Dawn of the North: Space Weather, The Sun, and Aurora - Yerkes Teacher Workshop - Saturday February 23, 2013

Ever wonder about how the Aurora are created and when you can see them? Did you know that there is weather in space? And, what wonders lay beneath the surface of the sun? Join us on Saturday, February 23, 2013 for the next Stars at Yerkes teacher workshop - Dawn of the North:  Space Weather, The Sun, and Aurora.

This workshop will help you to better understand the strong connection between the Sun, Earth, and the Aurora (with a little stellar evolution thrown in too). We will look at the aurora and explain how they are formed due to the processes that occur on the sun and through space weather. Hear about the new IRIS (Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph) spacecraft and get your middle or high school students involved in the NASA ‘Tracking a Solar Storm’ project.

We will explore the sun, its activity at various layers safely, with al of our modern ground based and NASA space based technologies.  Participants will also learn about the space weather predictors used by scientists and what websites and Apps they can go to for aurora prediction. An aurora demonstration will also be provided

 As an extra bonus, we will share NEWLY DEVELOPED star cards, H-R diagram, and stellar evolution classroom activity that will make you a star in your classroom. BRING your laptop, mobile device, and/or tablet!

Registration includes CPDUs and lunch. Register for this workshop now!  Click here for registration form.

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RESOURCES

Dawn of the North Website        This is a tutorial about how the aurora are created from energy from the Sun.  (grades 9-12)

http://sprg.ssl.berkeley.edu/aurora_rocket/aurora/

 Educational Materials and Activities for Middle and High Students

http://sprg.ssl.berkeley.edu/aurora_rocket/education/

Geophysical Institute Aurora Forecast

http://www.gi.alaska.edu/AuroraForecast

Graphing Sunspots Activity - This activity has been archived and the orginal website gone. But you can still access it from the Wayback Machine.  On this link there are several sun spot activities for all grade levels.  The one you want fhat we did at Yerkes is called "Graphing Sunspots" (Grades 9-12)

http://web.archive.org/petabox/20000616123029/http://www.thursdaysclassroom.com/09mar00/hi_school/coolspots_menu.html

IRIS Challenge Home

http://irischallenge.arc.nasa.gov/

IIRIS Solar Storm Teacher Guide                              

 http://irischallenge.arc.nasa.gov/iris_guide.pdf

ISS AURORA VIDEOS - This is the entire video collection of aurora videos taken from the ISS and Shuttle by astronaut crews


NASA Space Weather Action Center                

http://sunearthday.nasa.gov/swac/data.php

http://sunearthday.gsfc.nasa.gov/

http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/

Classic - for younger students

Nasa version - contains more detailed information