Quiet Skies addresses K-14 science, mathematics and/or technology education, and addresses the following goals as paraphrased from the National Science Education Standards. Bold-faced text describes how the Quiet Skies program applies to the goals:

1) Science and Technology

a) Science often advances with the introduction of new technologies. Solving technological problems often results in new scientific knowledge. New technologies often extend the current levels of scientific understanding and introduce new areas of research.

Radio Astronomy is dependent upon research and development in radio frequency and digital engineering. New technology was developed specifically for the Green Bank Telescope (GBT), in part, to reduce the telescope’s susceptibility to RFI. Students will investigate the unique engineering of the GBT.

b) Science and technology are pursued for different purposes. Scientific inquiry is driven by the desire to understand the natural world, and technological design is driven by the need to meet human needs and solve human problems. Technology, by its nature, has a more direct effect on society than science because its purpose is to solve human problems. Technological solutions may create new problems.

Communications techniques developed over the last decade are increasingly ubiquitous in our society. Developments in technology that make it possible to talk to “anyone, anywhere” have negative consequences for radio astronomy.

c) Understanding basic concepts and principles of science and technology should precede active debate about the economics, policies, politics, and ethics of various science- and technology-related challenges.

Once students have made field measurements of RFI in their home schools and hometowns, and understand the challenges to radio astronomy, they can weigh this new information against other uses for the EM spectrum. Students will be able to derive informed opinions about the allocation of the radio spectrum.

d) Individuals and society must decide on proposals involving new research and the introduction of new technologies into society. Decisions involve assessment of alternatives, risks, costs, and benefits and consideration of who benefits and who suffers, who pays and gains, and what the risks are and who bears them.

Quiet Skies provokes students into analyzing the costs and benefits of spectrum allocation for commercial and non-commercial use.

2) Inquiry

a) Design and conduct scientific investigations.

Students using Quiet Skies will investigate Radio Waves and RFI unique to their hometowns and districts. They will determine where and how to collect data to sample their location, collect and analyze RFI data, use online databases to derive possible sources of RFI in their neighborhoods.

b) Use appropriate tools and techniques to gather, analyze, and interpret data. The use of tools and techniques, including mathematics, will be guided by the question asked and the investigations students design. Students should be able to access, gather, store, retrieve, and organize data, using hardware and software designed for these purposes.

The Quiet Skies project provides a scientific instrument to students, and a framework within which to participate in a shared experiment across the state.

c) Develop descriptions, explanations, predictions, and models using evidence.

d) Communicate scientific procedures and explanations. With practice, students should become competent at communicating experimental methods, following instructions, describing observations, summarizing the results of other groups, and telling other students about investigations and explanations

Students will communicate and discuss their results with their peers in the classroom.

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