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MIT/Chandra After-School Astronomy Project (ASAP)
The 2004 MIT/Chandra After-School Astronomy Project (ASAP) was the result of a collaboration coordinated by the Education and Public Outreach Office at the MIT Center for Space Research. This partnership included the NASA-Smithsonian Universe Education Forum, the Timothy Smith Network (TSN), and the Boston 2:00-to-6:00 After-School Initiative.
ASAP was designed to provide youth in out-of-school time programs with an opportunity to reinforce learning in physics and space science through activities that also develop students' computer skills. To do so, youth from the Boston Public Schools were invited to attend nine after-school sessions held at two TSN centers: the Hispanic Office of Planning and Evaluation, Inc., and the Roxbury Multi-Service Center's John D. O'Bryant Youth Community Center.
The ASAP sessions facilitated with these students included discussions on the appearance and origins of the objects we see in the sky, learning about the forces that shape our universe and our place in the universe, and the start of new friendships for us all. The students conducted their own explorations of the night sky using MicroObservatory, a network of educational ground-based telescopes that can be controlled over the Internet. The use of the MicroObservatory telescope network was made available to this program by the NASA-Smithsonian Universe Education Forum.
The program culminated in the creation and publication on the web of each student's Project Report, where students were given a chance to show the results of their hard work. Students put together a written analysis of the images that they recorded throughout the nine weeks of the program using MicroObservatory. On the last day of the program, the students showcased the images they had taken with these telescopes. They presented the Project Reports they had completed and posted on the internet, and answered questions as to how they had taken images of the stars, galaxies, nebulae, and planets they'd studied, and how they were able to process their images with the MicroObservatory Image Processing Software, just as professional astronomers do with similar tools.
ASAP Scrapbook (pdf file, 98 MB)
Before the project began, staff members from HOPE, RMSC, Snowden, and West Roxbury High received intensive training in the use of MicroObservatory.
The MIT/Chandra ASAP was funded by a NASA Chandra Cycle 5 EPO grant.
You can find more information on future programs by contacting Irene Porro, Education and Public Outreach Scientist, at iporro@space.mit.edu or (617)258-7481.
