A three-week summer workshop will be offered at the Takoma Park campus of Montgomery College for teachers in grades 6 through 12. The teachers will learn not only astronomy, but the physics, mathematics, and technology necessary to understand and teach. The interdependence of astronomy on other sciences, such as chemistry and even biology, will be stressed. The visual, historical, religious (astrology), multicultural, and artistic roots of astronomy will be explored, as well as the modern scientific approach. Hand-held, inexpensive celestial spheres, holographic high resolution diffraction grating spectrometers, astrolabes, and other devices will be used during the workshop and become the property of the teacher. A significant part of the workshop will be conducted in the planetarium under the stars and in an adjacent computer laboratory were all of the machines are connected to the Internet. A visit to the Goddard Space Flight Center, the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism of the Carniege Institution of Washington (the oldest non-profit research organization in the country), and the United States Naval Observatory, and the University of Maryland Observatory will be made during the workshop.  At the conclusion of the workshop the teachers will return to their classrooms with astronomical knowledge, reference materials, simple laboratory equipment, computer programs, video tapes, and astronomical modules written by them and other teachers in previous workshops designed to meet the needs of their students.

Personal teaching at the workshop:

• Dr. Harold Williams, Workshop director,
• Dr. Nancy Grace Roman, retired program scientist for the Hubble Space Telescope and many other things,
• Dr. Carol Crannell, a Sunbeams and HESSI person,
• Dr. Gordon Dean Holman, a HESSI person,
• Mr. David Clark, a GSFC Senior Aerospace Engineering technician.
• Dr. Alan Boss, DTM astrophysicist staff member and author of Looking for Earths: The Race to Find New Solar System (order from Amazon.com ),
• Dr. Steve Shirey, DTM geochemist staff member,
• Dr. John Trasco, professor and associate director of the astronomy department at the University of Maryland,
• Mr. James Morrison author of the best information on the web on astrolabes,

The workshop will be offered form July 5 though July 23 from 9AM to 3:30 PM Monday through Friday. There will also be three one day Saturday workshop in the 1999-2000 school year for teachers to share how things are working out. Teachers will be paid $80 per day, $1,440 for attending all workshop meetings. Four graduate credits in astronomy are available through the University of Maryland for teachers that need graduate credit. Unfortunately if you want graduate credit you will have to pay for it or get your school system to pay for it.  Your stipend for the workshop would cover the in state graduate tuition with a small bit left over.  The workshop is supported under Title II of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Professional Development Program (public law 103-382; CFDA Number 82.281B) awarded by the Maryland Higher Education Commission grant number 99-20-217.

If you are interested in applying for this program and your browser is form capable please click here. Netscape and Microsoft's Internet Explorer are form capable.  Extra preferred consideration is given to teachers who apply via the web.

If you are interested in applying for this program and your browser is not form capable, answer the enclosed questionnaire.
 

Mail to:	Dr. Harold Williams
	Montgomery College
	Takoma Ave. and Fenton St.
	Takoma Park, MD 20912

If you have any questions please call Dr. Harold Williams at [240]-567-1463 or email at hwilliam@mc.cc.md.us.  Last year there were more than twice as many qualified applicants as there were positions available in the workshop.
Web page last modified by Dr. Harold Williams June 24, 1999.
Return to Montgomery College Planetarium Web page.