May 28, 2014: The THEMIS-ARTEMIS education team at UCLA were invited by Kelly Elementary Charter School in Compton CA to do a presentation about electricity and magnetism, and of course relate these to the Sun-Earth connection. Over one hundred K-5 students attended, and they enjoyed playing with the 3D magnetic field visualizations, ferrofluid, a plasma ball, and a simulated "aurora in a bottle" called the Planeterrella (designed by J. Lilensten, IPAG, France). They oohed and aahed at the glowing plasma spheres representing Earth and the Sun, and almost every kid had to be pried away to let the other students have their turn. The students and teachers asked many great questions about THEMIS and ARTEMIS, such as why space research need more than one satellite (to get large-scale multipoint observations), whether the satellites get "fried" in the solar wind wind (actually, small asteroids are more dangerous to spacefarers), and what other planets have magnetic fields and why/why not. Students and teachers were eager to learn more so the team shared fun resources such as the Sun Slider and Spaceweather.com, so they can keep up with the latest solar activity and space weather news. All in all it was a ton of fun working with such an enthusiastic young group, and we hope they all will enjoy learning more about STEM and possibly become space scientists in their future careers!
May 10, 2014: Emmanuel Masongsong of the THEMIS-ARTEMIS education team at UCLA was contacted by Ian Schofield of Athabasca University in Canada: Ian's group was purchasing UCLA magnetometers with which to significantly expand their network across the Hudson Bay in northern Quebec and he wanted outreach materials that would help share their research with the surrounding communities. He had done some presentations and realized how excited people were about their unique local science of the aurora. Ian is pioneering an outreach program at the new magnetometer sites, many of which consist of fly-in-only villages of Native peoples, and educating students and families all across Quebec who had never even heard of space weather. Emmanuel had compiled lots of THEMIS/ARTEMIS/aurora/reconnection videos and made posters and handouts which Ian could translate and adapt for his purposes. Excitingly, these materials will become trilingual, translated into Inuit and French, and presented all across Canada, bringing the story of THEMIS and ARTEMIS to the far reaches of North America! Thus, in addition to expanding the THEMIS ground-based observatory network, Ian and his group are actively engaging people in remote villages, schools and the general public about space weather and the importance of having widespread measurements of these elusive phenomena. Thanks for your efforts, Ian and Emmanuel!
July 16 & 17, 2012: Twenty-six teachers gathered at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, Illinois, for the Heliophysics Educator Ambassador (HEA) Reunion Workshop. This two-day workshop brought together teachers from each of the three previous HEA workshops which were held annually from 2009-2011. These teachers were selected to attend the reunion because of their commitment to bringing the latest Heliophysics mission news and education activities to their communities. This workshop was a joint effort between several NASA Heliophysics missions, including THEMIS-ARTMIS. Teachers learned the latest news about each mission, explored new educational resources and planned for the professional development that they will conduct in their communities. For more information about the HEA program, visit http://cse.ssl.berkeley.edu/hea/index.html.
April 21, 2012: 
Space Sciences Laboratory opens its doors to the public on Cal Day. This once-a-year event includes free tours of the Mission Operations Center where satellites are monitored, science talks about on-going space missions, related fun hands-on activities developed by The Center for Science Education, Passport to Science @Cal, and a solar telescope.
In the photo, GEONS students from Tucson, Arizona present their data to the general public.
March 3, 2012:
The THEMIS-ARTEMIS mission Education and Public Outreach team collaborated with UC Berkeley graduate students to participate in the first “Expanding Your Horizons” event held on the UC Berkeley campus. 45 middle school girls participated in workshops that included hands-on activities such as building spectroscopes.
February 25, 2012:
The Center for Science Education @ UC Berkeley enjoyed lively and rewarding interactions with girls on February 25 at the Career Day called “Expanding Your Horizons: Motivating Young Women in Science and Math.” (San Ramon, CA). 300 middle school girls with a budding interest in space science visited our table for some hands-on exploration and conversations about science as a career.
