I’m a first year Ph.D. student in Astronomy, and I’m working to better extend UA and Kitt Peak’s resources to the Tohono O’odham Nation in the hopes of building a better and sustainable relationship between UA astronomy and the O’odham schools. During the school year I will introduce groups of Baboquivari High School students to observational astronomy bothin the classroom and also by bringing small groups to Kitt Peak to observe on the 90” Bok telescope.  These classroom and observing sessions will take place in conjunction with the Arizona Mathematics Engineering Science Achievement (MESA) program, centered at UA.

In the summer of 2013 I will mentor a small number of interested students as they conduct larger scale research projects contributing to Professor Josh Eisner’s work on protoplanetary disks.  They will be using infrared spectroscopy to measure time-variable emission, which can provide insight into disk structure and planet formation processes.  They will work alongside Professor Eisner’s undergraduate summer students from the California-Arizona Minority Partnership for Astronomy Research and Education (CAMPARE) program.  I will work with the students to produce a written report of the quality that can be submitted to national science fairs and competitions. 

My motivation for this project comes from my own experience participating in summer research during high school.  Contributing to current-day research gives young people insight into the working life of the scientist and has the potential to inspire them to pursue similar careers.  Producing a written summary is also good practice in learning to effectively communicate ideas to others, a skill often neglected by even the most experienced astronomers and scientists.  It is my hope that this project will not only affect individual students in positive ways, but also encourage greater interaction between UA astronomy and the Tohono O’odham Nation.