|
EXES and HIPO Education
and Public Outreach
Several SOFIA instrument teams have
initiated their own Education and Public Outreach (EPO) programs
as a way of involving teachers and the general public in the development
of their instruments.
One of the most active has been the
University of Texas' Echelon Cross Echelle Spectrograph (EXES)
team, which has conducted 16 Teacher Associate meetings since the
beginning of 1998, encompassing field trips to Raytheon facilities
in Waco, Texas, and talks with the instrument's principal investigators.
In addition to traditional laboratory
exercises covering the celestial sphere, optics, optical telescopes,
spectroscopy, use of CCD cameras, and error analysis, Teacher Associate
meetings have included practice in using equipment such as an interferometer
for optical alignment.
"Many teachers with good science backgrounds
have never had the opportunity to learn first-hand about instrument
development," explains EXES research associate Dr.
Matt Richter. "The goal is to prepare a cadre of teachers who
will promote astronomy within their communities by learning about
the technology behind instrument development over the course of
a multi-year program."
"By spreading the experience out over
several years," adds co-investigator Dr.
Mary Kay Hemenway, an astronomer who facilitates the teacher
associate program, "educators will observe the development and
construction of EXES through many phases."
Teacher Associates are drawn primarily
from central Texas, but attend from throughout the state. For further
details about the EXES EPO program, visit Education/Public
Outreach with EXES.
At the Lowell
Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, the team that's developing
the High-speed
Imaging Photometer for Occultations instrument, has also
started its own EPO program.
A popular attraction at Lowell Observatory's
visitor center is "Voices from the Past," a series of presentations
for which members of the staff portray famous astronomers of yore
discussing the work for which they were responsible. The instrument
team has added a talk by Dr. Gerard P. Kuiper, a pioneer in the
field of airborne astronomy. SOFIA's predecessor, NASA's Kuiper
Airborne Observatory, which flew from 1974 to 1995, was named after
Dr. Kuiper, who is performed by Lowell public program staff member
Rusty Tweed.
 |
Lowell recently installed a new display
in its visitor center exhibit hall featuring a large SOFIA model.
The team's next EPO activity is the development of an interactive
exhibit and audio/visual program on occultation astronomy. Occultations
occur when a planet, asteroid, or moon moves between the Earth
and a distant star. As the light of the star fades or blinks out,
astronomers can measure the rings and atmosphere of a distant planet,
or the size of an asteroid, moon or comet. SOFIA will be able to
fly such astronomical instruments as the High-speed Occultation
Photometer and Imager to spots around the world ideally suited
for observing occultations.
Instrument EPO programs work in conjunction
with the SOFIA Education
and Public Outreach (EPO) program, based at the NASA Ames Research
Center near Mountain View, California.
SOFIA has been designed with the capability
to allow visiting educators to observe and even participate in
the research process by flying on the SOFIA aircraft during science
missions. This ability to allow non-research visitors to get close
to the workings of the observatory and to observe first-hand how
scientists really use technology and think, work and interact is
a key feature of SOFIA.
With this unusual educational capability
integrated into an observatory which is already science-rich and
technologically intensive, SOFIA offers great opportunities to
enhance scientific literacy both for the general public and for
pre-college, undergraduate, and graduate education. SOFIA will
bring the excitement, hardships, challenges, discoveries, teamwork
and educational value of SOFIA to students, teachers and the general
public on a national and even international scale.
july 11, 2000
| 