Exploring Your Universe UCLA’s “Exploring Your Universe” event was held on November 12, 2011. THEMIS-ARTEMIS educators and scientists conducted hands-on activities exploring magnetism at this day-long astronomy outreach event. The public had the opportunity to meet THEMIS Principal Investigator Vassilis Angelopoulos. For more information about this event, including photos visit http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~outreach/eyu2011.html
July 18-22, 2011:
The Heliophysics Educator Ambassador (HEA) program will focus on in-depth learning experiences around Earth, Space, and Physical Science topics for educators teaching in middle and high school grades.
The goal of the HEA program is to develop the capacity and provide the opportunity for educators to train other teachers on NASA Heliophysics science and educational resources. This program will provide educators with a week-long training and follow-up support for several years via teleconference calls and other electronic communications. We expect that the educators involved in the HEA program will implement lesson plans based on NASA Heliophysics education resources in their own classrooms and also train other teachers at local and regional professional development conferences or meetings.
April 18, 2011:
Space Sciences Laboratory opens its doors to the public on Cal Day. This once-a-year event includes free tours of the Mission Operations Center where satellites are monitored, science talks about on-going space missions, related fun hands-on activities developed by The Center for Science Education, Passport to Science @Cal, and a solar telescope
March 11, 2011: NASA: Exploring Magnetism in Space Science Workshop. These fun hands-on activities and strategies teach the basic concepts of magnetism and its importance in the Sun-Earth System.
Presenters: Bryan Mendez, Nancy Ali, UC Berkeley
January 13, 2011: Michael Hartinger, a graduate student in the Earth and Space Sciences Department at UCLA, visited New Roads Middle School. He demonstrated magnetism through a variety of presentations and hands-on activities. In particular, the magnet in a bottle with iron filings demonstration was a "big hit" with the students. One student reflected, "I really like the way he explained all of this to us and had some interactive parts. Also, he was to the point and had a lot of examples to show us. Overall, I think this was the best presentation we have had and I would like to maybe see him come and talk again." The teacher noted, "If you can get feedback like that from 8th graders, you ROCK!"
Nov 13, 2010: Magnetism in the Solar System Visitors to UCLA's "Exploring Your Universe 2010" event had the chance to meet THEMIS Principal Investigator Vassilis Angelopoulos and to hear firsthand the discoveries made by the mission. Visitors learned about magnetism in our Solar System through 2D and 3D magnetic models of the Sun and Earth, simple electric coils demonstrating electromagnetism, and “plasma balls” that simulated aurora. To make one of these magnetic models on your own, click here. To learn more about the event, click here: http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~outreach/eyu2010.html
July 6-10, 2010:
The Heliophysics Educator Ambassador (HEA) program will focus on in-depth learning experiences around Earth, Space, and Physical Science topics for educators teaching in middle and high school grades.
The goal of the HEA program is to develop the capacity and provide the opportunity for educators to train other teachers on NASA Heliophysics science and educational resources. This program will provide educators with a week-long training and follow-up support for several years via teleconference calls and other electronic communications. We expect that the educators involved in the HEA program will implement lesson plans based on NASA Heliophysics education resources in their own classrooms and also train other teachers at local and regional professional development conferences or meetings.
Nov 13, 2009: Student Wins First Place in Space Weather Forecasting Contest: Stephen Brock is a high school student of Cris L. DeWolf, THEMIS GEONS Ambassador in Michigan, working with THEMIS magnetometer data. He earned First Place in George Mason University's Space Weather Forecasting Contest; Cris’ team also won first place as the Best Forecasting Team. The contest required forecasting, the day before, the Kp index min and max for the following day(s) of a given week. Stephen used the THEMIS magnetometer data and the lesson of THEMIS Ambassador, Victor Trautman of AK, for estimating Kp. Stephen uses ACE solar wind data from spaceweather.com to predict the solar wind velocity min and max. Here is a link to the page at their site where last month's winners were announced: http://swxcontest.gmu.edu/
Aug 17-21, 2009: Update from the THEMIS Education Program: We supported the Lawrence Hall of Science FULL OPTION SCIENCE SYSTEM (FOSS) efforts to train elementary school teachers in Oakland, CA about magnetism and other fundamental physics.
June 21-26, 2009: Heliophysics Educator Ambassador (HEA) Program: THEMIS Education Program runs a collaborative educator’s workshop along with several other NASA satellite missions to teach about the science that NASA is discovering from the Sun to Earth’s magnetosphere and upper atmosphere (the Sun-Earth Connection!) The teachers attending this workshop will become ‘Heliophysics Educator Ambassadors,’ sharing NASA lessons and discoveries with their own students and teachers in their states. 29 teachers attended this workshop from 16 different states.
