Public Outreach
Educating the public about our research results is one of the
most fun parts of being a scientist—nothing is quite as
refreshing as the unbridled curiosity of young minds new to the
field. In my outreach activities, I incorporate the same
active learning techniques to mirror the scientific method that
I use in my teaching so that the audience not only understands
the content, but also appreciate the process of scientific research.
I have developed and participated in a number of of public outreach
activities, and was competitively selected by the American Astronomical
Society to be trained in outreach best practices as an Astronomy Ambassador.
For example, I recently designed an Expanding Your Horizons
workshop for middle school students on detecting exoplanets;
in this workshop, students made their own "mini-Keplers" using
littleBits snap together electronic
components which they used to observe a mock orbiting planetary system
(made from Lego Mindstorms),
and then analyzed their light curves using Excel to calculate various
parameters of the "planets".
Events
- Planetarium Show Host/Designer, W. J. McCallion Planetarium at McMaster University, Spring 2017 - Present.
- Volunteer for Girls in Science day camp for grade 10 girls, April 2017.
- Volunteer for 4-H Focus for Teens Astronomy Camp, July 2014, 2015, 2016.
- Workshop Leader/Designer for Expanding Your Horizons science day camp for middle school girls, April 2015, 2016.
- Invited Speaker, Rutgers Friends of Astronomy, October 2015.
- Speaker, Career Connections elementary school class, March 2015.
- Volunteer for Museum in the Dark youth outreach event, October 2013, 2014.
- Speaker for Cornell's Friends of Astronomy event, August 2014.
- Speaker and assistant organizer for public viewings of the new Cosmos series with expert commentary, Spring 2014.
- Volunteer for a public demonstration Showtime! at the Ithaca Science Center, April 2014.
- Speaker for Nerd Nite Ithaca, October 2013.
- Assistant during special events for private groups observing with the Robert A. Schommer Astronomical Observatory at Rutgers, Summer 2009-Spring 2013.
- Co-organizer for Rutgerscience Saturday: Astronomy, a 4-H youth program, April 2012.
- Volunteer judge at the North Jersey Regional Science Fair, March 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012.
Training
- Planetarium training, Digitarium Alpha 2 system, McMaster's William J. McCallion Planetarium, October 2016.
- Astronomy Ambassadors outreach training workshop, 221st AAS Meeting, Long Beach, CA, January 2013.