Education and Outreach: Building a Bridge to High School Students
Education and Outreach: Building a Bridge to High School Students
Professor Shardha Jogee, science educators Brad Armosky
and Dr. Mary Kay Hemenway, student coordinator Stephanie Crouch,
and Sandra Preston of the McDonald Observatory are planning
an education outreach program to build a bridge between
the University of Texas at Austin Department of Astronomy and
high school science teachers and students in Texas.
The main goal of the program is to attract college-bound students
into the sciences at UT, and in particular, into astronomy.
Our objectives are to develop the following resources for high-school teachers and their students:
- A set of classroom activities about galaxies closely linked to Professor Jogee's research on galaxy evolution using HST images from the widest and deepest surveys done to date such as GEMS, GOODS, and the Hubblle Ultra Deep Field (HUDF).
- A short-course workshop at CAST for high school teachers to understand the program, learn about galaxies, and practice the activities for use with their students.
- Follow-up videoconferences between the PI, high school teachers, and students.
- Digital video on exciting opportunities for astronomy undergraduates.
I. High School Classroom Activities about Galaxy Evolution
- What are galaxies made of?
- What do present-day galaxies look like at different wavelengths?
- Our Milky Way Galaxy: a barred spiral galaxy
- Simulations of galaxy mergers: growth and destruction of galaxies
- Young galaxies in GEMS
- Galaxies being born in HUDF
- Figuring out how galaxies change over their lifetime
- Other classroom resources
II. Teacher Workshop and Student Activities
III. Getting to Know Undergraduates in the Astronomy Department at UT Austin
IV. Other Outreach Resources for Educators, Students, and the Public
V. Enrolling in The UT Astronomy Program
Modified on 7-29-2005
The University of Texas at Austin Astronomy Department