Education & Public Outreach

The Cycle 6 Chandra EPO Peer Review, conducted by the CXC, was held in Cambridge MA on Oct. 20-22, 2004. A five member panel representing science, education, museum, Forum, and NASA mission and management perspectives reviewed 10 proposals. The submitted proposals significantly oversubscribed the available funding. One individual proposal and 5 institutional proposals were selected for funding. An overview of the selected proposals follows.

• Building Interest in Science Among Middle School-Age Girls Using Big Explosions and Strong Gravity (BESG)
  Science PI: Dr. Ann Hornschemeier (annh@pha.jhu.edu)
  A program to bring current space science content and hands-on activities to middle-school age girls leveraging an existing NASA collaboration with the Girl Scouts.

• The Chandra Astrophysics Institute
  Science PI: Dr. Frederick Baganoff (fkb@space.mit.edu)
  The Astrophysics Institute will develop a year long research program in X-ray astrophysics to address the needs of students from underserved groups in the Lynn, MA, Public School District who show strong interest and motiviation to pursue an education, and eventually a career, in math, science and/or technology.
• Chandra After-School Astronomy Project
  Science PI: Prof. Deepto Chakrabarty (deeptop@space.mit.edu)
  The After-School Astronomy Project (ASAP) will provide out-of-school time programs to underserved youth to reinforce learning in physics, space science, and technology, leveraging the community outreach structure of the Timothy Smith Network in Boston, MA.
• Does Dark Matter Really Exist?
  Science PI: Dr. Megan Donahue (donahue@pa.msu.edu)
  This proposal will develop and produce a series of pedagogical animations that will assist museum personnel, educators, and media product developers in explaining the evidence for dark matter.
• Penn State In-Service Workshops
  Science PI: Prof. Eric Feigelson (edf.astro.psu.edu)
  This proposal provides funding to support the attendance of teachers and the provision of curricular resources at the tenth annual Penn State In-Service Workshops in Astronomy (PSIWA).
• Stellar Evolution Planetarium Show at the Science Museum of Virginia
  Science PI: Gregory Sivakoff (grs8g@virginia.edu)
  This program will introduce planetarium visitors to stellar evolution and stellar populations through the development and production of a planetarium show at the Science Museum of Virginia. The show will introduce the science content through the reminiscences of Stella, a Black Hole who used to be a Big Star.

For more information, including contact information for the EPO Co-IÕs and education partners on these proposals, go to: http://chandra.harvard.edu/edu/proposals_c6.html

The deadline for submitting an electronic copy of the Cycle 7 Chandra EPO proposal will be 5 p.m. EDT on 21 October 2005 (and hardcopy deadline 4 p.m. EDT on 25 October 2005). The deadline has been moved later than previous years to avoid conflict with preparation of Chandra science proposal budgets.

A new link from http://cxc.harvard.edu/, "New in Education/Outreach", takes scientists to a page specifically designed to highlight the newest education and outreach products from Chandra, and to provide a quick link to resources on the Chandra public site for talks and classroom use. Announcements of new products and web features will be posted here, as well as other information of relevance to education and public outreach efforts. The page contains direct links to on-line order forms for outreach materials. The posting of new material on this page will also be announced in the periodic Chandra electronic bulletins.