Contest: Win a WMAP beach ball – day 4!
- By Sara Mitchell
- September 30, 2010
- 25 Comments
There are only two days left to enter this week’s contests – including this one, there are four contests that you can enter until Friday at 5PM ET. Here’s your latest chance to win a prize pack of NASA stuff including a WMAP beach ball signed by Nobel Laureate John Mather! We’ll be throwing in all sorts of posters, stickers, and other surprises.
Here’s how to enter today’s contest! Tell us:
If you won one, what would you do with your very own WMAP beach ball?
Convince us that you have something cool or interesting to do with a WMAP beach ball, and maybe we’ll send you one! We just stuck one up on a shelf in the office, so you can probably do better than that. Post your idea as a comment on this entry.
Comments are moderated and we ask that you be respectful. No profanity please! Any comments with non-NASA links may be edited or removed. Please keep the political and religious humor to a minimum – as a NASA blog we’re steering clear of that. We’re also unable to publish comments that contain mature content. We’re trying to keep this all-ages!
Entries must be received by 5PM ET on Friday, October 1. We’ll announce the winner next week and mail out the prizes!
Good luck, and enter all five contests this week for your best chance to win NASA goodies. These contests are open to everyone.
Disclaimer: All opinions in this blog entry are that of specific individuals and do not represent those of NASA, Goddard Space Flight Center, or Blueshift.
Perhaps it’s not too original an idea, but I’d use it as an educational aid.
I am a Space Exploration merit badge counselor for the Boy Scouts. I work with interested scouts to teach them the history of space exploration. Emphasis is on the people involved, reasons we do it, what we have gained, and what might be in the future.
Hands on is always better than dry lecture, so I’m always looking for items that demonstrate some aspect of space exploration.
With unbridled enthusasim, I’d show it to my wife and with unbridled disinterest, she’d vacantly stare at it!
I’d start a WMAP beach ball co-op amongst my friends. Whoever needs it can sign it out. But then I get to borrow their pasta maker. And then when I get it back, I’d have a space-ghetti party. aw *yeah* you just saw that get invented!
Well, first, I’d get a pic of it with other related (well, in a broad sense) items and share it with folks on twitter, just so they know what kinda fun stuff you all provide for edutainment, and help get the word out that there are a lotta interesting subjects out there to which they may or not have been exposed. I think it would be fun to also track down others who would sign it as well, and then it would serve as a signature ball collection.
As a merit badge counselor, I can see if I can somehow fit it in as an object lesson for the Space Exploration Merit Badge, if any Scouts opt for that one, that is…
Just some thoughts off the top of my head; I might share more later.
Thanks!
I would be careful not to over-inflate it, ending it’s life with a big bang.
To show it in public outreach events to schools and general public as very interesting and fun tool to explain the Big Bang.
I’d use it in the awesome geek mobile that I’m making for my baby boy that will also include planets, stars, a comet, the Enterprise, the Millennium Falcon, Serenity, and a DeLorean.
I would use it to teach my bearded dragon how to balance on a ball :D
However, I suspect he would simply glare at me and taste test it instead.
Then I’d go and visit my PhD friends at Monash Uni and show them my treasure :D
And once I have done gloating, I shall use it as a reference tool when I write about WMAP on my new science blog. ;)
As educational material in public outreach and visits to schools.
I can certainly use one in two places. First, I’m always looking for “props” for my JPL/NASA Solar System Ambassador presentations. Second, I could use it at our local astronomy club meetings or with the Science on a Sphere at the local science center.
Actually, I have even a better idea. It would be awesome to bring a WMAP beach ball to a Yuri’s Night party. There’s a conversation starter! :-)
I won’t lie to you…
I would throw it at people.
A lot.
I would show it off to my friends… NASA and BBT, how better can it get?! I might also use it to pester the CNES to get them to be as active and communicative with their public than you guys are at NASA :)
Seriously, as a mother of 2 kids (6 and 7), I know how important it is to provide them with great educational tools. Kids can learn so much once it is introduced to them in a fun way (and you are experts on that at NASA), especially 3-dimensional…
Furthermore, signed by John Mather, this beach ball also proves that you can be a brilliant scientist and playful :) (Let’s not be afraid of science!)
Since I am currently a student with a dream of one day having a career that is involved with astronomy, I don’t think I could do much other keep the ball displayed near my desk. I would display it not only because it is signed by John Mather, but also because it is an inspirational reminder, no matter hard physics, chemistry or (especially) math may seem, to keep reaching for my goals. If I could find someway to keep it from being ruined I am sure I’d show it to everyone I know, interested in astronomy or not, to teach them all about WMAP.
I’d also use it as an educational aid, but with an eye towards disinterested kids. Toss ’em the ball and tell them they are holding the universe in their hands.
This would be a killer show and tell item at my son’s school. I would also propose that it be used in a public display on science at the Merril Collection of Science Fiction, Speculation and Fantasy, assuming that such a proposal is approved by staff and management.
I would take it to school and put it in my class and then just use it to brighten up my room. And then take lots of photos of it at different places like the beach, the harbour bridge and the powerhouse museum
If I won I would not be able to do anything with it because my daughter who has been drooling over this thing since she first saw it; before the contest started; would take it away from me. Then she will most likely try to explain it to me until my eyes glaze over and I fall into a light coma. But then again I may learn something I didn’t know.
I would definitely hang it in my dorm room. Whenever people come over I can then show off my beach ball and attempt to get people interested about NASA and space.
At work yesterday someone said to me, “you don’t have a coolness quotient, do you?” I replied, “I’m more of a Sheldon than a… um… okay, I guess that proves my point.”
I would bring this to work and show it around for all those who could truly appreciate it and in so doing re-define “coolness” at my office while teaching them about the meaning of the map and microwave astronomy ni general!
First I would take it out and show it to my friends, family, and some of the science professors at my college. The science geeks would think it is awesome and the others would smile and nod because they have long ago learned to humor me.
Then I would hanging a net between in my dorm room and my roommate and I would play volleyball with it.
After that the ball would be proudly displayed among the other science memorabilia in my room.
As an accessory and a companion! I would hang it next to my GLIMPSE Milky Way poster, across from my solar system mobile, beneath my glow-in-the-dark stars, in front of the window opposite my stained glass Sun, so that it twirls in the breeze for all to see!
Not exactly sure what I would do with it but I do know I would keep it out of the reach of my cats! I guess I’d have to put it in curio cabinet with my other cool collectibles so I can keep my eye on it. (I know, I’m boring. What can I say?)
A WMAP ball could be used to great effect by my old Middle Tennessee State University astronomy professor. I mean, it would be too fantastic to give away outright, but I would encourage the astronomy department to use it (and anything else NASA may want to provide) in their classroom lectures and studies.
Just a P.S. — You know, the fact that it’s such a special beach ball and it’s autographed by Dr. Mather, I HAVE TO put it in the curio cabinet. And no one will be allowed to touch it.
Hey, bring some programs like this 4 foreigners too…
at least stdnt like me’d benefit…