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A group of amateur radio enthusiats launch an HD video camera into space and track it back down to earth. I think it's incredible and a great example of what people with an interest in something can do. What could we do if we gave students goals like this to accomplish? Any thoughts about how we use this incredible example of curiosity with students? Also, note that they send it to space, share their work via YouTube, blog about it, get picked up on the Discovery channel for relatively little cost!

Directly from Time Magazine: "Like Google Earth for the heavens, WWT aggregates terabytes of astronomical data from the world's biggest telescopes to create a single virtual scope that anyone can look through. WWT is not a model of the known universe, but rather a centralized repository for just about everything known about the universe. The idea is to democratize the science of astronomy with a single tool that can be used by students and scientists. Who knows, when everyone has access to the same data, maybe the next big discovery in astronomy will be made by an amateur? There are hundreds of terabytes of digitized sky - enough data for everyone. "

Follow-up to the BEAR-4 near space video from amateur radio enthusiasts from Edmonton, CA. These students (yes, MIT students) capture still photos from space for $150 worth of equipment. Again, it's all about letting students solve problems, using technology that is available to them, and sharing it! Talk about engaging!!!!!