Guest: Janet Ivey; Topics: Janet's Planet and their educational programs for kids K-5th grade and more for space and science. Please direct all comments and questions regarding specific Space Show programs & guest(s) to the Space Show blog which is part of archived program on our website, www.thespaceshow.com. Comments and questions should be relevant to the specific Space Show program. Written Transcripts of Space Show programs are a violation of our copyright and are not permitted without prior written consent, even if for your own use. We do not permit the commercial use of Space Show programs or any part thereof, nor do we permit editing, YouTube clips, or clips placed on other private channels & websites. Space Show programs can be quoted, but the quote must be cited or referenced using the proper citation format. Contact The Space Show for further information. In addition, please remember that your Amazon purchases can help support The Space Show/OGLF. See www.onegiantleapfoundation.org/amazon.htm.
We welcomed Janet Ivey of Janet's Planet to The Space Show program. During the first segment of our 1 hour 47 minute program, Janet introduced us to Janet's Planet (http://janetsplanet.com) and its 25 year history. She talked about those who inspired her along the way and her current projects which include public TV spots, a Pluto-New Horizons Campaign and a program to address the upcoming August eclipse - all as educational programs for kids K-5th grade. Janet also talked about her multi-media road shows where she takes her message on the road to cities and towns across America to teach kids about science and space. You can see one of her multi-media presentation on the solar system at https://vimeo.com/52242785). I urge you to view this video which I have now done. You will love it despite your being older than her target audience.
Janet stressed the arts in her science and space educational efforts along with outreach to young girls. Listeners asked Janet many questions. Jack for example, want to know if Janet had a way to estimate the science IQ of the students attending her multi-media presentation. Don't miss how Janet answered Jack's question and the examples she used by way of illustration. Another listener wanted to know if Janet included the hard sciences in her educational programming such as physics, biology, chemistry, etc. I asked Janet if she included engineering, specifically aerospace engineering. Again, don't miss what she said and how she works with these subjects with her young students.
Marshall was our first caller. He wanted to know how she chose her topics and how news events were integrated into her outreach programs. He cited the SpaceX use of pad 39A for the launch yesterday and the history behind 39A. In response to other questions and our ongoing discussion, Janet talked more about her background as an actress and how she uses that to enrich the programming for Janet's Planet.
Janet took a few minutes to do a shout out to the National Space Society and the ISDC conference event which meets later this year in St. Louis. In addition, Janet mentioned the Explore Mars event, Humans2Mars. Here, she mentioned discount coding for the Explore Mars event so if this interests you, don't miss out on this opportunity.
Listener Sandra in San Antonio asked why Janet thought the US scored so low in the ratings of all western countries in science and math. Janet had specific ideas on this but talked about the need for teachers to spend so much time "teaching to the tests" with the idea that the standardized tests should be cut back to allow teachers to teach. Janet then suggested that doing better in these topics started at home and both of us expressed some ideas around this theme and topic. Don't miss all of what Janet said she thought should be done to address the problem referenced by Sandra.
For the second segment, Tony from Los Angeles called during the break and was our first call and lead for the second segment. Tony wanted to ask how Janet's Planet dealt with kids and adults of the flat Earth type or we never went to the Moon folks. Don't miss what Janet said about this as she said it was important to "right this ship." While talking about this topic, Tony mentioned relying on GPS and I half heartedly mentioned taking GPS offline at random times during the month forcing people to use maps or other forms of navigation. Don't hold your breath for that idea to be implement anytime soon.
Later in the segment, I asked Janet about making a Lunar Rover. Check this out on her webpage, http://janetsplanet.com/2016/09/hello-world/. Also check out the segment on Nikola Tesla, http://janetsplanet.com/2015/08, and on Comet ISON Photo Contest, http://janetsplanet.com/2014/09.
Near the end of the program, Janet talked about upcoming programs for Janet's Planet including Enterprise in Space using AI to tutor kids. Other programs were mentioned as were books and great teaching tools. In response to the final question of the day from Pauline, Janet did watch Mr. Wizard on TV plus The Electric Company and Mr. Rogers. Don't miss Janet's concluding comments.
Please post your comments/questions on the blog page for this archived program on The Space Show website. You can reach Janet through her email address which she gave out on air as well as through her website, http://janetsplanet.com.
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