Tranquility Base

Did you know that Neil Armstrong never publicly stated how he FELT about being the first human on the moon? This song was written from that perspective. Great footage of the Moon Landing!

From Eric Brace:

"Forty years ago on July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong stepped out of the Apollo 11 Lunar Module and onto the surface of the moon. As the first man to walk across the lunar surface, one would expect Armstrong to have a lot of profound thoughts about it all. Curiously, he's never talked about how he felt, satisfied to discuss the event only in engineering terms.

I thought that was pretty strange, and one night under a bright moon, all the questions I had for Armstrong arranged themselves into a song. With the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing coming up, I headed into Eric Fritsch's East Nashville studio and recorded Tranquility Base, with Mike Webb (keyboards), Fred Eltringham (drums), Eric Fritsch (electric guitar, bass, organ), and Charlie Rauh (electric guitar).

Tranquility Base is streaming on the Red Beet Records website and is available for download on iTunes. The video is the creation of another fine East Nashvillian, Stacie Huckaba, who managed to get some very cool footage from NASA. You're welcome to forward it, embed it, share it with your mom."

Solar Eclipse - July 22, 2009

Wednesday will be another big day in Astronomy: a Solar Eclipse with a path of totality that crosses over China. The eclipse will last more than six minutes - the longest for several hundred years - and won't be surpassed until 2132.

Here are some sites worth checking out:

1. Live Cast from Japan - be watching if you are teaching summer school!
   
2. Exploratorium has a nice video about Eclipse Chasers.
3. Try This from Exploratorium.
4. NASA's Eclipse Page. So far I haven't been able to get on this one! Too busy!
5. July 22, 2009 Solar Eclipse Wikipedia Entry.

Email me if you want to see my Solar Eclipse PowerPoint. Too big to upload to my site.

Here's one from Exploratorium of a Solar Eclipse in Turkey in 2006. Bailey's Beads and Diamond Ring are mentioned in this video.

Apollo 40th Anniversary!

It will be a very special day tomorrow. The 40th Anniversary of the first humans to land on the moon. Check out NASA for some wonderful activities, videos, etc. And even if you don't have a class this summer, collect a few ideas while visiting the site and include them in your Earth Science or Astronomy or whatever! class this fall.

We remember where we were when Neil Armstrong landed, if we are old enough, that is! Check out the restored video showing this momentous occasion.

Here's one narrated by Walter Cronkite. It really catches the suspense of that moment. Worth showing your students!

Happy Anniversary!

Interactive Science Notebooks

Head on over to the great new blog of one of my Science Teacher Buddies. She's doing some great pre-planning this summer on how to set up her notebook for middle school science students in the new Interactive (left side-right side) Notebook.

I never got this going because I didn't know how to get past the normal format of right side for teacher-input and left-side for student-outgo. Just didn't sound feasible to me.

She's doing something different and I really LIKE her ideas!

Way to go, Liz!

Click here to visit the Middle School Science blog.