MicroObservatory

On-Line Workshop for Teachers 1998

Welcome to the MicroObservatory On-Line Workshop!

Please read through this introduction and instructions, which contain 
information you will need, before linking to the pages at the bottom that follow .

During this 3-week workshop you will gain experience using the 
MicroObservatory telescopes, image processing software, and communication 
channels that will enable you to conduct MicroObservatory lessons in your classroom.

You will receive your stipend for the workshop in two parts:  Half in the middle of the
 workshop, and the other half at the end.

The workshop is designed to meet the needs of both new and experienced users.  
Activities are therefore designed in a way that will allow new users to get 
familiar with the site and the many tools that are available through it, and then 
apply the techniques they learn through the introductory activity to additional 
exercises that are appropriate to your level of teaching.
Experienced users are encouraged to communicate their experiences and expertise 
with other participants through the on-line Bulletin Board, and by responding to 
e-mail from new users, and arranging online chat sessions where you can chat 
electronically in real time (instructions further down this page). 

You will find at the bottom of these instructions, links to all of the workshop 
areas, including e-mail links to Beth Hoffman, Workshop Director, and Linda French, 
Workshop Astronomer, who will either respond to or forward your questions to the 
appropriate person.  

We are also fortunate to have a student intern on staff for the workshop, 
Ann Marie Cody, amcody@rocketmail.com.  Ann Marie, who will be a high 
school senior next Fall, is assisting the staff with the development of 
MicroObservatory activities, and technical aspects of improving the 
telescopes.  She can provide you with a student's point of view while
you are developing and working on the exercises.  Her strong interest and
ability in astronomy and physics may also assist you with your astronomy-related 
questions.

We will try to respond to your e-mail questions as promplty as possible.  
You may also schedule online conversations with Linda, Beth, or both of us 
(arrange first via e-mail).:  

Linda French is available for online conversations in the afternoons on 
Tuesday's, Thursday's, and Friday's, or inquire about evening times.  

Beth Hoffman is available for online conversations on Wednesday afternoons, 
and Thursday and Friday mornings.

You will find that your fellow participants, who come from a wide range of 
backgrounds and interests, will be a valuable resource throughout the workshop, 
and beyond.  



The exercises in this workshop will require basic image processing techniques 
that you will discover simply by exploring the software and experimenting 
with the images that you and others take.  Image processing techniques can 
range from simple sharpening or brightening of images, to much more 
sophisticated processes involving time and practice.  You are welcome
 to explore other means of learning about image processing that are beyond 
the scope of this workshop by going to the web sites of those programs, 
where you may inquire about image processing workshops or instructional 
manuals, or by requesting information from workshop participants who have 
more extensive experience using image processing software. 

You may work on assigments and exercises at your own pace, submitting 
feedback as requested.  You are encouraged to communicate regularly 
with participants through e-mail, the MicroObservatory Bulletin Board, and 
real-time chatting.  

Each week, we will schedule one online chat session in which all participants 
may interact in the same chat room.    The dates and times of these chats 
will be posted in the Workshop 98
 folder in the MicroObservatory Online Bulletin Board soon, so please check 
that folder regularly (Home Page/Lounge/Bulletin Board/Workshop98).   
All participants are welcome and encouraged to arrange online chats with 
any number of participants, at their convenience.
Please post messages on the Bulletin Board indicating the dates and time of 
your chats, if you wish to open them to other participants.

GETTING STARTING

1.  Introduction to Workshop Participants and Staff

Please review the workshop participants and staff pages.  Participants 
are encouraged to contact those with whom they may wish to work 
during the workshop, and potentially beyond the workshop as you prepare 
to implement activities in your classrooms.

If you have not already done so, please submit a brief bio and image of 
yourself (preferably in GIF format) to be posted on the Participants page.  
In your bio, indicate if possible at least one area of interest for which you 
will act as as "Workshop Advisor," so that you may respond
to questions and chat with other participants that need advice in this area.  
(This may be an expertise in an area of astronomy, education, 
image processing, computer software, MicroObservatory use, 
curriculum development, telescopes, etc).
Include your teaching experience (subject, grade level, years teaching), 
MicroObservatory experience (if any), image processing experience, 
general reason for participating in the workshop, the type of computer from 
which you will be using MicroObservatory and brief additional information 
that would be relevant or interesting to other MicroObservatory users.

