Solar Shenanigans: Bringing the Solar Corona into the Classroom
Abstract
In order to bring up a new generation of scientists and science enthusiasts, it is critical that classrooms go beyond outdated textbooks and begin exposing students to cutting-edge research science. As a step in this direction, Lee Ann Hennig from the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology and Jason Kooi from the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory joined forces to expose students to radio astronomical remote-sensing of the Sun's corona. We had three primary goals in piloting this in-house mentoring program. The first goal was to make solar physics and radio astronomy (in particular, polarimetric interferometry) accessible and entertaining for students participating in the Senior Astronomy and Astrophysics Laboratory. The second goal was to provide students with ample opportunities to promote and discuss their research results, from science fairs to AGU's Virtual Poster Showcase. Our final goal was to develop a continuous, multi-year research program in which future students learn from the trials and tribulations of previous students and carry the research even further. We report on our students' successes (from modeling coronal plasma density profiles to measuring radio Faraday rotation of the interstellar medium) and discuss the challenges of bringing novel naval research into the high school classroom.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2018
- Bibcode:
- 2018AGUFMED24A..08K
- Keywords:
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- 0805 Elementary and secondary education;
- EDUCATIONDE: 0815 Informal education;
- EDUCATIONDE: 0820 Curriculum and laboratory design;
- EDUCATIONDE: 0855 Diversity;
- EDUCATION