Amateur Radio and foreign languages go together like ham and oeufs (French for the word eggs). Whether students talk to hams in other countries or simply listen, the activity can enhance your language curriculum.

You'll be surprised how many hams have regular on-the-air schedules with people in other countries. They might be happy to make a contact from your school instead of their home. A conversation from your classroom is ideal because it lets you control the level of difficulty. The ham on your end can explain to the foreign hams what's going on and ask them to adjust their vocabulary and speed to your students' capabilities. Or you can just dial around and see what's on the air at the moment. (If you intend to let non-hams talk on the air, don't forget about third-party rules which we'll discuss shortly.)

East Coast students have a good chance of hearing German and French almost any time they turn on the radio, West Coast schools will have the advantage toward Japan. Spanish is easy from anywhere in the US since we're so close to Central and South America. The vastness of Russia puts that language within range of much of our country.

The lesson doesn't have to end when the conversation does. Have students follow up with letters written in the language. Ask for an answer in that language, or you're likely to get English in return! Perhaps the overseas ham would be willing to send you a radio club newsletter or other small printed piece from their country. Then you'll really have your students hooked because what's more motivating than translating something sent to them from a new friend?

Few hobbies can approach ham radio for making the world seem a little smaller and friendlier. Give your students an opportunity to experience this firsthand, and they'll learn while having fun! --Patty Winter, N6BIS

Third Party Traffic

Two-way radio communications where more than two licensed amateurs talk together are called third party traffic. A third party, whether a licensed amateur or not, may talk to anyone in the US under the supervision of a ham who is then called the control operator. These rules come into play when third parties, such as your students, talk to hams in other countries. If a ham in your class is conversing with a ham in another country, your non-ham students can talk on the radio if the US has a third-party agreement with the other country. Send an SASE to ARRL and ask for a list of third-party agreements.

English Language: The "Lingua Franca" of Amateur Radio

Suppose you want to use Amateur Radio for language arts, using English. Must you and your students speak foreign languages to talk to overseas hams? Not at all! English is generally understood by amateurs throughout the world. Fluency varies among foreign hams--if someone is struggling, keep your conversation short and your questions to the basics: name, location and radio equipment. Branch out if language isn't a problem: try subjects such as occupation, family (the children may be the same age as your students), and so on. Customs vary around the world; questions we consider natural may be too personal in some countries. Tread softly if the person seems reluctant to discuss family or personal information. Topics such as politics, ideology and religion are traditionally taboo on ham radio. Whatever you discuss, keep the conversation friendly! The amateur airwaves build international goodwill! --Patty Winter, N6BIS

School Field Trips

Schools often plan educational field trips to Washington, DC, for their students. If your class gets the chance to go to our nation's capital, don't forget to visit the Goddard Space Flight Center. Goddard Amateur Radio Club members will help you tour the facility, including their Amateur Radio station; this is where they re-transmit all Space Shuttle audio. For information, contact Vikki Gigante-Hueber, KA3PVS, 14911 Nighthawk Lane, Bowie, MD 20716.

The Bethel Connection

Students of Pete Kemp, KZ1Z, at the Bethel Middle School, Bethel, Connecticut, have made new friends 3,600 miles away with students of Allan Wintersteen, KL7IEI, at the Kilbuck Elementary School in Bethel, Alaska. Students from opposite ends of the country asked each other, via ham radio: What is your weather like? Connecticut students discovered that Bethel, Alaska, a fishing village of 4,000 people, calls off school only if the wind chill factor is 55 degrees below zero! Homes are built on stilts, and there are no trees. Alaskan students learned that Bethel, Connecticut has 18,000 people, and students get a day off school when a few inches of snow falls. The students continue to exchange information, videotapes and maps. You and your students can have sister school QSOs--send an SASE to ARRL to find a school.