Send your bio and image to Beth Hoffman:  bhoffman@cfa.harvard.edu.

2.  MicroObservatory On-line Bulletin Board

Please become familiar with the the MicroObservatory Bulletin Board.   
From the MicroObservatory home page, go to Lounge, then Bulletin Board, 
then Workshop 98. 
The "Workshop 98" folder is dedicated to this workshop, so please 
post your messages to this folder.  

You can create additional topic-related folders inside of the 
Workshop 98 folder, carry on threaded discussions with other participants, 
and keep abreast of conversations being held among other participants.  
You may also use the Bulletin Board to post questions that you would like 
all participants to read and respond to.  If you have chat sessions with
participants that would be useful for others to read, you are welcome to 
copy and post them to the Bulletin Board.

3.  On-line Chat Software

Accessing and Downloading

Access and download the free online chat software through the 
MicroObservatory web site/Users Guide/Useful Software.  
Mac users will use Globalchat; PC users will use mIRC.
From the MicroObservatory Home Page, go to the Users Guide, 
click on Useful Software, and scroll down to "For Online Chat Software."  
Clicking on either "GlobalChat" or "mIRC" will bring you directly to the 
page from which you may download the software to your computer.


Setting up the software

Mac/Globalchat Users:
Log on/Open the GlobalChat software.  A window will open that gives 
you an option called "More Detail."  When you click on More Detail, 
enter the following settings:

In "Nickname," enter a name that you would like the other people in the 
chat room to recognize you as.  In "Connection Label," enter "microobs" 
(minus the quotes).  In Server Name or IP,
enter, "events.scifi.com" (minus the quotes).  In "Initial Channel" 
enter "microobs" (minus the quotes).  Click "Save and Connect."  
This will bring you into the MicroObservatory chat room.


To explore other chat rooms, choose Channels from the menubar, 
and drag to Display Channels.
 This will give you a list of other available chat rooms.  

For Globalchat questions and problems, e-mail Freeman Deutch 
(see staff bios), Senior Software Engineer at the MicroObservatory Project.


PC/mIRC Users:


When you launch mIRC it opens to an Info Box.  Close it, and then 
close the Channels Folder.  If you don't get a Setup box, go to File and 
select Setup.  In Setup, click Add.

Next to Description, type ÒmicroobsÓ (minus the quotes).  
Next to IRC Server, type events.scifi.com and click Add.  
The next box will prompt you to fill in your name and
 nickname.  After you click OK, go to file, connect, type in microobs, 
and click Join.  The chat room will appear, with your name and those 
of others who are logged on. 

Tom Hocking, (see bio on participants page), a veteran mIRC user, 
can assist you with mIRC-related questions and problems.  
E-mail Tom at:  starman@indy.net.

Once you have downloaded and set up the software for entry into the 
MicroObservatory chat room, you may arrange real-time chat sessions 
with workshop participants.  Simply e-mail whomever you would like to 
chat with, with a choice of  days and times that are convenient
for you.  When you receive confirmations of day and time, just log on 
to the chat room and anyone else who logs on to the MicroObservatory 
room at that time will have their name appear.  You may arrange chat 
sessions with as many people as you like, at the same time.
  Once in the chat room, you may chat with everyone at once, or you 
may send messages to one person at a time.  Either way, the person/people 
to whom you send the message will receive it instantly.

4.  Image Processing Software


Download free image processing software online through the 
MicroObservatory web site.  From the MicroObservatory Home Page, 
go to the Users Guide, and click on Useful Software.  This will 
bring you to a page from which you may link to web sites that enable 
you to download image processing software for either the Macintosh or PC.


Macintosh users

It is recommended that you download both Graphic Converter and NIH Image.  
Graphic Converter is a simple and convenient program for new users, 
as it opens image files in many formats, and can convert and images to other
formats.  NIH Image is a more complex and very
 useful program for more sophisticated image processing techniques.


