Outreach

Astronomy education and public outreach (EPO) is a big interest of mine. Here are some of the outreach efforts I have been a part of.

Observatory Open Houses at William Jewell College (Liberty, MO)

During the academic year (Sept-Dec, Feb-May), we typically hold an open house at Pillsbury Observatory on the campus of William Jewell College in Liberty, MO (near Kansas City). These are always on a Friday evening, typically early in the month. These events are announced on William Jewell College's Facebook, Twitter/x, and Instagram pages.

Dark Energy Survey on the Web

I'm the lead editor and occasional writer for the DArchives, a series of articles summarizing Dark Energy Survey papers at a level accessible to the public.

The site has not had a new article lately, but plenty of interesting ones from the first few years of DES operations, also meant to be accessible to the public. I wrote an entry about large-scale structure: https://darkenergydetectives.org/2014/12/24/our-dark-tangled-web-clues-of-dark-energy/ 

I often post content on the above social media channels. Please follow us!

Adler Planetarium

If you're visiting the Chicago area, I highly recommend a trip to the Adler Planetarium. Every month or two, I hosted one of the 'Astronomy Conversations' sessions at Adler's Space Visualization Lab. These sessions to speak directly with an astronomer happen every day at Adler. http://www.adlerplanetarium.org/whats-here/dont-miss/space-visualization-lab/

KICP's Space Explorers

This is a program run by members of the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics at The University of Chicago, and the Office of Special Programs at UChicago. http://osp-cp.uchicago.edu/  The program brings in high school students from disadvantaged areas of Chicago to participate in science programs year-round. The program culminates in a week-long science camp hosted by KICP graduate students (and sometimes postdocs and faculty) at called the Yerkes Summer Institute at UChicago's Yerkes Observatory in South Wisconsin. I was a mentor at the Summer Institutes from 2013-2015. http://kicp.uchicago.edu/education/explorers/

http://astro.uchicago.edu/yerkes/

Young Astronomers Summer Experience at Carleton

This is a 2-week summer evening program for middle school students at Carleton College in Northfield, MN. Lessons include observing, astronomical imaging, and topics in astrophysics. I was an instructor in Summer 2010. https://apps.carleton.edu/campus/observatory/YASE/

Goodsell Observatory at Carleton College

Goodsell Observatory dates back to the 1890s and still hosts its three original telescopes, as well as modern portable ones. I was an Observatory Open House host from 2010-2012. Open houses are the first Friday evening of every month. I highly recommend a visit if you are in South Minnesota!  https://apps.carleton.edu/campus/observatory/

NASA FameLab (science communication)

This was a nation-wide competition and workshop involving science communication. I was a finalist in the regional competition in 2015. You can see many of the short, for-the-public talks at https://famelab.arc.nasa.gov/

Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science 

I have participated in a couple workshops hosted by the Alan Alda Center, which is based at Stony Brook University in New York. https://www.aldacenter.org/

Recommended Sites

Articles about journal papers written by graduate students. Intended audience graduate and undergraduate students.