Astronomy in the City 2007

On Saturday, May 12, 2007, a promising group of 50 middle and high school youth from communities in Boston, Cambridge, Lynn and Roxbury gathered with an additional 80 family, friends and science professionals at the MIT Stata Center for ASTRONOMY IN THE CITY.

These youth chose to devote part of their out-of-school time engaging in exciting astronomy investigations and science learning.   ASTRONOMY IN THE CITY is their opportunity to share insights about their personal exploration of the universe.

One of the unique aspects of ASTRONOMY IN THE CITY is the exchange of ideas between participants, community members and science professionals from a range of age and experience.   This creative exchange allows young scientists to experience how a scientific community comes together to stimulate new perspectives and investigations. This was a new experience for many of the "novice scientists" involved. A student from the Tobin / Mission Hill After-School Center said, "I was very comfortable at my poster (in front of scientists), because I was able to explain it to my family first."   Also, "hearing multiple presentations from my peers about the same object really led me to more insights."   Aisling Hunt, a sophomore at Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School found her participation over the past year valuable in this way: "I think that I'm more willing to put my own ideas out there and be confident about what I'm saying, even if I might be wrong."

ASTRONOMY IN THE CITY, so called in reference to the urban areas served by the programs involved, showcases three initiatives through which the Education and Outreach Group of the Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research is contributing to MIT's effort to engage groups underrepresented in STEM at the K-12 level.   Participants in these programs experience science in ways not possible in a traditional classroom setting.   They are using robotic telescopes controlled via the Internet and x-ray data collected by the Chandra X-Ray Observatory to answer their own questions about the cosmos.

Our vision of out-of-school astronomy programs linked in a stair step approach came together over several years, as we added new programs for younger and older students and refined the connections between them. The realization of this vision would have been impossible without the partnerships we built with organizations like the Timothy Smith Network and the NASA Universe Forum at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. One of the presenters on May 12, Angela Martinez, a junior at the John D. O'Bryant School for Math and Science in Roxbury, is an example of a student who has benefited from our tiered approach, as she has been involved in our out-of-school programs since 2005. "Maybe what you are thinking helps someone understand something they didn't and might make people ask more questions.   Your ideas might be the missing key to someone else's idea."

Thanks again for all your help and support of the MKI EPO programs over this past year, and we look forward to working with more of you this coming year!