Amateur Radio Geography

by Bart Lawson, geography teacher

Newspaper headlines proclaim: "US Students Unable to Locate Mississippi River on map." Very disturbing. Where does Amateur Radio fit into the solution? Ham radio is a tremendous aid and motivator in my class. Starting with the first day of school, I tell my students we will eventually be using ham radio in class. They look forward to it, and therefore put up with an intensive course in geography those first weeks--ham radio is already working for me and we hadn't even started to use it! The mere presence of the radio--the mystery of it--creates instant interest and anticipation.

I demonstrated Amateur Radio to my US government class; we contacted a professor from George Washington University. Naturally, he gave a mini-lecture. My American history class talked to a man who lived next to the Gettysburg battleground. But the question is, has radio helped teach geography? Beyond my greatest expectations! I will use ham radio for the rest of my teaching career. A better measure of success is this: My geography class is an elective course in competition with many classes--pre-enrollment is up significantly for my class!

Amateur Radio Satellites

by Rich Ensign, planetarium director

I became intrigued by ham radio satellites and their use in school. Here were teaching tools in space which you could always access. You could get and use all the information you wanted about launches, spacecraft and space science. You could collect telemetry and measure the heartbeat of spacecraft while exploring the space environment they orbit in. You could watch when they swim into view through computer tracking. I've share this with students at many grade levels and throughout the curriculum.

I took a skateboard to a 5th grade class, and stepped aboard. A student threw me a roll of paper towels, and I went backwards. I threw it back, and I went backwards again! I introduced the concepts of momentum, and action and reaction. We shared ideas about photons and the pressure caused by them being absorbed or reflected by satellite surfaces painted silver and black. I got five raised hands when I asked how this would make it spin. All answers were either correct or stimulated further discussion. Even kindergartners showed great curiosity for the solar panels, asking "Are they windows?"

Electric Company

Have you contacted your local utility company about their classroom materials? Here's an example of what a Connecticut power company offers. There are videos and teacher resource kits designed to develop students' science skills, including "Generating Electricity," "Energy Transformations," and "Experiments with Electricity." Each kit, written for a specific age group, contains a full-color, 8- or 16-page student booklet, a reproducible quiz and a teacher's guide. Call your local utility!

Ideas

• Looking for a letter-writing exercise your students will enjoy? Hand out copies of QST that you get for free from ARRL. Ask students to research names and addresses of Amateur Radio manufacturers, and write letters requesting maps, charts, newsletters, posters, product literature, caps and other items. Students enjoy getting mail, and you can use the "prizes" in your ham radio lessons.

• Carolyn Grow's Indianapolis geography class, with the help of N9HQO, contacted the Australian Embassy via ham radio. The students had a great time asking loads of questions about Australia! Afterwards, students practiced writing thank-you letters.

• Your class can do the same--work through a staff member of the US Senate Office Building to line up a radio contact with an embassy or other government official such as senators and congresspersons. Students learn about current affairs and how government works. To ask about scheduling a ham radio contact through the US Senate, write to the Capitol Hill Amateur Radio Society, US Senate, c/o George Stephens, Box 73, Washington, DC 20510.

Radio Projects

by Conrad Ekstrom, WB1GXM

Conrad sponsors the Goshen-Lempster Educational Amateur Radio Society (GEARS) in his New Hampshire school. His students conduct packet radio QSOs with out-of-state schools. (If you want a list of schools on packet--send an SASE to ARRL and ask for it.) Then he turns the long lines at the start of the packet messages into lessons for math, geography, reading, spelling and communications skills. The lines tell the various locations that relay the messages, and times the messages were sent. Students locate the places on a map, calculate how far away they are and convert UTC to local time. Students of Alfred Dilley, K1ADQ, in Vermont, exchange geography quiz questions and answers with GEARS via packet.

Conrad and his students put on an Amateur Radio workshop for the annual New Hampshire NEA teacher's convention. They bring along radios and a model of an OSCAR microsat. Conrad sent the following outline of the presentation that students give. Once they're introduced, they tell about:

• Ham radio activities students do

• Basic goals of the program (use ham radio as a teaching tool, and introduce the hobby to students)

• Basic privileges and requirements of a ham radio license

• Source of materials--the ARRL

• The school's radio fox hunt

• Getting involved in school science fairs