Education & Inspiration
Education Matters:
Inspiring the Sun-Earth Connection
Expanding outside a subject matter’s borders can lead to new learning experiences.
By Brian Kruse
NASA
The author captured this photograph of the faint aurora August 8, 2015, while attending the Oregon Star Party in the Ochoco Mountains of Oregon.
[Brian Kruse]
ON the evenings of May 10 and 11, 2024, people across the globe were treated to a spectacular auroral display, courtesy of the active Sun. Those in the mid-latitudes in both the southern and northern hemispheres watched in awe as purple and green curtains danced across the night sky. Flares and coronal mass ejections from massive sunspot group AR 3664 triggered the geomagnetic storm, unleashing a tremendous amount of auroral activity..
Sadly, I missed seeing the aurora during the May 2024 event. I wasn’t even aware the intense solar activity was taking place, as I had just returned from a camping trip in Yosemite Valley. When I did hear of the May 10 and 11 aurora activity, I was under a thick layer of fog along Monterey Bay, California.
A few years ago, though, I saw a low-latitude aurora somewhat unexpectedly. In August 2015, I was camped at the Oregon Star Party in the Ochoco Mountains of Central Oregon. One morning another astronomer asked who else had seen the aurora in the pre-dawn sky. A few had, however I had turned in several hours before. That evening, there was an odd red and green glow in the northern sky. It took me a few moments to realize it was not the light dome from towns to the north. The aurora continued to glow most of the night and was even there to a lesser extent the following night.
In both of these cases, the occurrence of an aurora was surprising to me. Were I paying attention to the Sun beforehand I might have been better prepared to observe the phenomena, particularly during the one in May 2024.
In 2002 to 2004, however, I was paying attention.
At the time I was teaching physical science to ninth graders in Roseburg, Oregon. A few years earlier I developed an interest in astronomy and started to incorporate astronomical themes and events into the curriculum. Between attending the Astronomical Society of the Pacific meeting in 2001, a NASA Educational Workshop in 2002, and a talk astronomer Michelle Larson gave on solar science at the Oregon Star Party, I became convinced I could create a year-long curricular focus about the Sun-Earth connection. I would use it to make deeper connections between all the various aspects taught during a year of physical science. To help implement the innovation, I applied for and received a small grant to purchase a class set of Sunspotter telescopes, a Coronado Hydrogen-alpha telescope, and mount to allow my students to make regular observations of the Sun. And we were able to, even in southwestern Oregon where clouds and rain are the norm for a good part of the fall, winter, and spring! Sunspot observations weren’t the only way the Sun-Earth connection tied into the curricula. Students recorded and graphed day length at various places on Earth to better understand how the Sun’s radiation combined with latitude and oceanic influences lead to differences in climate. We also touched on the transfer of energy from solar fusion reactions through capture within Earth’s atmosphere.
The photographer captured this view of the aurora over Kalispell, Montana, on May 11, 2024.
[Cammi Barron]
In September 2003, the author's students observed and tracked the Sun from their viewpoint in Roseburg, Oregon.
[Brian Kruse]
My experiment to bridge the physical science curriculum with the Sun-Earth connection was a success, with the culminating activity taking students to a county-wide Earth Day celebration at the local fairgrounds. Students staffed an information booth where they interacted with event visitors, and invited them outside the entrance of the facility to observe the Sun. During those years we unfortunately did not see a low-latitude aurora. However we did track some very large sunspot groups, including one in October 2003, which released X-Class flares and large coronal mass ejections. We tracked the storms online and with daily images from Big Bear Solar Observatory and the NASA/European SOHO satellite.
It isn’t always easy to pique the interest of a teenager. But through this project, I learned to capture their interest through going outside and giving them an opportunity to see something they otherwise never would have thought about. As an educator, it also means taking a risk to do something a bit different from what the curriculum usually asks for. (I was also fortunate to have administrators who allowed me to think outside the box and explore how to extend our lessons to real world phenomena.)
BRIAN KRUSE manages the formal education programs at the Astronomical Society of the Pacific.
While I left that position shortly after, the idea of involving learners in directly exploring the Universe has stayed with me. After all, I now work with educators to help them discover their own path in facilitating similar experiences. ✰
(Published July 12, 2024)
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