One Astronomer's Noise

Entries categorized as ‘outreach’

Come say hi in the Midwest!

May 16, 2012 · 3 Comments

Few days… Few weeks. Okay, I’m back. I just moved to the Midwest to start my new job as a post-doc working with CosmoQuest as informal education lead. Woo hoo! My apartment is only partly unpacked, my office just getting set up, the university doesn’t even have me in the system yet, but I’ve officially started! In fact, I’m at a NASA Education and Public Outreach retreat in New Mexico, getting to know my new colleagues.

I really look forward to getting back to blogging. There is a post coming together over at Skepchick about the formation of the Moon, and I’ve said my “Hello, world!” over at CosmoQuest. I’ve finally poked my head back into the Weekly Space Hangout and will be blogging over at Discovery really soon. Speaking of writing, once I’ve finished my corrections, I’ve decided to actually share the final version of my Ph.D dissertations with you all because, well, why not. Science should be open. My committee even encouraged me to write a blog-friendly version of my introduction, so look forward to that as well.

I’d really like to encourage anyone who can get to St. Louis over Memorial Day weekend to check out the College of Curiosity, a new kind of interactive skeptic and science event over at the City Museum. That place is ridiculously awesome all on its own, and you’ll also get to interact with a fun lineup of speakers who will guide you through weird things like math magic and alien life. I hope to see you there!

It’s really, really good to be done. But as the Cult of Done reminds us, Done is just the engine of More.

Categories: general · outreach · science · skeptic
Tagged: , , ,

Come, Explore the Universe With Us!

January 22, 2012 · Leave a Comment

Citizen science online is catching on these days. Not just for your screensaver anymore, these projects let you get your hands dirty, metaphorically speaking. You can classify galaxies or fold proteins.

I am really happy to share this project which is now in beta and building a community for astronomical research: CosmoQuest.

(more…)

Categories: astronomy · education · outreach · science
Tagged: ,

News, Where I’ve Been, Where I’m Headed

October 14, 2011 · Leave a Comment

It’s Friday, not Monday, which means I’m going to load up part 1 of the “stuff that interests me” from the past few weeks. Since I… I missed a couple of Mondays there.

Obviously, big news in the tech world… Steve Jobs has died. Amanda Bauer’s blog brought his 2005 Stanford speech to my attention, and it’s worth a good read, if you haven’t seen it already.

(more…)

Categories: astronomy · general · outreach
Tagged: , , ,

“Dragon*Con is my Christmas…”

September 8, 2011 · 2 Comments

… says Derek Colanduno, director of the massive sci-fi/fantasy/geek convention’s Skeptic Track.

“It’s other people’s Halloween,” quips biologist and evolution defender Eugenie Scott.

Frankly, it’s a little bit of both. Not enough candy, mind you, unless you really enjoy Tuaca (which tastes like Christmas in your mouth). But there are costumes… costumes galore! From Storm Troopers and Star Trek officers to Cookie Monster and “Macho Man” Randy Savage, thousands fly their geek/freak flag for one massive party in Atlanta.

"Oooooooh yeeeeeeeeeaah!" Photo by Tim LeGower

As it is, I’ve recovered from the epic weekend, gotten nearly enough sleep, and seem to have avoided the dreaded “con crud.” Dragon*Con is not just excellent because I get to geek out over my favorite sci-fi shows and books, though that helps. (Geeking out over James Marsters geeking out over Apollo 11 was pretty cool.) D*C is also a great place to reconnect with some of the smartest, funniest, most creative people I know: astronomers, authors, musicians, designers, bloggers, and real-life superheroes. The Skeptic, Science, Space, and Podcasting tracks were full of them. George Hrab sang, Scott Sigler read, Phil Plait proposed a way to save the Earth, and Sara Mayhew entertained through her art. Superheroes like Maria Walters and Jamie Bernstein raised thousands of dollars for cancer research and treatment while vaccinating over 200 people against harmful diseases. I even got to bring a little bit of the universe down to Earth with model meteors and comets. And those are just the tip of the iceberg!

Discussing world-ending catastrophes with Scott Sigler, Pamela Gay, and John Cmar

So, what is it that I’m trying to say? Well, if you missed out, come next year! Tim and I have already secured a room in the Hilton, home of the “reality” tracks, for Labor Day 2012. I’ll be there once again to help spread the love of science, have a great time with some of my favorite people, and, oh yeah, be a fangirl.

It's like this. Every night. (By Bruce Press. With 3 bald skeptics, a physics teacher, two Skepchicks, and tiny double trouble.)

Categories: fun · outreach · skeptic
Tagged: , , ,

See you in Atlanta!

August 31, 2011 · Leave a Comment

Hello, dear astronomy enthusiasts and friends and followers and encirclers…

This month has been heavy on GET STUFF DONE, but I’m taking a much needed break this weekend for Dragon*Con in Atlanta. This is the East Coast’s biggest sci-fi, fantasy, geek, nerd, etc. convention. I hope you are coming as well!

