Educational Objective

     The primary objective is to teach problem solving to high school students, using practical engineering and space physics problems as the medium.

HEMISPHERE will start to involve students in meaningful, hands-on, scientific experiments, at an earlier and earlier stage of their education. One of the key goals of HEMISPHERE is to provide the infra-structure for students to be involved in publishable, experimental, space physics research. Due to the nature of space physics, with the limited number of opportunities and resources to visit and utilize world class research facilities, as well as the cost and time of fielding rocket or satellite-based instrumentation, most undergraduates, let alone High School teachers and their students, cannot participate in an experimental program in space physics. However, developing, testing, fielding, and analyzing data from the array of magnetometers is a low-cost and effective way of including High School teachers and students in space physics research. The magnetometers of HEMISPHERE have been deployed and operated by high school science classes to expose the students to a real and meaningful space science project. Each High School is partnered with a local space physicist in order to ensure data quality and to help with the deployment and interpretation of the data set. In addition to the space physics component, the design of the magnetometer kit allows the teacher and the student to participate in the engineering process. This project focuses not only on the outcomes, but in teaching the student the scientific and engineering method  of problem solving. Understanding opens the door for exploration.

The course will create the need for developing understanding and skills in space science, math, technology, and engineering.  A table showing the Activities included in this curriculum is given under Standards. This table cross lists the activities with the Nation Science Education Standards to assist the teacher in integrating Spac Physics into their classroom. Listed below are some of the concepts and skills that will be developed and/or utilized in this course:

  Basic Concepts:  Units, variables, length, velocity, acceleration, mass, forces, energy, time, distance, equations, and circumference.

Basic Physics and Space Science Concepts: magnetic field, current, dipole, Ohm's Law, Faraday's Law, Ampre's Law, Biot-Savart Law, Oscillations, Sun, magnetosphere, and Geomagnetic Storms.

  Basic Electronic Concepts: Voltage, resistance, current, short, open, wire, conductive, non-conductive, insulation, switch, resistor, capacitor, transistor, battery magnetic field, closed loop, troubleshooting, schematic, and pin-outs.

  Basic Engineering Concepts:  Planning, breaking down a problem, documentation, reliability, teamwork, digital notebook, and specifications.

  Skills: Problem solving, Microsoft Word, LabView, Microsoft Excel,  multi-meter, charts, reading a schematic, using a pin-out, Web searching, troubleshooting, reading specifications, technical writing of an engineering log, and putting a photograph into a Word document.

              Equations:

             The above link is to a neat web site with standard physics equations and constants. Space Physics involves concepts from mechanics to electricity and magnetism. Both of these topics are generally covered in the high school physics courses and are the topics of the first year of the standard Introductory Physics sequence in college. Of course many of these concepts are introduced earlier (such as velocity, position, and time) and many of the activities in this program are appropriate for middle school space science courses.