University of Texas Astronomy
Public Outreach Volunteering Opportunities
Below is a list of outreach opportunities for graduate students (and everyone else) at UT Austin. If you know of an outreach opportunity that is not included please let me know.
Name |
Date |
Contact person |
Description |
Website |
| Austin Astronomical Society | monthly | Lara Eakins or AAS | Give a talk about your research | http://www.austinastro.org/ |
| Astronomy Students Association | weekly during school year | Be their grad student liason, give a talk at a meeting, or lead a star party | http://www.as.utexas.edu/~asa/ | |
| Building a Bridge to Texas High School Science Teachers and Students | 2009-2011 | Shardha Jogee Sandi Preston |
Participate in recruitment DVD on undergraduate opportunities in astronomy | http://www.as.utexas.edu/~sj/epo1/epo.html |
| Career Days | varies | Lara Eakins | Talk at a school about your career, or let a student shadow you | |
| Exes Teacher Associate program | 6 Saturdays throughout the school year | Mary Kay Hemenway | Give a talk/lead an activity with middle & high school teachers | |
| Expanding Your Horizons | March | Science conference for girls - plan your own workshop or volunteer with the physics department | ||
| Explore UT | March | Char Burke (?) | UT open house - man a table for the astro department | http://www.utexas.edu/events/exploreut/ |
| Family Weekend | Oct/Nov | Char Burke (?) | UT event - man a table for the astro department | http://www.texasparents.org/eventsawards_family_weekend.php |
| Galaxy and Cosmic Explorer Tool (GCET) | 2009-2011 | Shardha Jogee, Sandi Preston |
Help to create activity using GCET and conduct videoconferences. Will work with Kyle Fricke & GCET team. | http://www.as.utexas.edu/gcet/ |
| McDonald Observatory Teacher Workshops | summer | varies (Mary Kay Hemenway, Kyle Fricke, etc.) | Assist with teacher workshops at McDonald | http://mcdonaldobservatory.org/teachers/profdev/ |
| Mentoring, Astro Dep't | continuous | Char Burke | Mentor an undergrad astronomy major | |
| Mentoring, CNS | continuous | College of Natural Sciences mentoring of undergrads | http://cns.utexas.edu/open_mentoring/ | |
| Painter Hall telescope public nights | each semester | Derek Wills | TA position running the Painter Hall telescope public nights on Fridays and Saturdays | http://outreach.as.utexas.edu/public/painter.html |
| Project Astro | Spring semester (orientation in mid-December) | Dan Lester | Partnership with 5th grade class. Visit ~3 times during the semester. | http://www.astrosociety.org/education/astro/project_astro.html |
School talks/ |
varies | Lara Eakins | Talk at a school about astronomy | |
| Science Fair judges | varies | Lara Eakins | Judge school science fair projects | |
| Science Olympiad | February | Courtney Garry , Mary Miller (UTeach) |
Create and grade astronomy quiz for high school students |
http://outreach.science.tamu.edu/scienceolympiad.asp https://uteach.utexas.edu/go/uteachweb/Outreach-Initiatives/Science-Olympiad |
| Star parties off-campus | varies | Lara Eakins | Lead star parties with portable telescopes | |
| StarDate | McDonald's official outreach organization | http://stardate.org/ | ||
| UTeach-AISD Earth Science Institute | July | Mary Miller (UTeach) | Lead 2-day workshop on astronomy for 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade teachers | https://uteach.utexas.edu/go/uteachweb/Outreach-Initiatives/The-AISD-UT-Partnership |
| VICTORY tutoring | weekly during school year | One hour per week during the academic year to tutor a student one-on-one in grades 1-12 | http://www.communityeducation.org/victory/ |