Appalachian Stargazing
STEM made its debut amidst our flourishing catalog of PAGE programming with the introduction of our first Science-centered PageLab.
Thanks to generous three-year funding from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund’s Student STEM Enrichment Program (SSEP), for the first time ever, rising 8th-11th graders were invited to explore astrophysics and spacetime with guest facilitator and astronomer Mimi Fuchs.
Mimi kicked things off by leading students on a voyage into the vast reaches of space and time. Capitalizing on the release of the first ever images produced by the James Webb Telescope, Mimi translated complex concepts into robust and engaging conversation-based lessons. Topics ranged from how to identify solar nurseries, the creation and destruction of solar systems, and the ways astrophysicists can detect elementals in deep space.
This electrifying two-week session crescendoed into a trip to the Grassland Mountain Observatory located right here in Madison County.
Students followed along in their lab journals with personal reflections about our galaxy, detailed hand-drawn diagrams of interstellar phenomena, and new questions that emerged from the activities and discussions.Midway through this first week, girls began to do hands-on astronomy.
With encouragement and mentoring from our Interns and Mimi’s guidance, each participant put together a telescope modeled after the original one Galileo used. Through this activity, students were equipped with a telescope to use both in-session and beyond empowering them to make their own continued observations about our night sky.
Local astronomers Bernard Arghiere and Knox Worde peeled back the roof of the observatory at dusk as students took turns gazing through two powerful telescopes at objects that ranged from ancient star clusters to the planet Jupiter. Beyond the telescopes, students were led outside to a large viewing deck and shown the rise of the milky way galaxy as well as how to identify prominent constellations from different cultures throughout time.
Following this star-studded galactic viewing party, students and team members settled into Madison Middle School for a camp out that allowed the students to spend time together freely reflecting on their experiences of the previous two weeks.