Middle schoolers to explore sky with robotic telescopes

Approximately 1,400 middle schoolers will explore the universe with research-grade robotic telescopes over the next three years, thanks to a $1.6 million program funded by the National Science Foundation. The University of Chicago will lead the effort, in partnership with the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank , W.Va.; the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill ; the Astronomical Society of the Pacific and 4-H. Called Skynet Junior Scholars, the program will train 180 4-H leaders and informal educators in Wisconsin, North Carolina and West Virginia to engage their youths in telescopic observations of planets, asteroids, galaxies and other cosmic targets during summer camps or weekly club meetings. Skynet will build upon existing 4-H science programs, which provide hands-on learning experiences designed to prepare youths for careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). "The concept for the National Science Foundation grant is to leverage this technology and apply it to out-of-school STEM education in an organized way at the middle school level," said Richard Kron , UChicago professor in astronomy & astrophysics, who heads the project. "We are not trying to make astronomers out of everybody. We are trying to get people pumped up about science, and we think of astronomy as a very good vehicle for doing that." Skynet Junior Scholars will have at their disposal a global network of telescopes that Dan Reichart , the Bowman and Gordon Gray Professor of Physics and Astronomy in UNC's College of Arts and Sciences , and his associates have assembled to detect gamma-ray bursts, the most powerful explosions in the universe.