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Quick Links
News from 2004-2005 is archived on this page.
Announcements
Congratulations!
To Robert Johnson, Kyle Hornbeck, and Tri Nguyen for their presentation to the TLRBSE School-Year Observing Program. Robert and Tri will be visiting Kitt Peak National Observatory to work on their ongoing projects for the ESPACE Academy. They will get to use a 0.9 m telescope for three nights, get intensive instruction from scientists at the mountaintop observatory, and take pictures of globular clusters and active galactic nuclei. We will post more information as it becomes available. You can read about Robert and Kyle's project here. (Requires Adobe Acrobat.) Tri's project is based on the observing program for the Gamma Ray Large Area Space Telescope. You can find out more about GLAST and the GTN here. You can read Robert, Kyle, and Tri's application for time on the 0.9 meter telescope here.
Congratulations!
To Ashley Hall, for being selected as a semifinalist in the Siemens Westinghouse Science Competition. From a field of approximately 1200 students only 300 were selected as semifinalists. Ashley received a backpack, digital camera, and other prizes at this stage of the competition. Ashley's project was about determining the ratio of dune height to dune spacing in an area of Ophir Chasma on Mars. You can read a preliminary draft of her work on the Projects page.
Academy Students present at Mt. Diablo Astronomical Society
Academy students Alex Payne, Andrew Espiritu, Barry Parker, Ashley Hall, and Tri Nguyen presented the results of their research at the "What's up?" segment of the April Mt. Diablo Astronomical Society meeting. They did an outstanding job and many compliments were received.
Congratulations to Raymond Kuntz, who has just been appointed to be the new Director of the Planetarium. Show requests, scheduling issues, and other questions will now be handled by Mr. Kuntz.
LAST MEETING HELD
Date of meeting: Monday, June 6 from 3:15- 4:30 in the library.
Our last academy meeting of the year! This meeting was be an end-of-year celebration. All senior academy students should attend as there will be awards and prizes (some serious, some not) for the seniors leaving the program. We would like ALL the academy students to attend to find out about plans for next year. We made a number of awards (click Awards at left to find out more).
Many thanks to Johnny Hackenkamp for his presentation on the Paul Allen Telescope Array for the SETI project at the March academy meeting. On April 5, John showed dozens of pictures of the construction of the first few of several hundred radio telescopes to be used in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. These radio telescopes are manufactured right here in Antioch by Minix Engineering. This will tell you a little more about Minex Engineering:
Our efforts will focus on design and fabrication of the Allen Telescope Array, a new world class radio telescope currently being built in northern California as a joint project between the SETI Institute of Mountain View, CA and the University of California at Berkeleys Radio Astronomy Laboratory. The majority of work will occur at our Antioch location, but additional work will occur at U. C. Berkeley and the Hat Creek Observatory, east of Redding. This very interesting project will require experience with high vacuum and cryogenics and the ability to machine and fabricate prototype parts for the telescope receiver system. The Allen Telescope Array will ultimately consist of 350 arrayed antennas, so the ability to design for production is critical.
Congratulations to Ashley Hall, Tri Nguyen, and Barry Parker, all of whom received awards at this year's Bay Area Science Fair! Ashely Hall was selected as the Bay Area representative to the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in Phoenix, Arizona! For details, click here.
If you want to join the ESPACE academy this year, application forms are available through the links at the left side of the page.
Schedule of Academy Student Presentations
Each senior academy student is required to make a public presentation of their outreach or research project prior to graduation. These presentations take place during regularly scheduled planetarium shows. If you have not scheduled your presentation, bring a calendar to the February meeting to schedule your presentation. See the ESPACE Academy planetarium schedule for available dates.
√ December 14: Ashley Hall-Analysis of Mars Global Surveyor Images
√ February 1: Tri Nguyen, Microvariability of BL Lac
√March 15: Michael Webb, Meteors!
√April 5, Kyle Hornbeck, The Solar System; Kyle and Robert Johnson, Globular Nova Research
√April 12, Brielle Hinckley, The Space Race
April 19, Barry Parker, Cepheid variables
May 17, Jose Munoz
May 24, Scott Banker and Joey Cardone, Advanced Rocket Science
Tutoring Services available
Mr. Dobleman (Math): Monday and Friday 3-4 PM
Ms. Gabris (Math): Tuesdays 3-3:30
Mr. Adkins (Science): Mondays 3-5 (AP Physics) Thursday 3-5 (Astronomy) Friday 3-5 (Academy)
Watch this space for announcements regarding extending library hours.
