CARA Education and Outreach efforts :
A longer, more formal overview is also online.
Activities during the past academic year were particularly technology rich. The autumn class focused on demystifying computers and included hands-on activities such as swapping boards, and installing CD-ROM drives. The second laboratory session was more closely linked to CARA research as the students, with the guidance of graduate student Dan Reichart, ventured into the invisible universe with radio astronomy. The term culminated with the students making a full sky map with a 4.5m radio telescope. The students filtered the raw data, identified sources, and then labeled sources and their location on the room sized celestial sphere they had constructed. The sphere was a particularly effective way to convey the three dimensionality of an astronomical search strategy, and it will be used by the undergraduate classes this Fall to teach the RA/Dec coordinate system.
Thirty-one Space Explorers attended the 1999 Yerkes Winter Institute which followed the traditional Yerkes Institute format of daytime labs and evening observations. In contrast, a number of changes were successfully introduced to the Yerkes Summer Institute. The changes were made for pedagogical reasons, primarily in recognition of the need to focus the content of the institute. The theme was changed from a celestial object to a common scientific phenomenon to conceptually link all the experiments. The theme for YSI'99 was waves and key concepts such as wavelength, frequency, transverse and longitudinal propagation were revisited and reinforced throughout the institute. Alignments with the local and national science standards were also highlighted for each lab. The overall number of labs was reduced, by moving from 8 to 6 daytime labs. This allowed more time to be devoted to each exploration, i.e., more depth and less breadth. In addition, the schedule was reorganized to allow groups to re-visit each lab after a meal break. This promoted greater reflection and sustained conversations. The daytime labs included: Polarization, Surf'n Waves (An Introduction to Wave Properties), Spiral Galaxies/Density Waves, Speed of Light, Water Waves, and Sonar. In the latter part of the week, the thirty students were divided into six small analysis groups that each focused on a particular lab. In these groups students examined their own data and those of their peers during extended in-depth sessions. Most importantly, the formal group reporting was reorganized to include informal peer reporting in a scenario that we referred to as jigsaw sessions.
Student representatives from each analysis group were randomly assigned to a jigsaw group where they presented their analysis group's progress. Instructors and students alike found this peer interaction to be a high point of YSI'99. In addition to making each student more accountable, it helped to foster communication and critical thinking skills. Each student shared the results of their group's analysis. Other jigsaw members listened, asked questions and made and suggestions. Each analysis group also made presentations to Space Explorer parents where in essence the students became the instructors and their parents the students.
At weekly Adler workshops, the students focused on astronomy using the Project STAR curriculum (Coyle et al. 1993, Project STAR: The Universe in Your Hands, Kendal Hunt), developed their math skills, and trained in the operation of the StarLab portable planetarium. Older students also take leadership roles and present programs in elementary schools using a StarLab inflatable planetarium. This outreach effort greatly amplifies CARA's impact. During the past academic year 20 schools were visited and 1,718 students and 40 teachers and staff were exposed to astronomy and positive minority role models through this program.
Plans for the next year include expanding the program by incorporating a Wisconsin branch of the Space Explorers, organizing a summative evaluation of the first 10 years of the program, and using educator workshops as a vehicle to translate informal science activities developed with the Space Explorers into classroom curricula. At Yerkes the Space Explorer Program will be expanded to include the activities of Professor Kyle Cudworth and his Williams Bay branch of the Space Explorers. In collaboration with the newly formed STC Center for Adaptive Optics (CfAO), Hands on Universe, Adler Planetarium and Carthage College K-12 educators workshops for both in-service and pre-service teachers will be held that focus on optics and astronomy concepts. The ultimate goal of these enrichment experiences will be to develop classroom and multi-media curricula. We also plan to utilize these workshops and the Yerkes Institutes as vehicles to effectively involve CfAO researchers in outreach.
Last austral summer an educational trip was not undertaken due to population caps at South Pole and because planned activities had not matured sufficiently. This year however, the AIP snow bike is ready to be tested, and an Antarctic Conservation Act permit has been submitted for the CARA/NASA Life on the Edge collaboration. R. Landsberg and Bill Farrell, the industrial design instructor at AIP, are scheduled to be the educational ambassadors for 1999/2000. Among their many tasks is evaluating the `Ice Prowler' with objective and subjective criteria; both the aesthetics and the performance of the bike are important. A testing protocol was also developed by engineering students as a project for their Engineering Design and Communications course at Northwestern University. Although an interesting learning experience for the students, the protocol was not quite right for the Pole.