My only official event this year is the pre-Dragon*Con Star Party, put on by the Atlanta Skeptics in honor of Jeff Medkeff, a brilliant and active astronomer who succumbed to cancer a few years ago. So, we’ll be celebrating the night sky, the universe, and raising money to kick cancer’s butt. (Metaphorically speaking.) If you have a ticket, then I look forward to seeing you there! Unless you cannot come, in which case, get in touch with the organizers so that someone on the very long wait list can make it. There will be telescopes, green lasers, a singing Geo, astronomers, and some special activities that I have planned. You’ll just have to wait and see!

For the rest of the Con, I get to play geeky nerd fangirl. I’ll probably be spending time around the Skeptic, Science, Space, and Podcasting tracks, as well as exploring some of my favorite sci-fi goodness with Tim. I can say that we’ll be at the live showing of Doctor Who on Saturday night dressed as different incarnations of the Doctor. I’m also hoping to finish an astronomy-pun-themed Tron costume, so look out for that as well.

I’ll be updating Twitter and Google+ as I go along, in case you want to find me there or live vicariously through my tweets if you cannot make it. (I feel your pain. I had to sit out last year!)

Categories: outreach · science · skeptic
Tagged: , , , ,

Ahhh! This is so cool!

June 2, 2011 · Leave a Comment

The Cassini mission to Saturn. Nine Inch Nails. And a video composition by Chris Abbas.

This. Is. Art.

CASSINI MISSION from cabbas on Vimeo.

Love it so much.

(via Discovery News)

Categories: astronomy · outreach · science
Tagged: , , , , ,

Because grad students don’t procrastinate enough…

May 19, 2011 · 6 Comments

We have more University of Virginia Astronomy tweeters! A few I’ve had to pester, most came here on their own. They all have such lovely stories to tell, and I’d recommend following them to anyone! They are all listed at UVa-Astro.

We have my officemate, @demessieres, a sweet, lovely geek who is just about at the finish line for her thesis and currently looking for a job relating to science communication. (Hint: She’s brilliant at it.) I used to share an office with @privong, who is always tweeting from his exciting travels, and @astroknots, a kick-ass radio astronomer who also knits like a fiend. Then there is the unstoppable @rareflwr41. If you are involved in astronomy or science education and haven’t heard of her already, you will. My dear friend @astrogailis is crazy busy making a brand new research instrument called APOGEE work, which you’ll hear more about soon. @mickeyj26 isn’t technically at UVa anymore, now a post-doc in Boulder, CO, but he’s still part of the family. And our newest to join is @astro_sailor, who has been watching twitter from the sidelines (aka twit-stalking) for a while, until I bugged the crap out of him to make a damn account already.

Much science and silliness is sure to ensue. Because we don’t have enough to distract us, right?

Thanks for letting me brag about my awesome friends!

Categories: astronomy · fun · outreach
Tagged: ,

Entertaining Skeptically

April 10, 2011 · Leave a Comment

Brief paper-writing break to showcase my two favorite videos this week. First, Tim Minchin’s STORM has been animated and is finally available on YouTube! Seriously, let the whole thing upload, then watch high-def full screen. It is so awesome. I am floored by the talent of the illustrators and their ability to convey the message, and the fun, of Minchin’s infamous 9-minute beat poem.

(Note of awesomeness, Tim and I got tickets to see him live in Boston on June 4th!)

Second up is a video of my favorite bald, be-spectacled skeptical men doing a LIVE performance of “Death From the Skies”, based on the awesome book and on this awesome album, in New York this weekend.

Sadly, I could not make NECSS, but that is mostly because I am a) working and b) saving up to attend TAM9 From Outer Space! in July. I already have my registration in, thanks to the lovely, fantastic donors to the TAM Forum Grant (please donate so even more students can attend!), and my airfare booked.

So excited! So… think we can get Phil and George to do a live performance at TAM???? (Pretty please??)

Categories: fun · outreach · skeptic
Tagged: , , , , , , ,

Science Meets Art Meets… Cereal?

March 17, 2011 · 1 Comment

This made my afternoon yesterday, when I was running around like crazy…

This made me sooo happy! And I told Steve, of Tree Lobsters fame, that it made my day. (See how he did it at Mad Art Lab!)

Later that evening, I was totally pooped from my busy day and about to curl up in a ball and sulk, and I get this in a tweet from Steve…

(more…)

Categories: astronomy · outreach · science
Tagged: , , ,

Learning in a Planetarium

January 20, 2011 · Leave a Comment

So, I’ve begun to make some forays into Astronomy Education Review, a journal about science education specifically as it relates to, of course, astronomy. It has been recommended to me by several people, and I’ve browsed it a bit as I begin to understand the wide-world of assessment.

As a kid, I thought tests were just something you had to get right to move on to the next level. It was a whole lot of rote memory, and much of high school was devoted to teaching to state tests. It is a system that many complain about but few know how to change. After all, as teacher, we really want to know the answer to the immortal question, “Is our children learning?” (Yes, yes, cheap shot.)

So, how do we make learning fun, student-centered, and still get an accurate assessment of learning?

(more…)

Categories: astronomy · education · outreach
Tagged: ,