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Sky Prizes 2009Teaching Prizes
For Teachers, Instructors & Astronomers
400 hours of telescope time for teaching astronomy The Prizes:
2009 is the International Year of Astronomy, celebrating 400 years since
Galileo first pointed his telescope at the moon. To commemorate the event
MyTelescope.com is launching our Sky Prize contests in which the first
offering is a teaching prize.
MyTelescope.com will be providing 400 hours
of telescope time (4 prizes of 100 hours each) for hands on astronomy
teaching purposes.
Three prizes will be awarded for submitted teaching
project ideas; the winners to be selected by a peer review process. One
prize will be awarded by random draw from amongst all those who enter
the contest; no project submission is needed.
The contest is open to teachers and astronomers from around the world.
How will students use the Telescopes?
The winning entrants will receive a classroom account with credits for
100 hours of observing time which can be used by their students or for
live classroom instruction. Instructors will have control over how much
time is transferred to each student account. Students are to use their
telescope time to gather images and data for the project; this could be
done as homework or, if timezones allow, during a lab.
What equipment will the students have to work with and where is the equipment located?
To date we have been operating with 10-inch Schmidt Cassegrains from our
development site in New Brunswick, Canada. However we are in the process
of moving our equipment and expect to be operational this year from our
recently acquired clear dark sky site in south west New Mexico, USA.
The winning submissions will have access to all our operational equipment
at both sites.
Our 10 inch Schmidt Cassegrains are equipped with filter wheels containing
r,g,b,ir-block,neutral density and clear glass filters as well as opaque
and blank positions. The cameras are Star-light Express HX916s which
have an electronic shutter and a resolution of 1300x1030. The systems
have a field of view of approximately 7x10 ArcMinutes. Software features
include: bias, dark and flat field image corrections; levels, atmospheric
extinction, white balance, gamma, color stretch and gain controls. All
telescopes have a spotting camera for a live wide field sky view. See
our video section for actual telescope sessions.
The contest opens on 22 April 2009; all project submissions must be
completed by 20 November 2009 at which time the peer review process begins.
All the prize winners, including the random draw one, are to be announced
on 1 December 2009. Teachers should use the awarded 100 hours for
their courses during the 2010 calendar year. If there are changes to
these dates, entrants will be notified by email and this web page will
be updated.
Whether you plan to submit a project idea or simply enter for the random
draw category, we suggest that you register early and enter the contest
early. By doing so you, will be automatically updated by email of any
new information relevant to the contest, such as details concerning
additional instrumentation or software. You will also be advised
of submission deadlines and any developments that might effect the
program. It is not necessary to submit a project idea when entering. That
can be done anytime up until the review and selection process begins.
While we have attempted to specify all the rules of the contest on
this page, MyTelescope.com reserves the right to modify the rules of
the contest as it deems appropriate.
Any decisions MyTelescope.com makes with regard to the contest will be final.
This page will be updated if any modifications are necessary.
Teachers and astronomers from around the world are invited to submit their ideas for teaching
astronomy which actively involve students in collecting and processing
their own images and data. Using a peer review process, we will award
three submitters with 100 hours each of free telescope time to implement
their teaching project. After the review process has completed, all
submitted project ideas will be posted on this web site for anyone to use.
Who qualifies?
The general criteria is that you must be able to demonstrate that you
will be teaching astronomy through a learning institution during the
2010 calendar year.
If you do not have a teaching role but you are a professional astronomer
or someone actively involved with astronomy, you can still submit your
project idea by collaborating with a teacher or instructor who would
both submit the project to the contest and implement it if it is selected
(note that the teacher should be the one to submit the project).
Such collaboration should be mentioned in the project description.
What types of projects can be submitted?
Projects should be designed for one of three levels or age of student:
junior high school (ages 12 to 14), high school (ages 15 to 18), or
university / college (ages 18 and up). One prize will be awarded for
each level. Student participation should be an important component in all
projects, however the project ideas are really up to you. To assist you in
quickly learning what you will have to work with, we will post videos on
the videos page that cover the many features
you and your students will have at your disposal. Note that projects
do not have to use all the capabilities of the provided equipment and
software; for example, it is fine for a monochrome imaging project not
to make use of the color filters.
So if there is any astronomy teaching project that you always wanted to do
but just did not have access to telescope time for student participation,
this may be the opportunity.
How will project submissions be evaluated?
The good news is this will be a peer review process so the top project
submissions will have genuine bragging rights!
We are planning to ask each person who submits a project to review
and rank a number (perhaps 5) of other projects and then combine these
rankings to select the top project in each of the three levels.
Details on exactly how the peer review process is to work will be posted
here when they are finalized.
How to submit your project idea?
To submit your project idea for the contest,
you must first
register (or if you
have already registered, log in).
Then re-visit this page and follow the link to the contest entry form.
This prize category does not require the submission of a project idea.
The winner will be chosen by a random draw from all those who entered the
contest, including those who submitted project ideas.
There will be one draw for 100 hours of student telescope time.
The winner's class will
be provided with the telescope time to implement the project of their
choice from the 10 most popular ideas submitted.
This is a chance to have
your students actively involved in collecting images and data even if
you are too caught up with your present workload to submit an astronomy
teaching project at this time.
Who qualifies?
The main criteria is you must be able to demonstrate that you will be
teaching science or astronomy within a learning institution during
the 2010 calendar year. To enter your class or group simply register
for the Teaching Sky-Prize but do not fill out the section where you
describe your astronomy teaching project. Of course you can come back
at any time and complete that section should you wish to submit an idea
before the deadline.
In order to satisfy to Canadian law, it should be stated that (1) there is no fee for entering the contest: anyone can register and enter, free of charge; and (2) that if the winner of the draw is a resident of Canada, the person will be required to answer a "skill testing question". The question will be a math question of the form "(A * B + C) / D - E" and will need to be answered by the individual on their own and without a calculating device (paper and pencil is OK :-)) within a 10 minute period. How to enter for the random draw?
To enter the random draw contest,
you must first
register (or if you
have already registered, log in).
Then re-visit this page and follow the link to the contest entry form.
There aren't any FAQs yet; if you have a question, please
.
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