ASTRO-Chile News
ASTRO-Chile Update
After a couple of months of curriculum planning and testing, the ASTRO-Chile team from Tucson held a videoconference with their Chilean counterparts on April 6 to report student results from a new 4 th-12th grade light pollution study of the night sky toward Orion. The curriculum aligns with the efforts of our Chilean counterparts in the program and was designed to provide a similar platform for a cross-cultural exchange.
The Tucson team has expanded beyond the city limits to include families from across Arizona who are part of the Arizona Virtual Academy and Family ASTRO-Tucson and also families from the Tohono O’Odham Indian Nation who are partners in both Family and Project ASTRO-Tucson. The team includes Thea Canizo, Aida Flores-Castillo, and Glenn Furnier from the Tuscon Unified School District, Liz Alvarez formerly of the International Dark-Sky Association, Ron Probst, Pat Knezek, Doug Isbell, Steve Pompea and Connie Walker of NOAO, Barry Boczar of Baboquivari-Indian Oasis School District, and Rebecca Swegle of the Arizona Virtual Academy. Plans are being made to input the data collected onto the international light pollution monitoring web site hosted by Austria. Any teacher in the U.S.A. interested in joining our light pollution study efforts may contact Connie Walker via e-mail (cwalker@noao.edu) or phone (520-318-8535).
During the week of April 12, three NOAO staff members and ASTRO-Chile team members visited their counterparts at the Cerro Tololo International Observatory in La Serena, Chile. Highlights of the trip included visits to a few of the ASTRO-Chile classroom to meet the students and teachers, as well as visits to the local public observatory, built in great part by the community. Many of the classrooms make extensive use activities from the Spanish version of the Universe at Your Fingertips book. Future plans may include more Spanish UAYF books, an exchange of tested activities developed by the teachers, building up libraries and materials for hands-on activities, student to student videoconference, hosting an exchange of teachers and workshops for both groups in Tucson.
