John Bluck
NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA
Phone: 650/604-5026 or 650/604-9000
e-mail: jbluck@mail.arc.nasa.gov
RELEASE: 01-05AR
NOTE TO EDITORS AND NEWS DIRECTORS: You are invited to attend JASON
Project XII: A Living Laboratory, a series of live, multi-point,
one-hour
satellite telecasts about volcanoes and life forms in Hawaii, Jan. 29
through Feb. 9, in the Main Auditorium, Bldg. N-201 at NASA Ames
Research
Center, in California’s Silicon Valley. Hands-on student activities
will
take place in Bldg. 583C. Each day, broadcasts start at 7:00 a.m.,
8:30
a.m., 10:00 a.m., 11:30 a.m. and 1 p.m., PST. There will be no JASON
activities at Ames on Feb. 3 and 4. To reach Ames, take the Moffett
Field
exit off Highway 101, drive east to the main gate at Moffett Federal
Airfield, and report to the Visitor Badging office for vehicle passes
and
directions to the Main Auditorium and Bldg. 583C. U.S. media
representatives must present valid press credentials or photo ID to
enter
Ames. Foreign media should telephone before arriving to arrange an
escort,
and they will not be admitted without a NASA escort, proper clearance
and
passport/visa.
Hawaiian volcanoes and life forms will highlight 50 interactive
satellite
telecasts that more than 10,000 California students will attend Jan. 29
through Feb. 9 at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon
Valley.
Students can talk live by satellite with scientists and students
studying
volcanoes and the kinds of life that live in lava tubes in Hawaii.
These
investigations are part of a big educational effort, “JASON Project
XII: A
Living Laboratory.” Two broadcast sites will be the Hawaii Volcanoes
National Park and the Little House on the Lava, both on the big island
of
Hawaii. A third broadcast site is the Kilauea Point National Wildlife
Refuge on the island of Kauai.
“Students on location and viewers around the world will see lava
flowing
out of a Kilauea Volcano vent, through a lava tube and into the ocean,”
said science teacher John Colombero, Ames’ JASON Project coordinator.
“This
specific lava flow has been active since about 1998, and it travels
about
seven miles with very low temperature loss.”
“The JASON broadcast offers students the opportunity to see their peers
participate in real research as it actually happens,” said Thomas
Clausen,
education officer at Ames. “The teachers and students participating in
JASON have been preparing for their visit to Ames since last fall,
learning
about Hawaii and its unique geology and ecosystems.”
During the broadcasts, students from grades 3 through 9 will be able to
chat with scientists, researchers and “Argonauts.” Argonauts are
students
and teachers selected by the JASON Project to travel to JASON
expedition
sites. Ames is one of 38 JASON “primary interactive network” sites
located
across the nation and in Bermuda, Mexico and the United Kingdom as well
as
other countries.
Worldwide, JASON officials expect about 750,000 students and teachers
to
take part in the program. Many other youths also will participate via
the
Internet at: http://www.jasonproject.org. The JASON Internet site
includes “chat sessions” with scientists, a digital lab that provides
experiments students can do on-line and other information. In addition,
teachers can manage their students’ class work with the JASON website.
NASA Ames is sponsoring an Argonaut, ninth grader Sarah Beth Walker of
Nevada Union High School, Grass Valley, CA. She will take part in the
broadcasts from Hawaii. Reporters may call the JASON Project press
office
at 703/276-2772 to arrange telephone interviews with the student for
print
and radio use from now until Feb. 3, when she is scheduled to leave
Hawaii.
JASON will pre-schedule TV satellite interviews with Walker for Jan.
31. In
addition, JASON also will feed two satellite TV news packages on
Monday,
Jan. 29 and Monday, Feb. 5 at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. EST/8 a.m. and 11 a.m.
PST
each day. The feeds will be on TELSTAR 23, down link frequency 4160V.
In Bldg. 583C at NASA Ames, students also will get hands-on experience
in
solving problems, and will participate in a scavenger hunt. In
addition,
the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary and the Marine Advanced
Technology Education Center, both of Monterey, CA, will provide an
interactive watershed exhibit that illustrates the water cycle. United
States Geological Survey (USGS), Menlo Park, CA, scientists will
conduct
hands-on seismographic demonstrations and will offer a Kilauea Volcano
exhibit. USGS will give each teacher a rock sample of Hawaii’s Loihi,
an
island still forming beneath the ocean’s surface. These programs repeat
daily during JASON from 9:45 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. PST .
Founded by international explorer and RMS Titanic discoverer Dr. Robert
Ballard, the JASON Project incorporates cutting-edge technologies, a
multi-disciplinary curriculum, professional training for teachers and
Internet communications within a comprehensive learning program.
