SOFIA Project Page 1 Education/Public Outreach Key Accomplishments, October - December 2003 –K-14...

SOFIA Project

Education/Public Outreach

Key Accomplishments, October - December 2003

– K-14 Formal Education• SOFIA E/PO gave “Active Astronomy”

short courses and workshops demonstrating kits with EM spectrum and IR radiation

modules, and advertising opportunity foreducators eventually to fly on SOFIA to:

** 40 teachers at the California ScienceTeachers Association (CSTA) meeting inLong Beach (October)

** 30 teachers at the Minneapolis regionalmeeting of the National Science TeachersAssociation (NSTA) (November)

** 20 teachers at the Reno regional meetingof the NSTA (December)

SOFIA Project

Education/Public Outreach– K-14 Formal Education, continued

• SOFIA E/PO subcontractor Vivian Hoette, with HAWC instrument P.I. Al Harper, presented lectures on SOFIA and IR astronomy, then demonstrated “Active Astronomy” kits to 25 teachers at Space Science Symposium hosted by DePaul University in Chicago (December)

• SOFIA E/PO subcontractor Mary Kay Hemmenway, with USRA SOFIA scientist Jackie Davidson, presented lectures on SOFIA and IR astronomy to 50 teachers in the Austin TX area who are building portable Dobsonian telescopes partly subsidized by SOFIA E/PO (December)

SOFIA Project


– K-14 Formal Education, continued

• Dana Backman gave talks on IR astronomy, SIRTF (Spitzer),

SOFIA, and the Terrestrial Planet Finder missions to:

** 60 middle school students, 80 high school students, 15 collegestudents and finally 75 citizens attending an evening public lectureduring an American Astronomical Society-sponsored Shapely Lecturervisit to Dordt College in Sioux Center, Iowa (November)

** 20 faculty and students at the University of Wyoming (November)

** 20 NASA-Ames college interns (October)

• Jackie Davidson gave talks on SOFIA to two elementary school classes in Waco TX (December)

SOFIA Project


– Informal Education• SOFIA booth and IR camera were exhibited by E/PO personnel and

printed materials given out at the Ames Aero Expo (December) visited by 5000 local middle school students, teachers, and parents (with help from USRA, SPO, and Ames E/PO volunteers)

• SOFIA E/PO “Active Astronomy” IR light teaching kit was demonstrated in absentia for us by NASA Origins personnel at a national Girl Scouts leaders workshop in Westchester, NY (November)

• SOFIA materials (mission brochures and E/PO program pamphlets) were presented for us in NASA Origins booth displays at:

– National Science Teachers Association conference, Kansas City (November)– South Carolina Science Council meeting (November)– Louisiana Science Teachers Association conference (December)

SOFIA Project


– Public Outreach• NASA SPO Chief Engineer Nans Kunz gave talks on SOFIA to:

> Cryogenics Society of America, Palo Alto (October)

> Swedish Round Table #33 (businessmen’s group), Nyko:ping, Sweden (December)

– Scientific Community Outreach• SOFIA E/PO poster “Education Partners at 41,000 feet” was

presented in a special education session at the AmericanGeophysical Union convention in San Francisco (December)

SOFIA Project


– Management and related• D. Backman, E. DeVore, and M. Bennett attended a 2-day

symposium in DC on “Communicating Astronomy to the Public” sponsored by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (October)

• T. Castellano, astronomer at Ames, produced a Memo of Understanding combining his “transitsearch” research project’s public outreach to amateur astronomers with SOFIA E/PO efforts in the same direction.

SOFIA Project Page 1 Education/Public Outreach Key Accomplishments, October - December 2003 –K-14...

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