June 18, 2009: In this podcast we talk to Dr. Vassilis Angelopoulos, UC Berkeley, the PI of the mission, Dr. Manfred Bester, the THEMIS Mission Operations Manager and Dr. Laura Peticolas, the lead Education and Public Outreach scientist for this mission. We learn about the discoveries and insights learned from THEMIS, what we hope to learn from ARTEMIS and how these discoveries can be shared with the public.
May 8, 2009: This week, Vassilis Angelopoulos writes:
Dear THEMISers,
Observations obtained by THEMIS have provided the stongest evidence to date for the origin of plasmaspheric hiss. In a paper by Bortnik et al., in today's issue of Science magazine, the first direct link between chorus and hiss waves has been demonstrated observationally. Hiss waves are important for space weather as they scatter radiation belt electrons into the atmosphere. The waves throttle "killer electron" radiation amplitudes and are important to understand in order to better predict the consequences of large storms on spacecraft and humans in space.
Please see the Bortnik paper in Science magazine: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/324/5928/775.
Additional articles on this latest development can be found on the Articles page.
Congrats Jacob!
Vassilis
April 24, 2009: A message from THEMIS PI Vassilis Angelopoulos.
Folks, THEMIS is in the news. Check out the following news outlets:This news was also picked up at numerous other places in Europe and the US: Congratulations to Andreas Keiling, Karl Heinz Glassmeier and Olaf Amm for putting on a great presentation at the last EGU conference! Also, Congrats to Olaf Amm too, for his performance at the press conference. Olaf's ground magnetometer current reconstruction techniques allowed determination of the current flow into the ionosphere.
- http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/090423-space-tornadoes.html
- http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17013-giant-space-tornadoes-create-earths-aur oras.html
- http://www.universetoday.com/2009/04/23/new-finding-shows-super-huge-space-tornados-power-the-auroras/
Vassilis
March 17, 2009: Our education group at the Space Sciences Lab is participating in the 2009 International Year of Astronomy in many ways--from star parties to outreach events to webcasts. As part of this, we are coordinating with Mission Operations to take part in the April 3rd “Live 24-Hour Research Observatory Webcast” component of the 100 Hours of Astronomy project for the International Year of Astronomy 2009:
http://www.100hoursofastronomy.org/program/75-live-24-hour-research-observatory-webcast
The SSL Mission Ops Center (MOC) operates THEMIS, RHESSI and FAST missions. Other locations and other NASA missions participating in the 24-hour Observatory include Hubble Space Telescope (HST), Swift, Fermi, SOHO, TRACE, STEREO, GALEX, Chandra, Spitzer, (plus ESA scientists highlighting XMM-Newton and Integral).
For our MOC /THEMIS, RHESSI and FAST section, we will have a short pre-recorded video segment and then a live interview in the Mission Operations room. Do tune in on April 3rd, 5:40 PM Pacific time to see what sort of exciting events transpire on this end!
February 17, 2009: Mark your calendars! Dr. Eric Donovan, lead aurora researcher and Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Calgary, will be giving a talk on the science behind auroras and the THEMIS mission.
Date: Wednesday, February 25th, 2009
Time: 7:30-8:30pm
Location: Price of Wales Northern Heritage Centre Auditorium, Yellowknife, Northwest Territories
For more details and further information, click here. This presentation is part of the 2009 International Year of Astonomy Celebrations in the Northwest Territories.
July 13-15, 2008: Twelve THEMIS teachers from across the country came together for a teacher professional development workshop in Boulder, CO. They shared with each other the lessons they have been doing in their classes using the THEMIS ground-based magnetometer data located in many of their schools. Dr. Peticolas modeled lessons with the teachers from the new THEMIS teacher's guide that is a revised version of the "Space Weather" guide. And they heard from scientists, Drs. Mark Moldwin and Sten Odenwald, about the THEMIS mission and the Super Storm of 1859. The teachers are looking forward to continuing to be a integral part of the THEMIS mission - a part of which is to bring THEMIS science to students across the Northern United States. If you are interested in bringing THEMIS science to your classroom, including some of the THEMIS data, see the "In the Classroom" part of this website for more information.
