Rubin Education News

2 November 2024

Stellar Safari is Rubin Observatory’s newest investigation, released in August. Students explore stars in their wild and natural environments to compare and understand their properties, and determine the distances to the star clusters in which they reside. We are collecting feedback from both students and teachers on this investigation. Check it out and let us know what you think!

An Educators’ Roundtable was held in October to solicit ideas and discussion about what resources and activities would be helpful for educators introducing Rubin First Look materials to students. This is the first in a series of Zoom meetings for educators to build momentum and engagement. Want to get involved? Email education@lsst.org.

Alan Strauss, Head of Rubin EPO delivered the astrophysics plenary at the 2024 Congreso Nacional de Física meeting in Chihuahua, Mexico. His talk was titled Rubin Observatory — Bringing the Sky to Life, which presented a broad overview of the observatory with an emphasis on citizen science and Rubin’s formal education investigations. Following the plenary, he met with members of the LSST-MX in-kind collaboration to discuss Rubin-related education and outreach activities in Mexico. As an example of the impactful work being done, the Spanish language versions of Rubin investigations were recently utilized by Dr. Hector Hernandez, a member of the astronomy faculty at UNAM, as he delivered a professional development workshop to approximately 200 high school teachers. Conversations will continue in the coming months on increasing educational collaborations across Chile, Mexico and other Latin American countries.

Contacts

Ardis Herrold
Senior Education Specialist
Rubin Observatory
Email: ardis.herrold@noirlab.edu