Students Exploring Earth and Space (SEES) is a NASA-certified after-school program that Dr. William Waller currently hosts at Rockport High School. It encourages and empowers students to get involved in a variety of online "Citizen Science" projects, hands-on and remotely-controlled astronomical observations, seismological studies, meteorological investigations, and archival research relating to Earth and space science.
The online "Citizen Science" projects are mostly drawn from NASA's Zooniverse, a great watering hole for all sorts of interactive research activities -- from classifying galaxies found in deep images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, to characterizing star-blown bubbles in the Milky Way galaxy, finding exoplanets around stars imaged by the Kepler spacecraft, monitoring storms on the Sun, and investigating surface features on the Moon, Mars, and Earth.
In April 2012, Dr. Waller presented on the fledgling SEES Initiative at a meeting of the American Association of Physics Teachers. His brief ppt presentation can be accessed below.
CitizenScience_AAPT_apr2012.pdf
The hands-on (eyes-on) astronomical observations currently benefit from existing solar and nighttime telescopes that the students can access. A permanent astronomical observatory is in the works, thanks to funding support from the Institution for Savings, Cape Ann Savings Bank, Educational Foundation for Rockport, and other generous donors. The seismological studies await installation of a research-grade seismograph. The meteorological studies benefit from a research-grade weather station at RHS as well as networked access to other meteorological research stations. All of these facilities form part of the Rockport Exploration Center for Earth and Space Science (RECESS), a local "center of excellence" in STEM education that will serve the needs of the entire Rockport School District as well as the larger Cape Ann community of students, educators, and curious public.
More information on RECESS can be found in the proposal planning white paper attached below. We welcome your comments and especially your support for this far-reaching center of exccllence in STEM education. Please write to Dr. Waller at <williamhwaller "at" gmail "dot" com>.\