February 26, 2008: The company that evaluates our education and public outreach program, Cornerstone Evaluation Associates LLC (Cornerstone), has provided us with a report summarizing findings from our teacher professional development workshops over Fiscal Year 2007 (FY07) - from October 1, 2006 through September 30, 2007. The report also contains a summary of relevant statistics about the use of this website over the Fiscal Year 2006 (FY06) from October 1, 2005 through September 30, 2006 and Fiscal Year 2007 (FY07) from October 1, 2006 through September 30, 2007. You can read the report here.
To find out more about our teacher PD workshops, visit the THEMIS GEONSM page and the Center for Science Education teacher PD workshop page.
February 20, 2008: PBS NOVA Science NOW came on February 5th to film several of the THEMIS scientists and engineers for a short NOVA piece about THEMIS. You can view a photograph of our own Manfred Bester, Director of the Missions Operations Center at UC Berkeley, with Neil deGrasse Tyson, the host of NOVA Science NOW, an astrophysicist and the director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. We will share information here about when the NOVA show will air when we find out the schedule for this program.
November 8, 2007: THEMIS was featured as part of the show Quest (#115) on KQED channel 9 last Tuesday night. The description is below with the re-broadcast times.
Illuminating the Northern Lights - Bay Area residents may not get to see the northern lights, but Bay Area scientists are playing a key role in understanding them. Find out more about the spectacular light shows up north and what scientists at UC Berkeley are discovering about the Earth's magnetic field.
KQED Channel 9
Thu, Nov 8, 2007 -- 2:30 am
Fri, Nov 9, 2007 -- 2:00 pm
Sat, Nov 10, 2007 -- 6:30 am
Sun, Nov 11, 2007 -- 10:30 am
Mon, Nov 12, 2007 -- 12:30 am
KQED HD
Thu, Nov 8, 2007 -- 2:30 am
Sat, Nov 10, 2007 -- 3:30 pm
Sun, Nov 11, 2007 -- 10:30 am
Sun, Nov 11, 2007 -- 3:30 pm
Mon, Nov 12, 2007 -- 12:30 am
Tue, Nov 13, 2007 -- 7:00 pm
May 5, 2007: We've added a new page to our THEMIS classroom site - the GEONS teacher and student work. Visit this page to see what our teachers and students are producing as a result of our education and outreach efforts.
March 29-April 1st, 2007: We met with the THEMIS GEONS teachers at the National Science Teachers Association conference to discuss how THEMIS is being implemented in their classrooms with the magnetometer data and to share the 4th THEMIS magnetism guide: "Magnetometers and Electric Currents in Space." Several of these activities have already been tested in the teachers' classrooms and the guide will soon be available on our website for other physics teachers who would like to incorporate the magnetometer data in their classroom.
March 8th, 2007: The THEMIS school in Petersburg, Alaska was in the news recently for its role with the THEMIS education project. Read more in the Petersburg Pilot's article in our articles section. Note that Don Dearborn works at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA), not in Berkeley.
March 6th, 2007: An interview in a German Newspaper, Braunschweiger Zeitung, explores the possibility of NASA EPO programs, such as THEMIS E/PO, as a model for Education and Outreach in Germany. Read the article from our articles section.
September 12, 2006: Take a look at our new patch and the poem that describes the mission from a new angle!
August 17, 2006: See the THEMIS orbits movie - Artists conception - created by the NASA/GSFC Visualisation team: Walt Feimer and Tom Bridgman.
August 2, 2006: Two more movies of Probe 5 (F5) during spin balance tests in two axes: The process measures the mass rotational symmetry of the probe and we place weights to ensure it is aligned with the geometrical axis of symmetry of the probe. This is like a car tire balance machine, only bigger and more accurate. The reason we put the weights is so that we are safe (we dont tip over) and we don't spin about the wrong axis (our look directions don't wobble). Kind of like what you care about balancing your tires.
- Probe 5 during the spin balance test around the XY axis (between X and Y)
- Probe 5 during spin balance test around Z axis.
July 10, 2006: THEMIS probes at JPL are ready for the environmental testing. See the side view and top view of the probes.