At AIP students in an advanced Industrial Design course have focused on improving the quality of life of winter-overs at the South Pole. They have developed an innovative snow bike that will be tested at the Pole this year (see http://www.iceprowler.com), specialty clothing, and safety lighting. CARA winter-overs are looking forward to using this new gear, it has attracted a great deal of media attention, and most importantly it has motivated the students to grapple with dramatic environmental and experimental concepts such as the cosmic microwave background. In fact, as an outgrowth of the "Extreme Cold Weather Design" curriculum activities, students have become involved in designing two museum displays on cosmology and the CMB, one at Adler Planetarium and another to be mounted at either the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum or NASA Goddard. Finally, Bruce Wilson of Northeastern University will adopt the Extreme Cold Weather Snow Bike curriculum for an engineering program this year.
At Triton College Frank Heitzman has used the harsh and uncommon conditions of the Antarctic plateau to stretch the imaginations of architecture and interior design students. Courses involved in the project included ARC171- Introduction to Architectural Design, ARC172 - Advanced Architectural Design, and ARC201 - Interior Design. The polar projects were: a recreation center; housing for both long term and short-term scientists and staff; a portable survival shelter for expeditions away from the base camp; and the interior of the new Dark Sector Laboratory. CARA's research was incorporated into the programs both as a motivation for the structures and as a source of requirements for the projects. The exotic location and the uncommon clients promoted significantly more research than is typical for such courses and some very original solutions. While most student projects have been academic exercises, the students drawings and models of the Dark Sector Lab, which were completed with heavy input from CARA staff, will be useful for illustrating the ideas of CARA researchers during the actual design stage.
Student internships have taken place on campus, at Yerkes Observatory, and at Argonne National Laboratory. Internships are based on 200-hour allotments that are renewable. Both the projects and the student populations have been very uncommon. Over the past year five students have participated in eleven 200-hour internships. This includes two females, one deaf student, one student confined to a wheelchair, and one student who was living in a shelter. We consider the high level of repeat internships to be an indicator of success. Mentors are encouraged to work with individual students for extended periods, but in practice will only renew if they feel that the intern's work is contributing to the project. While the formal project evaluation has not yet been completed, anecdotal evidence suggests that the internships have had very positive effects on the students as many have gone on to 4-year degrees in engineering and others have very good job prospects.
ATE interns have worked on a variety of critical projects, including assembling data acquisition boxes for DASI, automating a 24-inch telescope, improving the local seeing of the Yerkes 41-inch telescope, designing a an ultra-precise x-ray aperture-selection system for ChemMatCARS synchrotron facility at Argonne National Laboratory's Advanced Photon Source, and drafting detailed CAD drawings of the TopHat telescope. These projects have been very technically challenging but have also helped to introduce the interns to scientific topics such as optics, and to hone their teamworking and communications skills.
CARA's diverse and widespread efforts offer many opportunities for undergraduates to integrate scientific research into their studies. As an STC collective, CARA is also able to offer a tremendous variety of research experiences and a connection to a large network of collaborators. Most undergraduates are currently involved under the auspices of the REU program, although some have made arrangements with individual scientists. Last year the REU program was organized as an STC collective. This centralized approach has improved recruiting, student supervision, evaluation, student tracking, and project design. A total of twenty-nine students participated in CARA research, toward which sixteen CARA REU fellowships were awarded. An additional ten undergraduate students worked with the Space Explorers.
Feedback from student and supervisor questionnaires indicate that the CARA REU program is helping to foster the next generation of research scientists. Nick Baicoianu who worked on the ACBAR project commented, "My work with CARA taught me more about a career in physics than any of my classes have. It has only made me more optimistic about a career in physics, now that I have the know-how of the processes involved and an idea of how research is done ... I most definitely feel that REU is a valuable program to undergraduates like myself. The experience I gained working in a lab was invaluable in the way it gave me a hands-on approach to physics, as opposed to reading it out of a textbook. It provided me with the opportunity to do something important for the summer, other than just debauchery and burger-flipping, and supplied a comfortable stipend as well." James Chavin of RIT noted how being part of the CARA collective helped to improve his teamworking and communication skills, "I learned a great deal about working in a dynamic group. Such as the frequency of communication needed to ensure rapid progress and that a team is capable of more and faster progress than the sum of the individuals efforts."
Jill Hanna and Prashant Malhotra, who worked with Giles Novak (NWU) exemplify the benefits of undergraduate research. Jill worked with CARA for 1.5 years and Prashant for 2.5 years. Jill is in graduate school studying Aeronautical Engineering in a cooperative program between George Washington University and NASA-Langley. Prashant has been accepted to Case Western Medical school. However, he is first taking a year off to volunteer at medical clinics in India. Prashant wrote his senior honors thesis "Magnetic Field Structure of Pre-Shocked Region in Monoceros R2," based upon his work with Giles, and Jill developed a method for remotely sensing liquid Helium level in SPARO. Both Jill and Prashant were integral in deploying SPARO to Pole last year and traveled to the Pole last austral summer.
