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Preparing Students for STEM Careers: The Pulsar Search Collaboratory. The GBT is the NRAO’s newest instrument. World’s largest fully-steerable telescope. NRAO EPO Program Goals. Enlarge the pipeline of students ready to enter college and graduate with a degree in STEM (NAS, 2007).
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Preparing Students for STEM Careers: The Pulsar Search Collaboratory
The GBT is the NRAO’s newest instrument. World’s largest fully-steerable telescope.
NRAO EPO Program Goals • Enlarge the pipeline of students ready to enter college and graduate with a degree in STEM (NAS, 2007). • Increase the number of well-qualified and highly effective STEM teachers in the classroom(NSB, 2007). • Involve students in research/inquiry-based science. • Increase public’s appreciation of STEM.
West Virginia Governor’s School • Partnership with the National Youth Science Foundation. • 2-week residential program at NRAO. • 60 rising high-school freshman/year.
What’s next? Pulsar Search Collaboratory NSF ITEST: “…increase the opportunities for students and teachers to learn about, experience, and use information technologies within the context of STEM courses.”
Pulsar Search Collaboratory • involves teachers and students in the search for new pulsars. • “Distributed community of researchers”. • Partnership between WVU physics, computer science, and education departments, WV EPSCoR, and NRAO. • Funded by NSF.
History: 1999 Higher Ed Symposium in Charleston. Offhand conversation with Bob Gillespie (aka master nagger) about “Pulsars at Home” with the soon to be finished GBT. The years go by. Annual nag by Bob. 2006: Two new faculty at WVU-- pulsar astronomers! 2007: summer shutdown pulsar survey-- over 130 TB of raw data.
Program Elements • Summer residential program at NRAO: PSC Leaders • 12-day teacher institute (20) • 6-day experience for teachers and students (30) • Academic Year Activities • Whole class activities • School based PSC teams (~5 students) analyze data • Remote observing on the GBT. • Online tools: Google site, Adobe Connect, Skype • Capstone PSC seminar at WVU • Poster presentations, student and professional talks. • Tours and activities of WVU STEM schools. • Students part of PSC throughout high school. • Students can earn undergraduate PHYSICS credit.