Maya Science and Nasa Science

Science educators often find themselves in the position of wanting to debunk commonly held beliefs.  Earlier this week astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson tweeted about the 2012 Doomsday rumors, offering scientific reasoning in favor of all life not coming to an end in a few weeks.

NASA's Calendar in the Sky program is embracing the opportunity to educate folks as we approach the winter solstice about Maya Science and Nasa Science.  While the Mayan Long Count Calendar ends on December 21 2012, there is no evidence to suggest that the ancient Maya people believed that the world would end on that day.  They also have free astronomy lesson plans online, including one lesson focused entirely on the "Mayan Skies."

How will you celebrate December 21, 2012? If you need some ideas, join the last webinar in this series from Calendar in the Sky next week!

Title: How Are You Celebrating December 21st, 2012?
Host: Bryan Mendez, Space Sciences Lab, UC Berkeley
Date: Friday, December 14, 2012
Time: 11am PT/12pm MT/1pm CT/2pm ET
Duration: 90 minutes
Format: Online Webinar (60 min presentation with 30 min discussion period)
Registration: Please register for this webinar here

DESCRIPTION:
What do you have planned for your audiences to mark December 21st, 2012, the 13th Bakt'un anniversary of the Maya Long Count calendar? Are you having a "Not the end of the world" party, are you holding a special event, are you marking the solstice, are you including aspects of Maya culture? In this final Webinar of the Bakt'un, participants will share activities they have planned for December 21st, 2012, perhaps getting some last minute ideas from their colleagues from around the country.

ABOUT CALENDAR IN THE SKY:
Calendar in the Sky is a NASA-funded project led by UC Berkeley to engage the American public, particularly Latino audiences, in NASA science (space exploration, astronomy, planetary and Earth sciences, etc.) via the broad interest in Maya culture. We are conducting a series of webinars for educators on NASA science and Maya astronomy. Following the webinars, attendees will be given access to private discussion boards on the project website (www.calendarinthesky.org) where they can discuss the webinar topics and exchange ideas and resources for educational programming with colleagues. The webinars will be recorded and archived on the website. This will be the third webinar in the series.

Webinar: Learning Science Outside the Classroom

As part of their recent special report on informal science education, Education Week will be hosting a webinar tomorrow (4/19) on science learning outside of the classroom. The webinar will take place from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. EST and will feature John Falk, Professor of Free Choice learning at Oregon State University, and Dr. Alan Friedman, former Director and CEO of the New York Hall of Science and current member of the National Assessment Government Board. Both are highly regarded experts working at the cutting edge of informal science learning research, and they should have a lot to say about this ever-evolving field.

Dr. Friedman also gave a talk at the 2010 National Conference on Science & Technology in Out of School Time on the importance of program evaluation. Download a free podcast of his talk on the Coalition for Science After School iTunes U page.