Florida high school students to be STARS of astronomy workshop

January 24, 2012

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The University of Florida departments of astronomy and physics will host an astronomy workshop Friday and Saturday for Florida high school students with an interest in astronomy and astrophysics.

This initiative, called STARS, or Student Training in Astronomy Research Skills, will introduce students to the practice of modern astronomy through lectures, laboratory exercises, group activities and telescope observations.

Six professors and about 15 graduate and undergraduate students from the astronomy and physics departments will host 24 high school students from all around the state.

The program is sponsored by the National Science Foundation and is free for the participants, who were chosen from more than 80 applicants this year. They were selected based on their interest in astronomy and astrophysics as demonstrated through their classes and how they described their motivation in an application.

UF professors Vicki Sarajedini and Anthony Gonzalez, who organized the workshop, applied for funding after some of the undergraduate astronomy majors proposed the idea of inviting junior and senior high school students so they could see how interesting it is to major in astronomy at UF. They believed students would consider coming to UF and major in astronomy or astrophysics if they could see the opportunities and education here.

“The students will go away with much more understanding of what astronomers do in terms of current research as well as additional education on astronomy,” Sarajedini said. “We will also talk to them about the steps to take if they want to become a professional astronomer or scientist.”

The students will tour the astronomy and astrophysics departments and labs, learn about light and observation techniques, build telescopes they can take home and use and do lab exercises to detect planets and orbiting stars or how to calculate distances in the universe. They will attend lectures and presentations from faculty on current topics and research areas in astronomy and astrophysics.

They will also visit the Rosemary Hill Observatory, located off campus, where the university has a 30-inch telescope, mostly used to train the astronomy department’s graduate students, but on actual research, too.

“Over the years many students have told us over the years how much they have learned and enjoyed the workshop. They even started a Facebook page to share pictures and keep in touch after it. We have had some apply to UF and hope to welcome them to our department soon.” Sarajedini said.