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FEATURE
Solar Week
Above: screenshot of Solar Week web site. Click the above image to visit the web site.
Go to this web site now
Solar Week is a week of online curriculum focusing on the Sun-Earth connection + the effect of our dynamic Sun on the Earth and its surroundings. It's a collection of games, lessons and activities aimed at middle and high school students. Originating in 2000 as a daughter-site to the successful Yohkoh Public Outreach Project, Solar Week is now a success in its own right with over 20,000 students participating since its inception.
A specific goal of Solar Week is to encourage middle-school girls to pursue science, but students of both genders will enjoy interacting on-line with the women solar physicists in their function as role models and mentors. Participating students learn about the Sun-Earth interaction through a series of daily topics and through an online Q&A session with the scientists on a live, friendly bulletin board. A key topic is careers in science, but students also get to know what the scientists were like as kids, what their past and present hobbies are, and how they like being a scientist. Solar Week takes place twice a year + one week in fall and one week in spring, around the time of the fall and spring equinoxes.
Challenges
One of the challenges of Solar Week was taking over (in 2003) a successful program from someone else + in this case, Dr. David Alexander, its creator. His public outreach program for the Yohkoh satellite had reached the end of its life, and David was looking for someone who would have the interest, knowledge and commitment to take over the Solar Week component of the program. SECEF became a natural and eager successor. But we wondered how we could preserve the integrity of the original program, while giving it our own stamp. One of our solutions was to redesign the entire web interface. We gave the site to our favorite designer, Jim Spadaccini of Ideum, and asked him to streamline the navigation and change the look and feel of the graphics. We were pleased with the sleek black background, new colors and text enhancing the gorgeous Sun photos and movies taken by NASA solar missions, and with the ease with which one can now navigate between screens and go from lessons to games to Q&A.
Next we decided to update the bulletin board functions, to improve the communication between students and the scientists. We used innovative software to create a smooth, organized interface. It's now easy to tell which questions are new and which have been answered. We now moderate the board to discourage merry pranksters. Topics + whether on the Sun-Earth connection, scientists' hobbies, or science career strategies -- are clearly identified. And past questions are always available in an archive. We're happy to create a friendly, organized space for students and scientists to come together.
