Introducing Educators to Internet
The nationally recognized program "Toys that Teach" has been recently teamed with a newly developed workshop to familiarize educators with the Internet and the Mn/DOT Aeronautics Homepage. The workshop was developed with support from the MnSGC, Mn/DOT and Augsburg College. This site provides educators with access to high quality aerospace educational materials, containing Mn/DOT Aeronautics materials that have been converted into electronic format, newly created Mn/DOT Aeronautics materials, and links to other aerospace educational materials available via the WWW.

Teachers attending the workshops receive "free" notebooks containing the following information:

• a description of the historical development of the Internet;
• an article describing the most commonly asked questions by educators regarding the Internet;
• a description of how to conduct searches of the World Wide Web using various public domain search engines; and
• a list of WWW sites of potential interest to aerospace educators.

This information will enable participants to more easily gain access to and locate useful resources on the World Wide Web once they are back at their home sites.

The first in a series of "free" two part workshops took place on November 8, at Bemidji High School. The work-shop was attended by 20 educators and initial reaction was very positive, with participants requesting that the Internet portion of workshop be offered to all teachers at their schools. Another important need expressed by participants was using this workshop to demonstrate to administrators and community members the educational value of having school-wide access to the Internet. However, at this time we are unable to fulfill these requests. A second workshop was held on November 29 at Fond Du Lac Tribal College in Cloquet. The participants response to the workshop was very positive, but participation was low. Additional workshops will be offered through-out the state between now and April 1, 1996.

Space Science Presentations

Annual EAA Oshkosh Event
Terry Flower of the College of St. Catherine gave a talk the year's Annual Meeting of the Experimental Aircraft Association held in July at Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Terry represented the Great Midwest Regional Space Grant Consortium, made up of space grant consortia from Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan, and his talk was entitled "Butterflies, Dragonflies and High Speed Birds, What We've Learned About Aerodynamics of Flight from Nature."

High School Presentations
As part of Bethel's ongoing Space Science K-12 outreach program, which was developed and continues with the support of the MnSGC, Dick Peterson made several visits to Minnesota high schools over the past year. His presentation, entitled "An Introduction to Lasers and Optical Applications," requires Dick to take an incredible amount of laser equipment to each school. So far this year, Dick has traveled to Cambridge High School, Chadnessay K-12, Totino Grace and, most recently, Monroe County Schools, where he made two presentations to the 11th and 12th grade chemistry and physics students and to the 9th grade physical sciences classes. Dick Peterson also conducted a 3-hour workshop within Bethel Optics Laboratories for secondary students and teachers attending the Minnesota Academy of Science on October 9. Uses of lasers in both science and engineering were discussed and demonstrated. Holography and holographic measurements were presented in some detail, and two large, white light holograms were constructed within small groups. Of the many science and engineering activities sponsored for the Academy visitor, the Executive Director, Susan Kafka, reports that the workshop conducted by Dick Peterson "received the highest rating from both teachers and students." Four high school teachers and about 20 of Minnesota's very best students attended.

Omnium Gatherum
Terry Flower gave the key note address at Mankato State University's Omnium Gatherum, a series of workshops on a variety of topics for elementary, junior high and high school students. Terry's talk was entitled "Science as a Liberal Art . . . Needed in Space as well as on the Earth." Terry's involvement in the Omnium Gatherum, as a representative of the MnSGC, came about after we received a call from a teacher at Monroe County High School who was concerned that her students were not getting enough exposure to space science. At the request of the Consortium, Terry participated in the Omnium Gatherum and Dick Peterson from Bethel (see above) visited two of the high schools in this county.