Jonathan Mitchell and Nicholas Baicoianu, worked with John Ruhl (UCSB) on the ACBAR dewar assembly and testing. Martin Lueker, Brian Baughman, and David Woolsey also worked on ACBAR, but with Bill Holzapfel (UCB). They tackled CAD work, beam mapping programming, and the data acquisition programming. Michael O'Kelly worked with Jeff Peterson (CMU) on a comparison of sky noise at South Pole, Atacama, and Mauna Kea. Brian Perry and James Chauvin, worked with Harvey Rhody (RIT) on the assembly and analysis of images from SPIREX/Abu. Henry H. Hsieh worked with Tony Stark and Adair Lane (CFA/SAO) Henry will be a Harvard University senior this fall, and AST/RO research will form the basis of his senior thesis.
At the University of Chicago under the direction of John Carlstrom, Mike Hasak and Will Trimble have begun a very ambitious project to make the University's 4.5-m radio telescope remotely controllable. Will has made all of the necessary hardware modifications and wrote most of the lower-level computer commands, and some of the middle-level computer commands to convert the telescope from manual to remote control. Mike has written and tested code to track the sun, the moon, and Jupiter, all to an accuracy of a few hundredths of a degree. Now that the telescope is remotely controllable, he is preparing to write a web interface. The radio telescope will continue to be a tool for learning both for student research and, now that it is more automated, for undergraduate classes. The ultimate goal is to make it controllable through the internet, and accessible to other universities and high schools.
Our plans for undergraduate programs include improving the centralized organization of the REU program and creating a forum for the students to interact more and comment on each others projects. Because the number of requests and projects were much greater than the number of fellowships CARA was able to offer this year, we would like to increase the number of REU fellowships to seventeen. We have budgeted a small amount of funds for travel so that we can attract students from diverse geographic regions. We also plan to involve undergraduates in CARA research through science journalism. Specifically we are recruiting students to profile CARA telescopes and research projects at a level the general public can understand.
The internationally reknowned author Janice VanCleave continues to be a powerful spokesperson for CARA and the South Pole. Over the past year, she personally has worked with thousands of students and educators in addition to those she reaches through publications. Listed below is a small sample of the presentations she has made in connection to CARA.
Recently, through a collaboration with the Chautauqua Organization CARA has begun to reached out to more college educators. This spring, June 14-16, 1999, CARA organized a Chautauqua short course titled {\it Cosmology at the Millennium!} that was hosted at the University of Chicago. A Chautauqua course is intended to communicate the latest advances in research to undergraduate college teachers of science so that they in turn can translate it to the classroom. This three-day intensive short course explored both theoretical and experimental aspects of modern cosmology including laboratory exercises. This is a historic time for cosmology, particularly for CARA due to our focus on CMB observations with Python, Viper, ACBAR, and DASI. Course leaders included J. Carlstrom, R. Landsberg, and S. Meyer of CARA, and M. Turner, E. Gates, S. Burles, S. Dodelson, and R. Kron of U. Chicago and Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL). See the Chautauqua forum homepage for more general information, http://www.engrng.pitt.edu/~chautauq/page2.html#ov The course was tremendously well received, and very effectively leveraged the resources of the Astronomy Department, Adler Planetarium and Fermi National Laboratory. By directly exposing undergraduate educators to CARA research this forum helps to ensure that cutting edge science will be translated directly into the classroom. There were 27 participants, with 41 applicants even though the course was marked closed on the Web. For more information, see our website for the course.
In the coming years we plan to continue to offer workshops for science educators. Recently, in collaboration with the Center for Adaptive Optics (CfAO) a Chautauqua short course on adaptive optics was proposed. As well numerous workshops on image analysis, optics, and telescopes will be hosted at Yerkes Observatory for both pre-service and in-service K-12 educators over the next year. These workshops will involve many partner institutions including Carthage College, Adler Planetarium and Hand On Universe (HOU).
CARA is actively involved in numerous efforts that utilize a host of media with the goal of increasing public awareness and interest in our science and Antarctica in general. CARA is currently collaborating with Adler Planetarium and Smithsonian/NASA Goddard on a number of museum exhibits including two cosmology exhibits. Collaborating with museums is mutually beneficial as CARA can provide content, artifacts, and advice; and the museums can offer exposure to millions of visitors. CARA continues to use the web as an effective tool to communicate with the research community and with our more public audiences. The CARA website has become a vital and current source of information filled with job postings, curricula, and news of the latest CARA activities. In addition the interactive educational web site, southpole.com, which was developed to support the 1997/1998 educational Pole trip has been morphed into a more permanent student activity web page and moved to the CARA pages. Finally our collaborators at UNSW have produced a video documentary "The Deep Black", which follows AASTO research exploits during one summer of work at the South Pole in two half-hour programs for use in high schools.
