In honor of our approach to the shortest day of the year, we’ll keep this update brief. The winter solstice of newsletters …
Upcoming Teacher Twilight!
An Evening at the Planetarium
Thursday, January 16, 2025 at 4:30 PM
Weber State University’s Ott Planetarium in Lind Lecture Hall
Want to know about our planetarium, its digital projection system, and what it can do for you and your students? Or, do you just want to look at the cosmos in an immersive environment? Or, want to sit in a dark room in a comfy chair and not have to talk to anyone for an hour? All this and more is available to you for this session that is only as interactive as you'd like it to be.
Really, this new projection system is a hidden treasure of Weber State University, and we'd love to share it with you. For more information about Ott Planetarium and its services, take a look here: https://www.weber.edu/ottplanetarium
Note: While we usually have a light dinner at our events, for the planetarium we'll just provide a few snacks, like on an airplane except we won't have that cool rolling cart or anything.
We know, it’s the end of December and this Teacher Twilight is in 2025. We’ll remind you again in our January newsletter installment and in a reminder email for those who RSVP here.
Podcast?
We had this idea to interview teachers, scientists, mathematicians, educational researchers, etc. and include it as a podcast with 20-minute episodes. What do you think? Got ideas for what would be interesting and useful? Or know who we should talk to? Let us know. Just a quick note to CSME@weber.edu is all it takes. Quick feedback here is helpful, too:
Dark & Light
As we approach the day with the least amount of daylight in the year, I was struck by the sun setting behind me over Great Salt Lake as I headed home tonight. That was something, the colors, the reflection on the water, the silhouette of Antelope Island, all of that. But also, it was cool to see the sun so far south on the horizon. It had moved from when I’d last taken a photo of it on the equinox:
Our streets run east-west, so this is a good demonstration of how the sun sets right on that line on the first day of autumn.
I was thinking about our last Teacher Twilight by Diane, Niki, and Amanda on the integration of math and science. I wonder how that movement of the sun could be charted, what that looks like over time, what that tells us about the nature of our place in space.
Or, we could just take solace in the fact that it’s going to get brighter from here on out. Enjoy a restful and restorative collection of holidays, this coming solstice among them.
Adam, CSME Director
ajohnston@weber.edu