be several links to AAVSO. This means that Chandra, and not AAVSO, maintains the web pages so AAVSO does not have to take time they do not are directed to me from the Chandra website. Again, everything that is it. Stellar evolution is always a favorite for educators and students, support from the EPO office to contribute to the AAVSO.

2.) The other way in which I currently contibute to variable stars is Chandra website and also perfect for what I do with the Science Olympiad organization. I am the National Event Supervisor for the high school Astronomy Event. That means that I write the rules for the manual. The event focuses on Stellar Evolution (after all, that is a major content for both national standards and Benchmarks) and contains many variable stars. In fact, for the next three years the MAJOR focus on the event will be variable stars. So as a resource, I list the Chandra website as a resource for coaches and teams. I have also contains a variable star section, and links to Chandra and to AAVSO. Last year over a thousand were sold. Each year, there are several Hammond, Illinois alone has at least 650 coaches attend. I present resources and techniques to the coaches to help them help their teams prepare for the Astronomy event. Each year 100,000 high school students across the country start preparation for Science Olympiad. Each state has a state meet (some of the more active states, like Michigan, have not involved with the Science Olympiad.

Soooooooo... between the Chandra and Science Olympiad workshops/clinics/presentations I personally present to approximately 3000 formal and informal educators each year, and "force" thousands of high students to access information about variable stars on the Chandra and AAVSO websites. I like Pam's idea about the "kit" which would service classroom educators, Science Olympiad coaches and students, and have a huge audience that I could draw from to field test them. It could be listed on the Chandra website. We are in the process of developing an imaging "kit" at the moment which will probably eventually be sold by a company but which we would have several of, so that we can have a lending program, I never develop anything for are many who have absolutely no money to spend on their students. I course new memberships should be an outcome for the organization and a realized that Pam needed suggestions or ideas until we have the spring meeting.....
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