March 16, 2006: Eric Donavan gave a public lecture to about 500 people about the THEMIS Canadian THEMIS Aurora Project at the TELUS World of Science in Calgary, in Canada. He described a bit about the competitive process that leads to a mission like THEMIS. Find out more at the Peter Sim Memorial Lecture Page.
March 8, 2006: Take a survey about SEGway’s Exploring Magnetism lesson guides:
Supplies are running low on SEGway’s printed booklets of the Exploring Magnetism educator guide, plus we have just completed a new guide in the series: Exploring Magnetism in Solar Flares.
January 18, 2006: THEMIS teacher, Wendy Esch of Wisconsin, together with 3 of her students and the school's superintendant, gave a presentation to the Shawano Optimist club about THEMIS. To find out more about Ms. Esch and her school's involvment in THEMIS, go to our Geomagnetic Events Observation Network by Students (GEONS) page and then visit the Wisconsin school page.
Oct 31 , 2005: The Space Sciences Laboratory at the University of California in Berkeley had a halloween party. To the right are the finalists in the costume contest. Daniele Meihan, our coordinator of the GEONS teachers, came as Themis. Can you find her in the photograph?
Oct 25-30, 2005: Don Dearborn installed magnetometers in the final two states this week: Derby, VT and Loysburg, PA! The data can now be found on the GEONS data page.
Oct 10-14, 2005: Don Dearborn installed magnetometers in three states this week: Shawano, WI, Remus, MI, and Fort Yates, ND! The data can now be found on the GEONS data page. See the Shawano, WI newspaper article about the installation in Wisconsin in the Articles about THEMIS section below.
June 21-22, 2005: The first Great Explorations in Math and Science (GEMS) teacher professional development site was started in Carson City, NV, funded by the THEMIS Education and Public Outreach. Over 60 teachers from around the state of Nevada gathered to learn different ways of teaching math and science with hands-on activities. Each lesson is associated with a GEMS teacher's guide. Each participant was able to select five to ten teacher guides of their choice. Gail Bushey, a teacher in Carson City, is leading the GEMS site and will keep it going for years to come.
June 19, 2005: Western Nevada Community College Jack Davis Observatory, Carson City, NV houses the THEMIS GEONS magnetometers and hosted the 2nd THEMIS GEONS Ambassadors Workshop. The Workshop Group around the sensor, pointing to it: L to R: First row: Parent (NV), Peticolas (CA), Craig (CA), Odenwald (MD); Second Row: Shutkin (CA), Esch (WI), Barber (OR), Wyllie (VT), Angelopoulos (CA): Third Row: Dickinson (MI), Collier (NV), Gehman (SD), De Wolfe (MI), Estill (MT), Bean (NV), Trautman (AK). Visit the image archive for more photos.
October 14, 2004: A magnetometer was installed outside the elementary school near the Red Cloud High School in Pine Ridge, SD. An article about this installation can be found here.
October 12, 2004: A magnetometer was installed at the Hot Springs High School in Hot Springs, MT
October 4-5, 2004: Magnetometer is installed at the Petersburg City Schools in Petersburg, AK with science teacher Vic Trautman.
August 27, 2004: Magnetometer is installed at the Western Nevada Community College observatory in Carson City, NV with Professor Robert Collier, Assistant Gerald Brandvold, and Carson Middle School science teacher, Terry Parent.
July 12-14, 2004: The education group held its first teacher's workshop with the teachers who will be housing magnetometers at their schools and will be part of the Geomagnetic Event Observations Network by Students (GEONS) program. This professional development workshop was held in Berkeley at University of California, Berkeley's Space Sciences Laboratory. Teachers were taught about magnetometers and magnetism as well as some pedagogy. The education group learned about the issues that the GEONS schools face, how the THEMIS program will fit into their classroom, and what the teachers need. Learn more about these teachers at our GEONS School pages.
April 12 , 2004: We welcomed 9 high school teachers and schools to our GEONS program. They were selected out of 24 schools in competitions held by the Space Grant Consortiums in different states determined by the THEMIS science team. To find out more about this network, visit our GEONS page.
November 14, 2003: THEMIS has passed its Preliminary Design Review! This means that the mission is on schedule, allowing us to begin lesson plans, select schools for our GEONS project, and allowing engineers to begin building instruments.
