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This year's Discovery Day was held in November 1994 and hosted 78 high school and middle school students from seven Northern Minnesota school districts, doubling the number of schools represented and the number of students who participated in the event! The topic of this year's Discovery Day was organized around the analysis of an unknown and hypothetical planet. The planet was described for the students as having an unusual axial tilt, rotation and revolution, as well as distance from its primary source of light which had a spectral analysis somewhat different from our sun. The students were asked to: (1) determine the planet's suitability for colonization; and (2) to give scientific arguments for their answer. As in the previous year, there were no wrong answers, only erroneous reasoning. A distinguished panel of judges, headed by Professor Greg Ojakangas of UMD, evaluated the student solutions and determined the winner.
As with every Discovery Day , the visiting students were treated to lunch, which included a talk by Professors Ivy and Glayton Knoshaug of BSU on "The Mathematics of Chaos." This talk added dimension to the morning discussions which centered around atmospheric physics (climate, heat transfer, atmospheric chemistry) and the origins of solar systems (solar nebulae, chaotic motion) by suggesting that minor differences in starting conditions can result in major divergences at the end of a process. The afternoon session consisted of a consideration of global warming and the Gaia hypothesis to illustrate the close relationship between the various living and non-living elements of a planetary system. After a period of questions and answers, the students presented their hypotheses. This year's first place winner was once again Fosston High School, receiving a $500 scholarship to BSU. Bemidji High School came in second and Cass Lake High School won third place. Second and third place winners each received a $200 scholarship.
The topic of next year's Discovery Day will be "NASA, Quo vadis?" It should be interesting to see how high school students view the space program and where it might be going. Anyone interested in getting involved in this worthwhile event should contact Bob Melchior at BSU.
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The focus of the 1995 Sverdrup Visiting Scientist Program, co-sponsored by the MN Space Grant Consortium, was the July 1994 collision of the Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 with Jupiter. This topic was extremely popular with over 350 people attending the free public lecture given by Dr. Lucy McFadden, a National Science Foundation Visiting Professor at the University of Maryland's Astronomy Department. Dr. McFadden's lecture focused on the events leading up to the collisions, the discovery of the comet, how we believe it broke up and when and what we learned about Jupiter.
In addition to the public lecture, this year the program was re-designed to include a public school involvement. Dr. McFadden met with groups of 7th and 8th graders enrolled at the Seward Elementary School and with students enrolled in the Washburn Aviation and Aerospace High School Magnet Program. Dr. Vivian Johnson, Science Coordinator at Augsburg College, with input from the classroom teachers and Dr. McFadden, developed a one-day curriculum highlighting the scientific discoveries related to the 1994 summer collision of Comet Shoemaker Levy 9 with Jupiter. This was a unique experience for these students, who generally have no other access to a professional astronomer such as Dr. McFadden. In add-ition, Dr. McFadden went out of her way to provide special "treats" for these students. Using her own contacts she obtained free give-away materials such as posters, badges, and buttons from the Hubble Space Telescope Institute.
The 1995 program also included the annual student luncheon with the Visiting Scientist and the Visiting Scientist's visit to the Honors Seminar -- invaluable, unique experiences for our students. The format of the luncheon is flexible and designed to encourage students to ask Dr. McFadden a wide range of questions. Several of these students were especially interested in Dr. McFadden's own undergraduate experience at a liberal arts institution and its impact on her career. Following lunch, Dr. McFadden participated in the Honors Seminar taught by Dr. Joan Kunz, Chair of the Chemistry Department. Dr. McFadden had provided a background article on the likelihood of a comet crash with Earth and its possible consequences. These students were quick to raise questions about the statistics used by the authors to document the reasonable threat to earth and our need to be concerned. Dr. McFadden agreed that the author's use of statistics was debatable, but also convinced some of the students that doing additional scientific exploration in this area was reasonable. It was a wonderful opportunity for students to become involved in the public policy debate related to one aspect of the public funding of scientific research.
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