SUN-EARTH DAY 2003
by Michelle Bienias
Ideum developed both of these projects for Sun-Earth Day 2003 –a major public outreach initiative of NASA’s Sun-Earth Connection Education Forum.
Auroras: Mysterious Lights in the Sky
This is a beautifully rendered Flash-based web site geared for the K-3 crowd that explains what auroras are and what causes them, all in simple language that kids will enjoy. Actual video footage of auroras and NASA images are presented along with the illustrations. The story is brief enough to hold children’s attention while imparting a few relevant facts with evocative illustrations and text. It is followed with some scientific facts in a postcard style that are geared towards parents and teachers but also appropriate for children.
The Sun-Earth Day Media Viewer
The Media Viewer is a Flash-based interactive tool kit that lets visitors view over a dozen video clips of interviews with scientists from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and view animations and other NASA imagery. A thumbnail feature lets visitors explore and compare a variety of near real-time satellite images of the Sun and the Earth.
The Live Solar and Aurora Images are taken with an Extreme Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (EIT) at four different wavelengths and four colors in order of wavelength were assigned to represent each of them to bring out typical features of its particular wavelength (it is actually more interesting than it sounds). The Sun-Earth Illustrations are very informative, in a science textbook way, and will appeal to anyone interested in the Solar Interior, the Four Phases of Matter, or the Earth’s Ionosphere. I spent more than half an hour reading about the Earth’s Electromagnetic Spectrum - something I am woefully ignorant about and always meant to get about learning. If you're interested in the sun and related topics, I suggest you take a look at this site.
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