PC users

We recommend Quantum Image for convenient access.

5.  Using the MicroObservatory Telescopes:  Enrolling 


Those who have used the telescopes before do not need to re-enroll.  
Those who have not yet used the telescopes, must enroll in order to 
get a username and password for requesting images.  
If you are a new user, you will do this in the "Introduction to
 MicroObservatory" activity, which you link to from the Activities page.
					
6. Activities

You will find the link to the activities from which you may choose for 
the workshop below this introductory information.  

New users must first do "Introduction to MicroObservatory."   
In this activity you will learn how to enroll 
(involves assigning a username and password), select telescopes, request
 images, get and save images, and perform a few basic image processing 
techniques.  You may then move on to more advanced activities.

Please review each of the activities.  Activities are designed for a range 
of students that would use MicroObservatory.   
They range in difficulty, grade level appropriateness, subject
 matter, and level of experience with MicroObservatory.  Not all of 
your indicated interests are represented by these activities.  
However, they are to serve as models for developing
 your own activities that will tie-in more closely to your 
classroom needs and interests.  You are not, however, limited to the 
activities we have posted.  You are welcome to develop an
 activity or activities that suit your needs or interests more specifically.  
If you are unsure of where to start this process, your fellow participants 
are available to exchange ideas.  

Also keep in mind that since many of these activities were developed 
by teachers for use in their classrooms at various times, the objects 
that you are asked to observe may not be as accessible at this time of the year.  
You may also be asked to take images at times during
 which the weather in all three sites turns out to be cloudy.  
In some cases, image folders will be provided as part of the exercise.  
If you run into problems capturing the images you
 need for the activity, please use the Image Archive directory, 
which you may get to from the
 Get Images (Image Directory) page.  	

Several activities contain questions that require written responses. 
You are welcome to collaborate with others on your answers.  
For example, you may wish to work with a
 participant with whom you can divide the activity, and each 
respond to half of the questions.
Please post your responses to the activity questions on the Bulletin Board.

7.  Feedback

 We welcome your informal feedback at all times via e-mail.  
We have provided the following forms (links at the bottom of this page) 
to insure that you will have a convenient way to
 submit your feedback regularly.  (Additional feedback can be sent 
at any time, via the
 Bulletin Board or e-mail).

Observation Reports

Please submit an Observation Report for every observing session you 
conduct (not for every image, as you may take many images at one session).  
You may access this form from the Telescope page/File Report or at the 
bottom of this page.  We advise you to submit this form immediately after 
your observing sessions, as you are asked to respond to few brief
 questions based on your observing experience, which will be clearest 
in your mind right after the session.

Weekly Questionnaires

Three brief questionnaires are provided online 
(see link at the bottom of this page).  			
 Your feedback is extremely valuable to us and will be given serious 
consideration toward the maintenance and development of the 
MicroObservatory Project.

Please complete and electronically submit the 
questionnaires on the following days:

Questionnaire #1:  CLASSROOM USE
PLEASE SUBMIT ON WEDNESDAY, JULY 15, 1998

Questionnaire #2:  EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES
PLEASE SUBMIT ON WEDNESDAY, JULY 22, 1998

Questionnaire #3:  PROJECT GOALS
PLEASE SUBMIT ON WEDNESDAY, JULY 29, 1998

(see the links to each Weekly Questionnaire at the bottom of this page)

Time Reports

Keeping track of the ways you spend your MicroObservatory 
Workshop time will enable you and us to determine the length of 
time that is needed to conduct MicroObservatory activities.
  Your time records will be used to help us structure and integrate 
activities into diverse classroom settings.  Please keep copies of 
them for yourself, as they will be valuable when
 you are ready to implement MicroObservatory in your classrooms.

Please submit one Time Report on each Friday of the workshop:

Friday, July 17, 1998:  Time Report #1
Friday, July 24, 1998:	Time Report #2  
Friday, July 31, 1998:  Time Report #3  

(see the link to the Time Report at the bottom of this page)