... Caltech Submillimeter Observatory Education, Outreach, and Public Service
Compiled by Staff of CSO, 111 Nowelo Street
Hilo, HI 96270 PH: 808-935-1909
The purpose of the following web files is to to provide a record of our outreach and
education activities.
OUTREACH ACTIVITIES
.........YEAR 2010.........
January 23, 2010. Onizuka Science Day.
This is the special day to commemorate
Hawaii's Astronaut Ellison Onizuka with exhibits, demonstrations, and lectures, including a special
presentation by astronaut Dr. Anna Fisher. Events took place at the University of Hawaii at Hilo, in the spacious
Library lanai.
CSO contributed an exhibit table planned and prepared by Hiroko Shinnaga. The exhibits consisted of the
CSO model, a panel displaying astronomical results and publications, a computer playing a short video on CSO,
and most attractive to the young set, the parabolic dish demonstration. Participating in the event were
Ed Bufil, Brian Force, Ruisheng Peng, Walter Steiger, and Hiroko Shinnaga. For more pictures, go
here.
The CSO exhibit with Hiroko Shinnaga.
March 8 to 11: Journey Through The Universe week.
Participating from
CSO this year were Brian Force and Hiroko Shinnaga. They made
presentations to various classes at the Public Charter School, Connections and also at the Waiakea Intermediate
and Keaukaha Elementary Schools. For more details, go
here
May 1, 2010: AstroDay 2010 was again held at the Prince Kuhio Mall, with the CSO
featuring the ever-popular "art" table for youngsters and their parents creating rocket ships; and also
the hands-on ping-pong optics demonstration teaching how a telescope works. See
HERE for more
details and photos.
.........YEAR 2009.........
January 24, 2009. Onizuka Science Day. This is the special day to commemorate
Hawaii's Astronaut Ellison Onizuka with exhibits, demonstrations, and lectures, including a special
presentation by astronaut Daniel Tani. Events took place at the University of Hawaii at Hilo.
CSO contributed an exhibit table planned and prepared by Hiroko Shinnaga. The exhibits consisted of
the parabolic dish and the vacuum-of-space demonstrations. Participating in the all-day event were Steve Baca,
Ed Bufil, Brian Force, Walter Steiger, and Hiroko Shinnaga. For more pictures, go
here.
February 9 - 13, 2009, Journey Through the Universe week.
See the description of the JTTU program from January 2007, below. Participating from
CSO this year were Richard Chamberlin, Brian Force, Hiroko Shinnaga, and Walter Steiger. They made
presentations to various classes at the Public Charter School, Connections. For more details, go
here
May 2, 2009: AstroDay 2009
AstroDay was again held at the Prince Kuhio Mall from
10 a.m. to 5 p.m. This year's event surpassed even last year's record of the number of participating
organizations and space allocated. CSO had an entire vacant shop all to itself in which the exhibits
were set up. As at earlier events, CSO's number one attraction was the "art" table, superbly organized
and conducted by Diana Bisel . The kids had great fun building paper rockets! See pictures
here.
CSO staff members also included Steve Baca, Ed Bufil, Brian Force, Richard Chamberlin, and
Hiroko Shinnaga, with even some family members helping out at the "art" table.
June 18 and 20, 2009: 2009IYA Directoirs' Lecture Series.
CSO Director Dr. Thomas Phillips presents "Exploring the Cool Universe"
, a public lecture on a cool topic.
On June 18
the lecture was given at the Keck Observatory Headquarters in Waimea, and on
June 20 the lecture was presented at the 'Imiloa Astronomy Center in
Hilo.
June to August 2009. The CSO Summer Intern Student
this year, for the first time, was a High School student, Sean Burke
. Sean is a senior at Waiakea High and has a strong interest in science and math.
At CSO he is learning about the internal operations of an observatory and helping to analyse statistical
data provided by users of the telescope. These data relate to the types of studies made, successes
and/or failures, suggestions for improvements and other useful data.
October 24, 2009. A GALILEO BLOCK PARTY
was organized by the various observatory
facilities located in the University of Hawaii at Hilo Research Park to commemorate the International
Year of Astronomy and the 400th anniversary of Galileo's telescope disoveries. Each facility had some kind of
open-house and/or outdoor canopy with exhibits, demonstrations, or hands-on projects. The party, open from
2 to 6 p.m., was given wide publicity and attracted many hundreds of visitors. CSO held an open-house at
which the observatory model was on display along with a display panel explaining work of the telescope.
The vacuum demonstration was put on whenever a few visitors were gathered, and an oscilloscope displaying
the reception of a radio signal was on hand to illustrate how we "see" radio waves from stars. Attracting
the most attention, however, was a table set up with matrerials for the youngsters to make colorful paper
rockets.
Steve Baca operates the Vacuum Demo
Diana Bisel's art rocket project was very popular!
.........YEAR 2008.........
.........YEAR 2007.........
.........YEAR 2006.........
.........YEAR 2005.........
.........YEAR 2004.........
........YEAR 2003........
........YEAR 2002........
........YEARS 2000-2001........
Educational Materials
A discussion of how daylight, twilight, and nighttime vary throughout the year
and with the latitude of the observer is presented in an article entitled
NIGHT and DAY. This article can also be accessed in
pdf format.
A Brief History of the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory
is available here.
Public feedback
Hawaii Tribune-Herald news on robotics, December 15, 2007. This news
article cites the work that CSO Engineer Riley Ceria has done as mentor to the Waiakea High
School robotics program.
Department of Education, May 31, 2001, expresses appreciation for CSO's educational
outreach efforts in support of their teachers.
'Ainahau O Kaleponi, October 24, 2000. This group of California Hawaiians
is thanking CSO for a trip to Mauna Kea and a tour of the observtory and the Hale Pohaku facility.
UH Astronomy Club, November 19, 2000, thanking CSO for a visit to
the Hilo base faility.
Center for Independent Living, August 8, 2001, thanking CSO for a tour
of the Hilo base facility.
UHH Upward Bound, July 22, 2000, Thanking CSO for assistance in
mentoring students.
Pahoa High School, April 28, 1999, thanking CSO for conducting
a summit tour for a group of Pahoa H.S. students.
University of Michigan, July 22, 2002, thanking CSO for
conducting a summit tour of the observatory for University of Michigan students.
KPUA radio station, June 3, 2002, thanking CSO for for appearing on
a Community Forum program.
University of Hawaii, Undersea Research Laboratory,
November 2002, thanking CSO for a tour of the summit observatory.
Waikea Elementary School, March 2003, thanking CSO for Dr. Martin Houde's
contribution to their Career Day ativities.
University of Hawaii, Hilo, May, 2003. The Department of Physics
thanking CSO for the teaching of a course in Optics by Dr. Richard Chamberlin.
Observatorio ARVAL, Caracas, Venezuela, February 28, 2004,
thanking CSO for sending copies of "Sars Over Mauna Kea", the tabloid published by the
Hawaii Tribune-Herald.
Waiakea High School, October 23, 2006, commending the asistance of CSO
staff engineer Riley Ceria on his assistance in developing their robotics program.
EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES
PUBLIC SERVICE
-Last updated by W. Steiger, 7 May 2010.