Facility Education and Outreach Efforts

Each Upper Atmosphere Facility has a unique set of education and outreach efforts. Many of these capitalize on defining and strengthening specific links to local community elementary, middle, and high school students and members of the general public. Other programs foster one-on-one mentoring of science interests and aptitudes among talented high school and undergraduate students, as well as public outreach intended to reinforce basic radiowave and optical concepts and dispel common misconceptions. Still other efforts help train the next generation of upper atmospheric scientists by forging close links with university programs and graduate students, and by providing hands-on training in data use and interpretation of results from Facility instrumentation.

The following is a small sampling of these education and outreach programs. It is by no means comprehensive or complete!

AMISR Radar

• This new phased array radar system will offer many opportunities for graduate students and their advisors in next-generation radio science and incoherent scatter technique development as well as scientific analysis.

• To initiate this development, a currently open NSF solicitation provides funding for graduate students and optical instrumentation in support of the AMISR systems at Poker Flat and Resolute Bay. The graduate student activity entails support for scientists at academic institutions to pay graduate student costs for three years, plus no more than one month of the graduate student advisor's salary support for each of three years. The full NSF announcement is available at http://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=nsf05564 and the deadline for application is June 3, 2005.

Arecibo Observatory

• Arecibo's Angel Ramos Foundation Visitor Center serves over 100,000 public visitors a year, over 30% of these being school children. Multimedia interactive exhibits introduce visitors to radio astronomy and atmospheric science as well as to the telescope facilities. Information on the Center is available at http://www.naic.edu/outreach/describe_fset.htm

• The Arecibo Geoscience Diversity Project (AGEOP) is a collaboration between the National Astronomy & Ionosphere Center (NAIC) and the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo (UPRA) that addresses the national need to increase the number of underrepresented in the geosciences. The program provides a research experience in the geosciences to groups of Hispanics in the north-western region of Puerto Rico. Participants gain first-hand experience in conducting scientific research by using the Arecibo radio telescope and laboratory facilities at UPRA. This initiative will enhance the understanding of geoscience content by the participants. http://www.naic.edu/aogeo/index.htm

• The Arecibo Observatory Teacher in Residence program is currently accepting applications for a Puerto Rico public or private high school (9 - 12th grade) science teacher with at least 3 years of teaching experience and with interest in improving science education in their region. http://www.naic.edu/outreach/teacher_res.htm

• The Office for the Public Understanding of Science (OPUS) at Arecibo endeavors to be a leader in efforts to improve the public understanding of science, in particular in respect to the Hispanic community, which is underrepresented in the fields of mathematics, science and engineering. http://www.naic.edu/opus/opus_desc.htm

Jicamarca Radio Observatory

• Jicamarca serves its local Peruvian community through interactions with students and visitors to the facility.

• Several media publications in both Spanish and English have highlighted various Jicamarca scientific and technical projects. A summary with links to these stories can be found on the Jicamarca web site at http://jro.igp.gob.pe/english/news/news_en.htm

• Cornell graduate student Hasan Bahcivan recently created a K-12 public outreach course module for the Cornell Graduate School Student Outreach Project http://psc.cornell.edu/gssop/ which focused on Space Weather and included information about radar remote sensing using UAF facilities. His module is available at http://www.psc.cornell.edu/gssop/Documentation2004/The_Environment_of_Space.doc.

Millstone Hill Observatory

• MIT Haystack Observatory is one of the charter participants in the NSF sponsored Research Experiences for Undergraduates program http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=5517&from=fund, and mentors undergraduate students in hands-on research projects each summer. The Haystack REU program includes a series of dedicated lectures introducing space weather and upper atmosphere concepts. Each year, over 100 students apply for the 7 to 10 available positions. The 2005 project list and information on prior REU programs is available at http://www.haystack.mit.edu/reu/index.html.

• Beginning in 1997, MIT Haystack has also been a charter participant in the cross-cutting NSF Research Experiences for Teachers program http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=5736, and hosts several regional high school teachers for the summer. These teachers work with MIT staff scientists on a joint project using observational instruments and will receive hands-on experience in the field of radio astronomy, radio engineering, and atmospheric science. Follow up activities include classroom visits by Haystack scientists, and output includes self contained teaching units meeting national and state education frameworks. General information is available at http://www.haystack.mit.edu/edu/ret/index.html.

• The RET effort has produced as output the information collected at the Observatory's general Pre-College Resources web site, containing radioastronomy and atmospheric science information useful to K-12 classroom activities. Information is available at http://www.haystack.mit.edu/edu/pcr/index.html.

• MIT Haystack has also developed the Small Radio Telescope (SRT) that can be used in the classroom to make astronomical observations and learn about the technology behind radio astronomy. A radio telescope is an excellent teaching tool as it involves the combined technologies of microwave engineering and digital computing. Its use involves digital signal processing, software development, and analysis, all of which are key enabling technologies for UAF facilities. SRT information is available at http://www.haystack.mit.edu/edu/undergrad/srt/index.html.

• Several high school student projects have been mentored by MIT Haystack staff. Seth Sivak's project with Larisa Goncharenko and Joe Salah focusing on recurrent geomagnetic storm statistics is featured at the Groton-Dunstable Regional High School (Groton, MA) student press release page at http://www.gdinterns.com/press1.html.

Sondrestrom Research Facility

• On April 10 2002, ten students and two teachers from Lowell Whiteman High School in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, arrived at Sondrestrom to participate in lectures and to help run the incoherent scatter radar for an experiment. More details are at http://isr.sri.com/education/whiteman.html.

• SOLARMAX, a 40 minute IMAX giant-screen documentary telling the story of humankind's struggle to understand the Sun, featured the Sondrestrom radar and optical instruments in action. The film was sponsored by NSF, and more information is available at http://www.solarmovie.com/.

• SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN PRESENTS featured the Sondrestrom facility in the WEATHER 2000, 1st Quarter issue.

• AVIATION WEEK featured the Sondrestrom facility in a November 1999 article on climate and weather dynamics.

SuperDARN Radar Network

• The SuperDARN radar network has provided data to many graduate student projects as well as valuable space weather and ionosphere monitoring tools which are of use to faculty teaching units on space weather.

• A number of specific tutorials, introducing to students and researchers some of the fundamental algorithms and techniques that make SuperDARN possible, are available at http://superdarn.jhuapl.edu/tutorial/index.html.