Chuck, When I was an engineer doing school star parties I used to wonder why we couldn't get more teachers involved in astronomy. Now that I am a teacher, I wonder why so many teachers are involved in astronomy!! It takes a really dedicated teacher to make all the arrangements and come back to school ANOTHER evening for a star party. I had lots more free evenings as an engineer to do school star parties that I do now as a teacher! I've found that the same dedicated teachers call me back year after year to do star parties at their schools. Fortunately, I have enough telescopes to do them by myself, so the logistics are easy for me to handle, especially if it's cloudy and I have to reschedule with the teacher. Scheduling and hauling loaner telescopes back and forth from SLAS might make the difference between being able to do a star party and not being able to. For the teachers I serve, they just need to make one phone call or send one email and the arrangements are done. Just a thought. Jay also makes the excellent point that most teachers are not aware of this resource. Wayne A. Sumner Math/Physics/Astronomy/Engineering Boy's Tennis Coach Northridge High School Davis School District (801) 402-8610
Chuck Hards <chuck.hards@gmail.com> 04/13/09 10:10 AM >>> I'm wondering why more teachers aren't making use of the exising SLAS loaner program. It's a heckuva resource.
Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php Visit the Wiki: http://www.utahastronomy.com