Blackout: A New Instructional Video for Middle School Students Describing
   the Technological Impacts of Solar Storms

Sten F. Odenwald 1,2 (301) 286-6953; odenwald@bolero.gsfc.nasa.gov)
William W.L. Taylor 1,2 (301)286-4136; taylor@nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov)
James Green 2 (301) 286-7354; green@bolero.gsfc.nasa.gov)
Tom Smith 3 (tsmith@zanshin.gsfc.nasa.gov)

 1 Raytheon ITSS, 4201 Forbes Blvd, Lanham, MD 20771, United States
 2 GSFC, Code 600, Greenbelt, MD 20117, United States
 3 Briggs-Chaney School, 631 Briggs-Cheney Road, Silver Spring, MD 20771, United States



We present a video that was produced in collaboration with the Maryland
Event Based Science EBS program and NASA's, IMAGE satellite program.
This video, 20 minutes in length, is targeted at middle school students,
and was developed as a part of the Blackout EBS curriculum guide. The EBS
program produces theme oriented curriculum modules, which are written by
a team of master teachers. Each module features a single topic based on
major stories that have appeared in the news media over the years
including the Mount Saint Helens eruption and the Noma Prieta earthquake.
Blackout! features the March 1989 Ontario blackout which was spawned by
a solar storm and affected 6 million people. Students use hands on, role
playing techniques to analize the circumstances surrounding a simulated
blackout, and learn about solar storms and how that can impact the
electrical power grid. The video is a fast moving introduction to the
science surrounding solar storms, and how space weather forecasting
attempts to keep abreast of possible future impacts to our technology.
We will show the video as part of the presentation.