All of CARA's current research thrusts are multi-institutional efforts, and many involve international collaborators. Individual collaborators and collaborating institutions are discussed in the context of their research programs. We do note that CARA has often played a role in technology development with industrial partners. The AST/RO Lucent Technologies collaboration is typical.
The AST/RO project continues to collaborate with Dr. Greg Wright, a member of Technical Staff at Lucent Technologies, on high frequency heterodyne receivers and quasioptics. Wright travels to the Pole for several weeks each year to work on the AST/RO detector systems, regularly attends AST/RO organizational meetings in Boston, and has developed equipment for use on AST/RO at his laboratory in Holmdel, New Jersey. Wright's salary and the costs of Dr. Wright's laboratory equipment are borne by Lucent; Lucent receives no funds from CARA. The collaboration has resulted in improved detector systems for AST/RO.
The University of Cologne, Germany, is an integral part of the AST/RO consortium. The AST/RO acousto-optical spectrometers (AOS) are constructed and maintained by U. Cologne personnel. At least one Cologne staff member or student travels to Pole each year. This collaboration is supported in part by a NATO grant. In April 1999, a new 4-channel AOS array spectrometer for AST/RO having 4.8 GHz total intermediate frequency bandwidth was successfully tested at the CSO and delivered to SAO for integration with the Steward Observatory 4-channel 810 GHz array receiver.
Northwestern Physics and Astronomy graduate student David Chuss is working together with Harvey Moseley of NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center and Giles Novak of Northwestern University in designing upgrades to the SPARO instrument. This work is supported by a NASA GSRP Fellowship to Chuss.
Jeff Peterson continues to collaborate with David Osterman of Hypres Corp. on the development of single mode microlithographed bolometers. This year a co-planar low pass filter was designed and fabricated. Ken Ganga and Hien Ngyuen of JPL collaborate on Viper as does Don Alvarez (Disney Corp.) Peter Ade of QMC London will be an author on the tipper results paper.
James Bock at JPL is a member of the ACBAR collaboration, and is providing the bolometric detectors. These detectors and the ACBAR feed optics are similar to those baselined for the Planck-HFI; their implementation in ACBAR will give valuable feedback to that effort. The design and fabrication of the ACBAR 250 mK refrigerator is the product of the collaboration of several groups with Chase Instruments in England. This novel refrigerator uses a charcoal pumped He-4 stage to condense He-3 in two separate systems, one of which serves as a 500 mK thermal guard for the other, which will remain at 250 mK for 24 hours. The entire system operates from an unpumped He-4 bath, eliminating the need for a mechanical pump at the telescope.
The ACBAR collaboration includes Peter Ade at Queen Mary College in London, who is supplying the required band-defining metal-mesh filters and will be doing the same for the Planck-HFI, a mission of the European Space Agency. The similarity of the filtering and feed optics in ACBAR and Planck make the former a valuable testbed for the latter.
The University of Chicago's Office of Special Programs (OSP) remains the key partner for the Space Explorer's Program. Dr. Larry Hawkins has been involved in outreach on Chicago's Southside for over thirty years. The roots of OSP in the local community are invaluable for recruiting students and involving their parents in our programs.
The Adler Planetarium is currently in the midst of a tremendous expansion of its physical resources and educational programs. As Adler has grown so have our collaborations. CARA worked with the Adler Planetarium on a number of projects this past year including the Chautauqua course, the Space Explorers, and the Mars Millennium Project. CARA also provided both expertise and artifacts for the ``From the Night Sky to the Big Bang" exhibit, and members of CARA are on Adler's Advisory Council. In future years we expect this partnership to strengthen and grow.
CARA and the Space Explorers have begun a collaboration with the newly formed Center for Adaptive Optics (CfAO) Science and Technology Center headquarted at University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC). This partnership will jump-start the CfAO education and outreach programs and help ensure that the best practices of Space Explorers Program are translated to other partners. CARA brings to the collaboration a successful track record and a vast network of partners, while the CfAO can provide new researchers, exciting science; and as CARA ramps down stable long-term funding for successful multi-year programs such as the Space Explorers. While the CfAO will not begin until this November, the collaboration started in a number of ways. This spring a group of Space Explorers visited colleges on the West Coast at collaborating institutions of the CfAO. This whirlwind pre-admissions tour included UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz, UCLA, and Caltech. In addition, other partners that the new Center has attracted have already been actively involved in Space Explorer activities. Vivian Hoette Adler/HOU was an instructor for the YSI'99 where the HOU software was used for a lab on spiral galaxies. In fact this collaboration has already resulted in a new Spiral Galaxies/Density Waves Lab developed by CPS public school teacher Judy Whitcomb, Richard Kron, and Vivian Hoette (see http://astro.uchicago.edu/cara/outreach/se/ysi/1999/spiralgalaxies.html)
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