Field Trip Info
Fourteen academy students took a field trip to the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory and to Chabot Observatory on Friday, April 23. This trip was initiated as a result of the invitation issued to Ashley Hall by Chip Smith, a researcher who works on computer technology related to the analysis of Mars images, among other projects.
At the planetarium we saw the show "Forces of Nature" and "Tonight's sky." The sky was cloudy, so we didn't get to use the telescopes, but we did have a good time anyway. Thanks to Ashley, Chip, and Mrs. Hall (for driving), Mr. Kuntz for accompanying us.
Monthly Academy meeting for Monday, May 2, 2005
Aurore Simonnet of NASA's Education and Public Outreach office at Sonoma State University will be presenting some of her work. She is the Scientific Illustrator for the office and creates logos, artwork, flyers, and such creations as children's books, pop-up books, posters, and many other things which help people understand the union of science and art.
Ms. Simonnet will be speaking in the library at 2:30 PM. Academy students should ask permission from their teachers to attend on Monday. A list will go to all teachers on Friday. Keep an eye on this web page in case there are any last-minute changes.
February Meeting
Students met in the library. The guest speaker, unfortunately, cancelled. We had a status report of student projects from those students attending. Information flyers about the academy were distributed.
- Tentative Chabot Field Trip date: April 16, 2005
- Next planetarium show: Tuesday, February 8. Students working on GLAST and Active Galactic Nuclei research should attend the after -observing session work time in room 318; we will be photographing black holes with a remote control telescope in New Mexico, weather (in New Mexico) permitting.
- Students doing outreach, artwork, presentations for classes, etc. We have available cardboard display boards, suitable for science fairs and the like. Academy students can request one for any presentation they need to do for any class.
- Sophomores and Juniors doing research projects: Be advised that the Bay Area Science Fair and the Junior Science and Humanities Symposium both require research projects done by specific individuals, not groups. As you plan your research projects, keep this in mind.
- Astronomy and Space Science is now going to be called Introductory Astrophysics. Anyone who enrolls in Astronomy and Space Science will be automatically enrolled in the new course. Please let anyone you know who is considering taking the course that this change will take place.
- Academy applications are available for anyone wishing to join the academy for the remainder of this academic year and next year.
- Next Academy meeting: Monday, March 7, 2005.
- Please keep an eye on the academy web site www.ESPACEacademy.com for future meeting announcements and agendas.
March Meeting
Students requiring assistance with projects met with teachers on an individual basis. New members were welcomed and requirements were reviewed. Senior academy students scheduled their presentations in the planetarium. Over 700 visitors have been served by the Planetarium production class.
January Meeting
Students requiring assistance with projects met with teachers on an individual basis.
November Meeting
Academy students and teachers met in the library on November 29. Promotional buttons and academy certificates were distributed. Students in attendance turned in their project plans. Students met with teachers to link up with advisors and mentors and get ideas for projects. Students were told about tutoring services, and afterwards became the first official audience for the brand new planetarium built for the ESPACE academy! We also decided to have regular monthly meetings (noted above), and to sponsor planetarium shows on a regular basis on Tuesday nights.
September meeting
ESPACE academy students and teachers met in room 318 at 3:15 on Thursday, September 16 for an organizational meeting for this year's academy. Students were asked to think about what their culminating project would be for the academy. Visit the News page for more details. For notes on the topics discussed, please see the FAQ.
Projects Posted
Visit the projects page to see some of the exciting research and outreach reports done by our students. You can find research on Martian sand dune, novas and variable stars in globular clusters, short stories, organized lists of deep sky photos taken by our students, and much more!
Annual satisfaction survey completed
The results of the survey, required for the annual grant application to the state, are complete. Click here to see the survey results (and to see followup surveys in the future)
The survey is still open, until the end of the school year. If you never took it: Click here.
Summer
We installed our planetarium sometime in August. Academy students: send me email to discuss what your major culminating project will be. We will sponsor meetings in the fall to get you started, find a sponsor, and let you know about next year's activities. In the meantime, I'd like to collect everyone's email address for a mailing list. If you're in the academy, please send me your name and email address.
Jeff Adkins, Director
astronomyteacher@mac.com
Cheryl Domenichelli, Assistant Director
cheryldomenichelli@antioch.k12.ca.us
4700 Lone Tree Way
Antioch, CA 94531
The ESPACE Academy is sponsored in part by a grant from the California Department of Education's Specialized Secondary Program.
